Tanuki Context claims up to 94% token savings by turning some LLM inputs into images
0syna · reddit · 2026-07-27
Tanuki Context is an open-source MCP server and proxy that tries to cut LLM context costs by turning some inputs into images when that is cheaper than sending text.
The author claims up to 94% token savings on logs and describes several techniques:
- a log distiller that collapses repeated lines while keeping errors verbatim
- a columnar codec for JSON so keys are stated once
- a cost model that prefers cache reads over re-imaging when cached tokens are cheaper
It works with vision-capable models and supports Claude Code, the Claude Agent SDK, and a machine-wide proxy mode via ANTHROPICBASEURL. The author says output tokens are unaffected and retrieval is still cheaper for some narrow queries.
Related event: Tanuki Context Slashes LLM Token Costs by Converting Text to Images(2 posts)→
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