pixelpipe

A token-saving proxy for Claude Code that renders the system prompt + tool definitions + tool schemas as bitmap images instead of sending them as text. Anthropic's vision encoder OCRs Menlo 5pt at 99.7% accuracy on Opus 4.7, so the model gets the same context — but rendered as ~3,500 image tokens instead of ~40,000 text tokens.

Verified result: 67–73% token savings on real Claude Code workflows. Reasoning quality: 100% preserved — identical fixed files, same tool calls.

Quick start

# Terminal 1
npx pixelpipe

# Terminal 2
ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:47821 claude --exclude-dynamic-system-prompt-sections

That's it. Use Claude Code normally.

Verified savings (Opus 4.7, real workflows)

Scenario	Savings	Per-call avg
Cold start (single call)	30%	7,586 vs 10,895
3-turn coding task	43%	3,755 vs 6,567
Multi-tool stress test (Grep/Glob/Read/Edit/Bash)	73%	4,353 vs 16,417
10-turn session	67%	2,123 vs 6,872
Schema-compression run (3 turns)	81.8%	2,704 vs 16,978

Per-call median savings in steady state: 69%.

Dollar value at Opus 4.7 ($15/M input):

• Heavy individual: ~$12/day
• Small team (10 ppl): ~$118/day = $3,540/month
• Enterprise (100 ppl): ~$1,180/day = $35,400/month

How it works

                   [original]            [via proxy]
Claude Code  ───►  ~40K input tok  ───►  ~3.5K input tok  ───►  Anthropic
                   (system + tools                                (vision OCR
                    + schemas)                                     reconstructs)

The proxy intercepts each /v1/messages request and:

1. Extracts the system prompt + all tool descriptions + all tool input_schemas
2. Renders them as ONE Menlo 5pt newspaper-layout PNG (≤ 1568×1568)
3. Replaces:
   • system → small text stub
   • tools[].description → "see image" stub
   • tools[].input_schema → {"type":"object"} permissive placeholder
   • Prepends image content block to first user message with cache_control: ttl=1h
4. Forwards to api.anthropic.com with original auth headers

Subsequent turns hit Anthropic's prompt cache on the image (90% discount on cache_read), saving ~70% of input cost per turn forever.

Architecture

~/Downloads/repos/pixelpipe/
├── bin/cli.js          # npx entry point
├── scripts/
│   ├── install.js      # postinstall: verify Python + install Pillow/httpx
│   └── gen_atlas.py    # offline tool: regenerate the Menlo 5pt glyph atlas
├── src/
│   ├── proxy.py        # Python runtime (currently the default)
│   └── zig/            # Zig 0.16 native port (Menlo renderer working)
│       ├── build.zig
│       ├── build.zig.zon
│       ├── menlo5.zig       # text → grayscale via embedded atlas
│       ├── menlo5_atlas.bin # 586-byte glyph atlas (ASCII 32-126)
│       └── render_cli.zig   # standalone test: text → PNG

Status: dual runtime

The npm package currently uses the Python proxy as its runtime — it's proven at the savings numbers above with 100% reasoning preserved over multi- turn sessions.

The Zig 0.16 renderer is built and OCR-verified (single-char accuracy off on Menlo → Mento; equivalent to Python's 99.7%). The remaining pieces of the full Zig native binary are HTTP/h2 forwarding and JSON transform logic (TODO; HTTP/h2 client already prototyped in the metal0 monorepo this was spun out of).

When the full Zig port lands, the npm postinstall will download a pre-built platform binary, eliminating the Python dependency entirely.

Build & test the Zig renderer

cd src/zig
brew install libdeflate
zig build                    # requires Zig 0.16
echo "hello world" > in.txt
./zig-out/bin/render_cli in.txt out.png

Then claude -p "Read out.png and transcribe" to verify OCR.

Tips for maximum savings

1. Use --exclude-dynamic-system-prompt-sections with Claude Code. Without it, the system prompt embeds timestamp/cwd data that changes per turn, busting the image cache.
2. Keep your tool set stable. Adding tools busts the image cache.
3. Pin a stable port across sessions so Anthropic's cache stays warm.
4. Long sessions amortize the warm-up. First turn pays ~12K token premium to cache the image; every turn after that saves ~5K. Break-even ≈ 3 turns on typical sessions, then pure savings forever.

Limitations

• Sub-5pt fonts fail OCR. 5pt Menlo is the verified floor.
• Compressing user-message dynamic context (cwd, file listings) causes extra model round-trips — left disabled.
• macOS-tested. Linux/Windows should work but unverified. Font path hardcoded to /System/Library/Fonts/Menlo.ttc; override with FONT_PATH=....

Configuration

npx pixelpipe [options]

  -p, --port <N>          Port to listen on (default: 47821)
  --no-compress           Disable all compression (pure passthrough)
  --no-tools              Don't compress tool descriptions
  --no-schemas            Don't compress tool input_schemas (saves most tokens)
  --no-reminders          Don't compress <system-reminder> blocks
  --font-size <N>         Render font size in pt (default: 5; <5 fails OCR)
  --min-chars <N>         Minimum chars to trigger compression (default: 2000)

Or via env vars (proxy.py reads these directly):

PORT, COMPRESS_SYSTEM, COMPRESS_TOOLS, COMPRESS_SCHEMAS,
COMPRESS_REMINDERS, FONT_PATH, FONT_SIZE, MIN_COMPRESS_CHARS, PLACEMENT

Requirements

• Node 16+
• Python 3.8+ with Pillow and httpx (auto-installed on first run)
• For the Zig port: Zig 0.16, libdeflate (brew install libdeflate)

License

MIT