Token-frugal tooling — quick reference

This project uses logmind + clud-bug, both engineered for token frugality. The defaults below land automatically; this skill is just so you don't re-learn them every session.

When to use

• Both logmind and clud-bug are installed (see frontmatter) and you're about to set an agent-mode env var, read a compact on-disk artifact, or triage a clud-bug review comment, and want the one-line default rather than re-reading either tool's full skill.

When NOT to use

• Only one of the two tools is installed — load that tool's own skill (logmind or clud-bug-collaboration) directly; the defaults here assume both are present.
• You need the mechanism behind a default, not just the default itself — that detail is owned by the per-tool skill this one cross-references, not duplicated here.

Agent-mode env vars (set once per command or session)

Prefer it for agent invocations even when chaining commands — every command emits a single parseable line, so the next step can grep/parse without re-running. logmind v1.2.0 has no quiet mode.

CLUD_BUG_QUIET=1 clud-bug update
# → ok updated: @v0.6.11, N changed, M unchanged

On-disk artifacts default to brief

When you read these files, expect compact format — the legacy verbose view is opt-in. Both apply org-wide on next regen after a logmind upgrade.

Reading clud-bug review comments (v0.6.5+)

Every Clud Bug summary comment leads with Found: N 🔴 / N 🟡 / N 🟣 — read this line first to triage.

• 🔴 important — bug / security / performance / missing test coverage
• 🟡 nit — style / naming / micro-optimization (advisory)
• 🟣 pre-existing — issue that pre-dates this PR; don't fix here unless asked

Per-finding shape:

🔴 [skill-name]: One-line claim anchored to file:line.
<details><summary>Reasoning</summary>

…

</details>

On a re-read, you can usually trust the headline and skip the collapsed Reasoning. Expand only when the headline is ambiguous or you want the evidence trail.

If you see a ### Diagnostics block before the Skills-referenced footer (clud-bug v0.6.18+ / 0.0.T): a head -c cap fired during the review. The block names which section truncated and the recovery outcome (e.g. "recovered with 2x cap", "still truncated"). Treat it as confidence calibration — if a finding's section was deferred, the verdict on that section is partial.

What you don't need to do

• Don't override clud-bug budgets (MAX_DIFF_BYTES, etc.) unless you have a documented reason. Defaults cover 95%+ of real PRs.
• Don't worry about caching — clud-bug v0.6.3+ writes its stable prefix into the Claude Code CLI's auto-cached system layer. Cached input is billed at 10% of standard. Visible via cache_read_input_tokens in the run JSON.
• Don't worry about the model — pinned to claude-sonnet-4-6 (v0.6.11). PR review fits Sonnet's profile; Opus would be ~5× the cost per the Anthropic pricing table.
• Don't worry about fix-push diff cost — clud-bug v0.6.10 reads only the delta since its prior review (handshake via <!-- last-reviewed-sha: <sha> --> marker in the prior summary comment).
• Don't worry about workflow-only PRs (clud-bug v0.6.14 / 0.0.W) — PRs touching only clud-bug-*.yml or strict-mode-gate/** skip the LLM review entirely. The composite-pin lock-step propagation PRs that used to require admin-bypass are now normal merges.
• Don't worry about dep-bump PRs (clud-bug v0.6.15 / 0.0.R) — dependabot/renovate authors AND small-diff dep-manifest-only PRs route to Haiku ($0.80/MTok vs Sonnet's $3) for another ~75% reduction on that class.
• Don't worry about review output length (clud-bug v0.6.16 / 0.0.X) — the prompt has a brevity directive ("Keep total output under ~600 tokens"). Per-finding 1-sentence claim + collapsible reasoning is the shape; you don't need to ask for short output.
• Don't worry about prompt drift (clud-bug v0.6.17 / 0.0.E) — the CI golden gate (test/golden/{must-contain,must-not-contain,byte-budget}.json) fails any PR that drops a load-bearing prompt instruction or re-introduces filler patterns. The byte-budget cap is intentionally low post-0.0.P (v0.6.20).

Verification

• logmind doctor flags stale logmind templates, hooks and merge drivers and exits non-zero on drift. It does not probe clud-bug, and its version line is unreliable in v1.2.0 — check clud-bug's version with its own CLI.

Cross-references

• logmind — when / how to log decisions; reading prior context.
• clud-bug-collaboration — fix-push flow, strict mode, modifying skills, editing the workflow, full comment format, full cost-control wiring.

Sources

• Version numbers and defaults above are drawn from logmind's and clud-bug's own release notes; the primary citation for each lives in the two skills above, which this page compresses.