http://blog.gardlt.io/tags/skills/Recent content in Skills on Blog | gardlt.ioHugoen-usFri, 20 Mar 2026 13:28:39 -0500http://blog.gardlt.io/posts/understanding-llm-token-consumption/Fri, 20 Mar 2026 13:28:39 -0500http://blog.gardlt.io/posts/understanding-llm-token-consumption/<h1 id="why-your-ai-skills-should-be-cli-first-a-token-cost-analysis">Why Your AI Skills Should Be CLI-First: A Token Cost Analysis</h1> <p>Many AI skills are written so the model does all the heavy lifting: reading raw configuration files, running shell commands, and formatting output line by line. While this works, it comes at a cost: token consumption that scales poorly.</p> <p>This post walks through a concrete analysis of a workspace setup skill that illustrates this problem and shows how shifting deterministic logic into a CLI binary can cut token consumption by over 95%.</p>