frugal

Spend Claude on thinking, not chores. A Claude Code mod.

A real, unedited session: Claude hands a 6,000 line log to free Gemini and gets back a timeline.

Two ways to spend Claude on thinking instead of chores:

1. Helper subagents (Explore and friends) that don't ask for a model run on Haiku.
2. summarize_free, a tool Claude can call to hand a big file or log to a free Gemini model and get back only what it needs. Gemini models are tried in order (Lite first), so one being busy doesn't stop it.

A line above the prompt counts what went where; /frugal status adds all-time totals.

An honest note from making the demo: for "find the error" questions Claude reaches for Grep, which is cheaper still. summarize_free earns its place on summaries, timelines and questions grep can't answer, or whenever you ask for it.

Setup

Get a free key at aistudio.google.com, then either set GEMINI_API_KEY or run /plugin configure frugal@nerfsaksham-frugal (the key goes to secure storage).

Commands and settings

• /frugal on, /frugal off, /frugal status
• Settings: Gemini models in order, helper model (haiku or sonnet), which subagent types count as helpers

What it touches

The file you ask it to summarise, one call to Gemini per summary, and GEMINI_API_KEY.

Install

Claude Code 2.1.287 or newer runs mods out of the box. On 2.1.273 to 2.1.286, start it with CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_FUNCTION_HOOKS=1 first.

claude plugin marketplace add saksham10arora-dotcom/claude-frugal
claude plugin install frugal@nerfsaksham-frugal

Every option has a default, so the installer's "userConfig options not yet set" note is safe to ignore.

Or try it without installing:

git clone https://github.com/saksham10arora-dotcom/claude-frugal && claude --plugin-dir claude-frugal

Develop

claude plugin validate .
claude plugin test .

More mods

Part of a set: teach-me · vhs · frugal · lofi. More community mods: awesome-claude-mods.

MIT. Made by Saksham Arora (@nerfsaksham).