Analyze Token Waste

Use check to analyze a payload and see how much each strategy would save — without modifying the input.

CLI

Bash

# From stdin
echo '{"name": "Alice", "age": 30, "notes": null}' | axm-smelt check

# From a file
axm-smelt check --file data.json

Output:

Text Only

Format: json
Tokens: 18
Strategies applied: none
Strategy estimates:
  minify: 22.2%
  drop_nulls: 16.7%
  strip_quotes: 5.6%

Only strategies with positive savings are shown — strategies that would produce no savings or increase tokens are automatically filtered out.

Python API

Python

from axm_smelt import check

report = check(data)

print(f"Format: {report.format.value}")
print(f"Tokens: {report.original_tokens}")

for strat, pct in report.strategy_estimates.items():
    if pct > 0:
        print(f"  {strat}: {pct:.1f}%")

Difference from smelt

	check	smelt
Modifies input	No	Yes
Returns compacted	Input unchanged	Compacted text
strategy_estimates	Populated	Empty
strategies_applied	Always []	Strategies that changed the output

Use check to decide which preset or strategies to use, then call smelt to apply them.