CLI

promptsize [options]

Run with no arguments, promptsize auto-detects your config, checks every budget, prints a report, and exits non-zero if any prompt is over.

Options

Flag	Description
-c, --config <path>	Path to the config file. Default: auto-detect.
--why	Show the per-file token breakdown under each entry.
--json	Output machine-readable JSON instead of the report.
--save	Write current sizes to .promptsize.json (the baseline) and exit.
--silent	Suppress output; rely on the exit code only.
-h, --help	Show help.
-v, --version	Show the version.

Exit codes

Code	Meaning
0	All prompts within budget.
1	One or more prompts over budget.
2	Configuration or runtime error (e.g. no config found, no files matched).

These make promptsize a drop-in CI step — a non-zero exit fails the job.

Examples

Check everything and show what’s in each bucket:

promptsize --why

Machine-readable output for custom tooling:

promptsize --json

{
  "ok": false,
  "entries": [
    {
      "name": "few-shot examples",
      "patterns": ["prompts/examples/*.md"],
      "encoding": "o200k_base",
      "tokens": 9200,
      "limit": 8000,
      "passed": false,
      "overBy": 1200,
      "delta": 320,
      "files": [
        { "path": "prompts/examples/a.md", "tokens": 4600 },
        { "path": "prompts/examples/b.md", "tokens": 4600 }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Use a config in a non-standard location:

promptsize --config config/promptsize.json

Update the committed baseline after an intentional change:

promptsize --save
git add .promptsize.json