Let's talk about something that's been on my mind lately: token costs. Yes, I'm Dutch, and yes, I noticed that with the latest updates Claude Code is burning through tokens much harder. Besides not just accepting the default settings of Claude I've found some tools that save money and also produce dramatically better results.
Here's what I'm using every day.
Yes off course Caveman.
You know that moment when Claude responds with "Great question! Let me walk you through this step by step"? Or when create extensive documentation about everything he does? Every single one of those pleasantries, every "Let me know if you'd like me to adjust anything!" — those are tokens. Expensive, slow tokens that add zero information.
Enter Caveman. This beautiful little plugin strips Claude's responses down to their essentials. No fluff, no hand-holding, just substance. My sessions are faster, my costs are lower, and honestly? And the direct communication. I love it!
# In claude code
/plugin marketplace add JuliusBrussee/caveman
/plugin install caveman@caveman
References
https://github.com/JuliusBrussee/caveman
https://skillsllm.com/skill/caveman
csharp-ls: Claude Code and C#
By default Claude Code just reads your .cs files as plain text. No structural understanding, no semantic awareness. Of course Claude Code can use its knowledge to recognize the project, and the code, and it will know its C#. But again this costs some reasoning and tokens.
But what if we can give that some boost?
The csharp-ls plugin connects Claude to the same engine that powers those red squiggly lines in Visual Studio, VS Code, and Rider. Two immediate wins:
Compilation errors become trivial. Instead of Claude reasoning about why something won't compile — and occasionally getting it wrong, which then compounds — the language server just tells it what's broken. The exact same diagnostics you see in your IDE, surfaced immediately.
Cross-project navigation stops being painful. Following a symbol across project boundaries in a large solution normally means Claude reading file after file, hoping it traces the right path. Roslyn already knows exactly where everything lives. The language server just hands over the answer.
To be fair, this is more of a speed improvement than a fundamental capability unlock — Claude can read text files. But when you're iterating rapidly, shaving seconds off every lookup compounds fast
# Install the language server globally
dotnet tool install --global csharp-ls
# Install the Claude Code plugin
/plugin install csharp-lsp
DotNet-Claude-Kit
This gem supercharges Claude Code for .NET by connecting it directly to the Roslyn compiler. This plugin lets Claude Code query the Roslyn compiler for instant, compiler-accurate answers in 30-150 tokens.
What the catch?: it's a relatively new open-source project under active development, so long-term support isn't guaranteed yet. For now, it's brilliant.
Here is a graph from the Author.
| MCP Tool | What it replaces | Without kit | With kit | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
find_symbol |
Grep all files | 500+ tokens | 30–50 | 92% |
find_references |
Manual grep | 500+ tokens | 50–150 | 80% |
find_implementations |
Search | 500+ tokens | 30–80 | 89% |
find_callers |
Method name grep | 500+ tokens | 40–100 | 86% |
Besides a better understanding of your code this plugin also has some cool templates, patterns agents and skills which can be used. I tried some and its pretty fast and cool.
This is excellent if you want to start a new project.
https://codewithmukesh.com/resources/dotnet-claude-kit/
# Step 1: install the Roslyn MCP server
dotnet tool install -g CWM.RoslynNavigator
# Step 2: install the plugin via Claude Code
/plugin marketplace add codewithmukesh/dotnet-claude-kit
/plugin install dotnet-claude-kit
References
https://github.com/codewithmukesh/dotnet-claude-kit/tree/main
https://codewithmukesh.com/resources/dotnet-claude-kit/
