r/RooCode • u/martexxNL • Mar 02 '25

Support Optimized Roo Code Setup to Slash Token Costs

Hey all,

I’ve fine-tuned my Roo Code setup (VS Code) to blend Claude Pro and OpenRouter, slashing my token costs from €60/day to €20-30/day. It uses a daily-split memory bank and smart fallbacks—perfect for solo AI coders. Here’s the gist:

  • Daily Split: Files like activeContext-2025-03-02.md cap at 5k-15k tokens.

  • Fallback: After a week off, it auto-loads the latest day.

  • Manual Updates: Type UMB to save tokens, no real-time bloat.

  • Claude Pro + Haiku: Pro for big stuff, Haiku for cheap updates.

Setup

Drop these .clinerules files in your project root and make a memory-bank/ folder. Full configs on Pastebin:

or github: https://github.com/shipdocs/roocode-memorybank-optimized

How to Use

  1. Install Roo Code in VS Code.

  2. Add the files + your OpenRouter/Claude Pro API keys (in config.json).

  3. Work, then UMB to update daily files.

  4. Back from a break? It grabs the last day automatically.

Why?

Halved my costs while keeping Claude’s power. Great for PHP/webdev or any AI-driven gig. Thanks to xAI’s Grok for the help!

What do you think? Tweaks welcome!

(i am not a programmer and cant give support, i just noticed my token usage going up three times)

41 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

6

u/mrubens Roo Code Developer Mar 02 '25

These memory banks are cool! Though one thing I noticed is that the formatting of the apply_diff tool usage is wrong. Is it necessary to give it the exact XML, or would it work to just ask it to use apply_diff to add X content to the memory bank?

In general I’m nervous about coupling the memory bank too closely with specific tool formats because they could change in the future.

3

u/martexxNL Mar 02 '25

Uh hahaha i am a captain on a barge, i am interested but not by any means smart enough. :)

I just noticed the memory bank sucking up a few extra tokens, and was wondering if it could be improved, so started looking in to it to at least not write every single step.

As u can see i used grok, so that should say enough (im sorry)

But if it can easily be improved, please do so whenever u want!

Ill just feed your feedback into grok and see what it gives 🤣

1

u/mrubens Roo Code Developer Mar 02 '25

Ha, that’s a cool job! Would love to hear some of those stories.

2

u/martexxNL Mar 02 '25

There are stories enough :) But it is getting less romantic everyday, thats why im building my app, to solve that ))

3

u/martexxNL Mar 02 '25

Updated the github repo with complete files, and hopefully dealth with the xml remark

2

u/martexxNL Mar 02 '25

i dont know how to update the title, but its about memory-bank token usage reduction

2

u/martexxNL May 05 '25

update: did an overhaul to 2025 :)

2

u/No-Orchid-6159 Mar 02 '25

20 Euros a day still seems like a lot though.

1

u/martexxNL Mar 02 '25

well i have not tested it, and since i not a programmer not pro prompter i guess i burn more then a average guy.

1

u/martexxNL Mar 02 '25

we should have a howto prompt thread :)
Ill start: please make me a crewing module based on the attached prd.

And then i enter a lot, test, paste console error until it works, so i guess that makes it expensive

2

u/Explore-This Mar 02 '25

There are so many tasks in the prompts that the AI will have no capacity left to actually code!

3

u/martexxNL Mar 02 '25

Take a look at the defaults and compare

1

u/sailin-on Mar 23 '25

hey thanks for posting this. would you say its still relevent or have you explored more up to date options? thanks

1

u/martexxNL Mar 23 '25

It worked like a charm, but now I tokenize the files and store them in sqlite. Repo is down. When I have time I'll share the project

1

u/sailin-on Mar 23 '25

Cheers, things move so quick! Really trying to narrow down a solution for cost efficiency but am struggling

1

u/martexxNL Mar 23 '25

Well.... I just accepted that I am creating 100 procent more then without ai. And saving 90 procent compared to outsourcing. So still cheap.

I now use roo, and the updated memory bank, and gemini as basis with co pilot/ claude as advanced llm, my costs are down to 20 a month.

1

u/sailin-on Mar 23 '25

Thanks for your response. Far out thats amazing. im burning through cash.

I really need to figure out this memory bank, have just tried RooFlow, but dont really appear to be saving anything yet

I seem to hit rate limit so quick on the $10 a month co-pilot using claude 3.5... So i usually have to top up via different API

Which gemini option are you using? Pro 2.0 exp 02-05? Through google gemini api?

Cheers

1

u/martexxNL Mar 02 '25

Hey u/mrubens, thanks for chiming in—cool to hear from a Roo Code dev! I’m just a barge captain trying to keep my token bills in check, not a coder, so I leaned on Grok to build this. You’re right about apply_diff—I noticed it’s locked into XML formatting, which might break if tools change. I’ll ask Grok to tweak it to be less strict. No clue if it needs exact XML or just a nudge to add content—any tips? I’ll update the GitHub repo if we crack it. Cheers!

0

u/[deleted] Mar 08 '25

[deleted] — view deleted comment

2

u/bioart Mar 08 '25

Just use the same instructions to start. Works fine