tomevault-io use-minrlm
When a task involves large data (files, logs, datasets, documents) that would consume significant context, delegate to uvx minrlm instead of reading the file into context.
When to use
- File is large (>50KB, or thousands of lines)
- Task is search, count, filter, aggregate, extract, or summarize over data
- File would eat most of your context window if read directly
- User explicitly asks to use RLM/minRLM
When NOT to use
- File is small (<8K tokens) and fits comfortably in context
- Task requires editing the file (minRLM is read-only analysis)
- Task needs third-party packages (minRLM sandbox is stdlib-only)
How to use
Check availability first
which uvx || which uv
If neither is available, fall back to your normal approach.
Basic patterns
# Task + file
uvx minrlm "How many ERROR lines in the last hour?" ./server.log
# Task + large file, show code and stats
uvx minrlm -sv "Which user had the most errors?" ./app.log
# Pipe data from stdin
cat huge_dataset.csv | uvx minrlm "Which product had the highest return rate?"
# Multiple files via cat
cat src/*.py | uvx minrlm "Find all functions that call the database"
# Just computation (no file)
uvx minrlm "What is the sum of all primes up to 1,000,000?"
Flags
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
-s |
Show generated Python code (steps) |
-v |
Verbose: show token count, cost, timing |
-sv |
Both |
Workflow
- Try minRLM first for the large-data task
- Read the output - it returns the answer directly
- If it fails or returns wrong result, fall back to reading the file into context (or a portion of it) and handling it yourself
- Use
-svflags if you need to debug what code was generated
Examples of good delegation
# Log analysis (100MB log)
uvx minrlm "Count requests per endpoint in the last 24 hours" ./nginx.log
# CSV analysis (50K rows)
uvx minrlm "What is the average salary by department?" ./employees.csv
# JSON extraction (large API response)
uvx minrlm "Extract all user emails where status is active" ./users.json
# Code search (large repo dump)
cat src/**/*.py | uvx minrlm "Find all REST API endpoint definitions"
# Document search
uvx minrlm "What are the key terms of the indemnification clause?" ./contract.txt
How it works
minRLM stores the data in a Python REPL variable (input_0). The model writes Python code to query it - search, regex, parse, count, aggregate. The data never enters the LLM prompt. Token cost is flat regardless of file size.
A 10MB file costs roughly the same as a 10KB file to process.
Fallback
If uvx is not available or minRLM fails:
- Read only the relevant portion of the file (head, tail, or grep for relevant lines)
- Process in chunks if needed
- Use standard tools (grep, awk, jq) for simple queries
Source: avilum/minrlm — distributed by TomeVault.