{"slug": "a-claude-skill-that-makes-images-smaller", "title": "A Claude Skill That Makes Images Smaller", "summary": "A developer created a Claude skill called 'tiny' that compresses PNG, JPEG, and WebP images via TinyPNG with a single instruction, replacing the original file in place. The skill tracks TinyPNG's free monthly quota of 500 compressions and prevents accidental overage charges by blocking compression when the limit is reached unless the user explicitly forces it.", "body_md": "The cover image on this page is about 20 KB. The file I made was 70 KB.\n\nThat is three times bigger than it needs to be — for a file whose only job is to load. This happens a lot. You make a PNG, you know it is too big, but making it smaller means a website, an upload, a download, and a manual swap. Four steps for a file you already finished. So you skip it and ship the big one.\n\n`tiny`\n\nmakes an image smaller with one instruction. It sends the file to [TinyPNG](https://tinypng.com), replaces the original with the smaller version, and shows the result:\n\n```\n✓ cover.png  70.3 KB → 19.9 KB  (-50.3 KB, -71.7%)\n-- quota: 2 / 500 used this month (498 left)\n```\n\nThese numbers are real — this is the cover of this article. PNG, JPEG, and WebP all work. The replace is safe: if anything fails, your original file is not touched.\n\nThe second line is the important part. TinyPNG's free plan gives you 500 images per month. But it does **not** stop at 500 — image number 501 still works, and it charges your card. So `tiny`\n\ncounts your usage and stops you before you cross the line:\n\n```\nonly 3 free compression(s) left this month but 5 requested.\nCompress fewer, or pass --force (may incur charges).\n```\n\nThe free plan can never become a paid one by accident. The count resets each month on its own.\n\n**1. Install** — go to your skills folder, clone the gist, then add a free key once (get one at [tinypng.com/developers](https://tinypng.com/developers)):\n\n```\ncd ~/.claude/skills\ngit clone https://gist.github.com/dalirnet/213259ba6e9cf2d3098319f966a5699e.git tiny\nbash tiny/tiny.sh set-key <your-key>\n```\n\nClaude finds it in your next session. To update later: `cd ~/.claude/skills/tiny && git pull`\n\n.\n\n**2. Use it** — give Claude one image, many images, or a glob:\n\n```\ntiny cover.png\ntiny assets/*.png\ntiny usage          # → 47 / 500 used this month (453 left)\n```\n\nOne important note: it replaces the file **in place**. If you want to keep the original, copy it first.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/a-claude-skill-that-makes-images-smaller", "canonical_source": "https://dev.to/dalirnet/a-claude-skill-that-makes-images-smaller-348b", "published_at": "2026-07-01 07:53:44+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-01 08:19:00.100046+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["developer-tools", "ai-tools", "artificial-intelligence"], "entities": ["TinyPNG", "Claude", "dalirnet"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/a-claude-skill-that-makes-images-smaller", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/a-claude-skill-that-makes-images-smaller.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/a-claude-skill-that-makes-images-smaller.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/a-claude-skill-that-makes-images-smaller.jsonld"}}