Amplifier-Tester · In Practice

Author David Koleczek
Since Opus 4.7 came out,
Amplifier has been giving me anxiety.

Over 100k tokens to say hello.

Amplifier local session — over 100k tokens at startup
The opportunity

A perfect opportunity for a DTU.

What I want

Use the lean bundle to help get that token count down.

What I don't want

To impede the other work I'm doing by messing with my global Amplifier.

This is a perfect opportunity to use DTUs.
From "I want to try this" → a launched DTU

Let's look at all it took.

About 30 minutes end-to-end, wall clock.

Step 1 · Team Knowledge Base

Find the lean bundle.

Can you look through the amplifier knowledge base for info about the lean bundles?

1 and 2 seem relevant. I am looking for something that is a more minimal amplifier configuration.

Step 2a · amplifier-tester

Create the profile.

Can you use the amplifier-tester bundle to spin up a DTU with the exp-lean-amplifier-dev bundle configured with claude-opus-4.7 as the default model? Put the profile in .amplifier/digital-twin-universe/profiles.

Step 2b · amplifier-tester

Compose the bundles I need.

Can you now add the amplifier-tester, amplifier-reality-check, digital-twin-universe, and gitea bundles (they are all this workspace as a reference, but use the actual urls) to that DTU? Use amplifier bundle add <github url> --app.

You should be using this syntax to add the bundles: amplifier bundle add "git+https://github.com/microsoft/amplifier-bundle-gitea@main#subdirectory=behaviors/gitea.yaml" --app.

Yeah it's fine if the CLIs are not installed for now. Please update the profile.

Step 2c · amplifier-tester

Launch.

Great, can you now launch this DTU?

Trying it

Exec into an interactive shell.

amplifier-digital-twin exec <dtu-id>
Before · After

Local Amplifier vs. lean bundle in a DTU.

Before · Local ~105k tokens
Local Amplifier — ~105k tokens at startup
After · Lean bundle in DTU ~53k tokens
Lean bundle in DTU — ~53k tokens at startup
Before · Local Full toolset
Local Amplifier — full tools and bundles
After · Lean bundle in DTU Key tools & bundles still there
Lean bundle in DTU — most of the key tools and bundles I need still there
Finally

It's just a terminal.

A DTU is a terminal that, for my setup, is indistinguishable from one in WSL2.
Lean bundle running in a DTU terminal — looks the same as a local WSL2 terminal
A lean Amplifier tested in its own universe.
Author David Koleczek
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