Clojure: The AI Token-Efficient Language

Token Usage Comparison

Same HTML structure, different representations:

Why Clojure Wins

The Secret: Data as Code

Hiccup represents HTML as Clojure data structures. No closing tags. No angle brackets. Just vectors and maps.

[:div.container
 [:h1 "Hello, World!"]
 [:p {:class "subtitle"} "Built with Clojure"]]

; Generates:
; <div class="container">
;   <h1>Hello, World!</h1>
;   <p class="subtitle">Built with Clojure</p>
; </div>

Why This Matters for AI

• Fewer tokens = Lower API costs (GPT-4, Claude, etc.)
• No redundant closing tags = Less noise for the model
• Data structures = Easier for AI to parse and generate
• Homoiconicity = Code is data, infinitely composable

This Site's Stats

This entire static site generator:

• 54 lines of Clojure
• ~415 estimated tokens (including styles)
• 1 dependency (Hiccup)
• 0 closing tags in markup