AI Usage Dash

Dashboard of AI usage metrics at work, focused on exact (billed) tokens, collected automatically by hooks during the session — you don't run any collector, and there is no server to keep running.

Three independent layers:

1. Collection (via hooks) — end-of-turn hooks write the exact usage straight to the local SQLite file (lib/db.mjs). No daemon, no HTTP.

2. Storage — a single SQLite file (metrics.db) via Node's built-in node:sqlite (no native dependency, no build step). WAL + busy_timeout let concurrent hook writers and the MCP reader share it safely.

3. Query/analysis — a read-only MCP server (stdio, spawned on demand by the client) that Claude and Cursor consume to generate charts (artifacts / canvas).

The event contract (src/types.ts) ties the three layers together. Tokens are first-class fields.

How the exact token arrives, automatically

Runs 100% local on your machine — the hooks are short-lived node processes that open the SQLite file, write the turn's events, and exit. Nothing listens on a port.

⚠️ Why Cursor needs an API key. Cursor's billed token count doesn't exist on the machine: the Cursor hook receives no tokens, and the local DB only has context estimates. The exact number only exists server-side (Admin API, Team/Business plan). The hook automates that pull — you still run nothing — but without the admin key you can only see activity, not the tokens.

Setup

npm install                 # no native build — uses Node's built-in SQLite
npm link                    # puts the ai-usage-* commands on your PATH
cp .env.example .env

npm link exposes every tool as a command you can call by name (ai-usage-claude-hook, ai-usage-cursor-hook, ai-usage-mcp, ai-usage-stats, …), so nothing below hardcodes an absolute path to this repo. Each command resolves its own location, so it works from any directory. (Prefer not to link globally? Run them from the repo with npx ai-usage-<name>, or fall back to node ./hooks/<file>.mjs with a path.)

There is no service to start. The hooks write to the DB directly and the MCP server is spawned on demand by your client. The DB defaults to metrics.db at the repo root; set IA_USAGE_DASHBOARD_DB_PATH only if you keep it elsewhere:

export IA_USAGE_DASHBOARD_DB_PATH="$HOME/somewhere/metrics.db"   # optional; the commands find the repo DB by default

1. Enable the Claude Code hook

Register the hook in ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "hooks": {
    "Stop": [
      { "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "ai-usage-claude-hook" }] }
    ],
    "SubagentStop": [
      { "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "ai-usage-claude-hook" }] }
    ]
  }
}

Done — from then on, every Claude Code turn writes the exact usage on its own. The hook is silent and never blocks Claude Code; if a write ever fails it just retries next turn.

2. Enable the Cursor hook

Create ~/.cursor/hooks.json (or <project>/.cursor/hooks.json) — see the example at hooks/cursor-hooks.example.json:

{ "version": 1, "hooks": { "stop": [{ "command": "ai-usage-cursor-hook" }] } }

For Cursor's exact tokens, also export the admin key (Cursor Dashboard → Settings → Cursor Admin API Keys):

export CURSOR_API_KEY=<cursor-admin-key>

3. Register the read-only MCP (Claude / Cursor)

claude mcp add ai-usage -- ai-usage-mcp

For Cursor, the repo already ships .cursor/mcp.json (runs npm run mcp from the repo — no path needed).

In the client: "use the token_usage tool (period 30d, group_by model) and make a bar chart" → artifact/canvas.

Query tools (MCP)

Metrics captured per event

• message (Claude Code and Cursor): exact tokens, model, and in meta: stop_reason, latency_ms (turn time), n_tools, tools, web_search/web_fetch, gitBranch.

• tool_use: one per tool called (feeds top_tools/tool_stats).

• error: one per tool_result with an error (denominator = tool_use → error rate).

• productivity (Cursor, daily): lines added/accepted, tabs shown/accepted, applies.

Task (Jira/issue) link per session

Each AI session is linked to a task, to measure AI effort per issue. Resolution happens automatically at the start of the session, in order of precision:

1. .dash-task — file at the repo root with the ID (explicit override).

2. Git branch — a Jira-style ID in the branch name (feature/PROJ-123-... → PROJ-123).

3. User prompt — an ID mentioned, or the explicit marker #task PROJ-123 (correct it any time).

4. If none of the above resolves precisely → the SessionStart hook injects context instructing Claude to ask the user for the ID before starting (best-effort — a SessionStart hook can't block, so the model may skip the question). Regardless of whether it asks, the reply is captured on its own by the UserPromptSubmit hook, so the guaranteed ways to set the task are .dash-task, the branch name, or #task PROJ-123.

Hooks involved (registered in ~/.claude/settings.json):

"SessionStart":    [{ "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "ai-usage-session-task" }] }],
"UserPromptSubmit":[{ "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "ai-usage-task-capture" }] }]

The ID pattern is configurable via DASH_TASK_PATTERN (regex). The default is Jira-style (PROJ-123). task_id becomes a first-class field on every event; query it with by_task or token_usage group_by=task_id.

Slash command /dash_stats

Query a task's stats straight from Claude Code:

/dash_stats DEMO-100   → stats for the given task
/dash_stats            → uses the ACTIVE task of the current session

Returns tokens (in/out/cache), messages, tool calls + error rate, p50/p95 latency, per-model breakdown and top tools — all for that issue.

Pieces: the ai-usage-stats command (scripts/task-stats.mjs — resolves the task and reads the local SQLite DB directly via taskStats() in lib/db.mjs) + the command in ~/.claude/commands/dash_stats.md. Run it as ai-usage-stats DEMO-100 (or npm run stats -- DEMO-100 from the repo). Point it at a non-default DB with IA_USAGE_DASHBOARD_DB_PATH. The active task is the session's most recent task state.

History backfill (optional, runs once)

The hooks capture from now on. To import ALL the existing history one single time:

npm run collect:claude                       # scans ~/.claude/projects/**.jsonl
CURSOR_API_KEY=<key> npm run collect:cursor

Both are idempotent (dedup by ext_id) — running them again doesn't duplicate.

Next steps

• Claude Code cost (tokens × per-model price table).

• Fixed dashboards (HTML) beyond the on-demand artifacts.

• Migrate SQLite → Postgres (swap only lib/db.mjs).

• Multi-machine collection — if the DB ever needs to live off-box, reintroduce a thin ingest endpoint in front of insertEvents() (today it runs single-user on the machine, direct to file).