๐ค What is this?
Your AI coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Copilot CLI) quietly writes a session log of everything it does. skiagram reads those logs (read-only, fully offline) and tells you the two things they never show you directly:
- Where your tokens actually went, broken down by project, session, model, and token type, with the numbers deduplicated and priced correctly.
- Why your context window is full: which MCP server, tool-definition set, or giant tool result is eating the window before you type a word.
Think flamegraph for agent token spend, not "daily usage table".
โจ Features
Plain per-day usage tracking is a solved problem. skiagram exists because the numbers themselves are usually wrong, and because nobody tells you where the context window went.
๐ฏ Correct accounting (getting the number right is the whole point)
On-disk logs are unreliable. Agents write one JSONL line per content block, and every line
repeats the request's token usage, so a single API request shows up as 2 to 10 lines sharing one
requestId (real data we measured: 642 lines for 262 requests). Naive summation multiplies your
spend by that factor. skiagram:
- Deduplicates per request before summing anything (the core accounting step).
- Prices cache reads, 5-minute cache writes, and 1-hour cache writes separately. They differ by up to ~10ร, and lumping them quietly inflates or deflates your bill.
- Attributes extended-thinking tokens as a measured share of output (they're already inside
output_tokens, verified on 2,268 real requests, so we never invent a phantom undercount). - Treats absence as unknown, not zero. A missing usage field becomes a stated lower bound; a model missing from the price snapshot is listed as unpriced, never guessed.
๐งฑ Context-bloat attribution
skiagram context breaks down what fills your window by source (system prompt, tool/MCP
definitions, history, attachments), by MCP server, and surfaces the heaviest individual
items, the one giant tool result that quietly dominates. It separates measured, billed tokens
from estimated composition and never blurs the two.
๐ณ Sub-agent attribution
Spawned sub-agents (the Task / Agent tool) write their own transcripts; most tools drop or
misattribute that spend. skiagram folds it back into the parent session and shows the sub-agent share.
๐ฅ Drill-down UX (TUI + flamegraph)
A navigable TUI (sessions โ turns โ context breakdown) and a literal flamegraph SVG export,
color-coded by token type with a legend, regroupable with --group-by.
๐ Local-first ยท ๐ฆ single binary
No daemon, no proxy in the request path, no telemetry, no network calls in the default build. One static binary you can drop anywhere.
๐ฆ Install
skiagram is a single static binary. Pick whichever channel fits your setup; every command is one line.
Cargo (any OS with Rust โฅ 1.85):
Prebuilt binary via cargo-binstall (no compile):
macOS and Linux (Homebrew):
macOS and Linux (shell installer):
|
Windows (Scoop):
&&
Windows (winget):
Windows (PowerShell installer):
irm https://github.com/TanvirAnjumApurbo/skiagram/releases/latest/download/skiagram-installer.ps1 | iex
npm (install globally, or run on demand with npx):
From source:
&& &&
Prebuilt archives for macOS ยท Linux ยท Windows are attached to every GitHub Release.
๐ Usage
Run it with no arguments to auto-detect your agent and print a deduplicated spend summary:
Commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
skiagram summary |
๐งพ Token + cost summary, deduplicated (the default command) |
skiagram context |
๐งฑ What's filling your context window, by source, by MCP server, fat tail |
skiagram anomalies |
๐จ Fat-tail requests that dominate spend, plus retry storms |
skiagram classify |
๐ท๏ธ Spend broken down by task type (debugging / features / refactor / โฆ) |
skiagram flame |
๐ฅ Export a flamegraph SVG of token spend |
skiagram tui |
๐ฅ๏ธ Interactive drill-down browser (arrow keys / j k, q to quit) |
skiagram watch |
๐ก Live-tail: re-render the summary whenever session files change |
Global flags
| Flag | Effect |
|---|---|
--agent <id> |
claude-code, codex, gemini, copilot, or cursor. Default: auto-detect |
--since YYYY-MM-DD |
Only count usage on/after this UTC date |
--refresh-pricing |
Refresh model prices from LiteLLM first (needs the network build feature) |
Most commands also accept --json for machine-readable output.
Examples
|
TOTALS (deduplicated)
Requests Input Output Cache read Cache write Total tokens Est. cost
6 5,600 980 11,000 500 18,080 $0.0319
requestId dedup: collapsed 2 duplicate line(s) into 6 request(s); naive per-line
summing would report 30,850 tokens (+71% overcount avoided)
extended thinking: used in 1 of 6 request(s); already counted inside Output above; visible thinking ~414 est. token(s)
sub-agent share: 1,300 tokens across 1 request(s) ($0.0087), attributed to parent sessions
Every number is traceable to (model, token type, unit price), with no magic constants.
๐ฅ Flamegraph
skiagram flame turns your spend into a navigable flamegraph SVG. Frame width = tokens (or cost,
with --metric cost), and the default hierarchy is project โ session โ model โ token-type:
- Colored by token type.
input,output,cache-read,cache-write, andthinkingeach get a fixed swatch with a legend, so you read the graph by color instead of squinting at labels. - Readable sessions. The opaque session UUID is shortened to an 8-char prefix.
- Regroupable.
--group-by project,model,typedrops or reorders levels. Regrouping never changes the totals; it only changes how the same spend is sliced. - Pipe-friendly.
--foldprints the raw folded stacks to stdout for any flamegraph tool.
Frame widths agree with summary by construction: the same request-level dedup feeds both, so
the picture and the table can never disagree.
๐งฎ How the accounting works
Getting the number right is a core feature, not a footnote. Here is exactly what skiagram does, so you can trust (and challenge) every figure.
- Dedup rule. Assistant lines are grouped by
requestId; usage counters take the field-wise MAX (lines either repeat identical usage or grow monotonically while streaming). Lines without arequestIdare never merged. - Cache pricing. cache-read ~0.1ร input, 5-minute cache-write ~1.25ร input, 1-hour cache-write ~2ร input. Each is priced separately from an embedded snapshot of public prices.
- Thinking tokens. Claude Code's
output_tokensalready includes extended-thinking tokens (verified), so we never add an estimate on top. When an agent reports thinking as a separate count (Codex, Gemini), we keep it disjoint so the sum still balances. - Absence is not zero. A missing usage field makes that total a stated lower bound; unpriced models are listed, not guessed.
- Estimates, not invoices. Costs come from public pricing and are labeled as estimates.
The embedded price snapshot keeps the default build fully offline. --refresh-pricing (behind the
opt-in network feature) updates it from LiteLLM and caches the result for later offline runs.
๐งฑ Context: what's filling your window?
Two kinds of number, kept strictly apart:
- MEASURED (real, billed tokens): your startup overhead (system prompt + tool definitions + memory files + first turn) that's already in the window on a fresh session before you type anything, plus the peak/final window fill across sessions.
- ESTIMATED (
~-prefixed, from transcript sizes, never billed): the relative composition by source, by MCP server, and the heaviest individual items, the context "fat tail" where one giant tool result dominates.
Plus an exact inventory: which MCP servers are in play, how many tools were deferred (available but not loaded, so they don't bloat the window, a common misconception), how many skills were listed, and how many times the window filled up and got compacted.
๐ค Supported agents
| Agent | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | โ | discover + parse + dedup + sub-agent folding + thinking attribution |
| Codex CLI | โ | real token reconciliation (cumulative vs per-request delta) |
| Gemini CLI | โ | real per-message tokens, dedup by message id, disjoint thoughts |
| Copilot CLI | โ | structural (Copilot logs no per-request billing tokens) |
| Cursor | โฌ | deferred: per-request tokenCount is ~99% zeroed; needs bundled rusqlite |
Adding a new agent is one trait implementation. See Contributing.
โ๏ธ Configuration
Config file: config.toml in your platform's config dir (resolved via directories; override the
whole path with $SKIAGRAM_CONFIG). Unknown keys are ignored, so it stays forward-compatible:
# Skip auto-detect and always read this agent unless --agent is passed.
= "claude-code"
Agent precedence: --agent flag โบ default_agent in config โบ auto-detect.
Environment variables
| Variable | Effect |
|---|---|
SKIAGRAM_LOG=debug |
See which lines were skipped leniently, and why |
SKIAGRAM_CONFIG |
Path to an alternate config.toml |
CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR |
Override the Claude Code data root (default ~/.claude) |
CODEX_HOME / GEMINI_HOME / COPILOT_HOME |
Override each agent's data root |
๐ Privacy
Session files contain your prompts and source code. skiagram:
- opens them read-only and processes everything in-memory, on your machine;
- has no network code in the default build: no telemetry, no uploads, ever;
- ships only fully synthetic test fixtures (no real prompts, paths, or secrets).
It reads files your agents already write; it is not a proxy or interceptor in the request path.
๐ ๏ธ Contributing
PRs welcome, especially new agent adapters. Each agent is one implementation of the Adapter
trait in crates/skiagram-core/src/adapters/:
- Implement the trait. Parsers must be lenient: skip unknown lines with a
tracing::debug, never panic. A corrupt line must not abort a whole session parse. - Register it in
adapters::all(). - Add redacted/synthetic fixtures under
fixtures/<agent>/(no real prompts, paths, or secrets), plus aninstasnapshot test and anassert_cmdCLI test. Required. cargo fmt && cargo clippy -- -D warnings && cargo testmust all pass.
The skiagram-core crate's module docs explain the architecture, the data-format notes, and the
correctness rules every change must honor.
๐งโ๐ป Development
The workspace is two crates: skiagram-core (pure domain logic: model, adapters, analysis,
pricing; no terminal I/O, no network) and skiagram (the CLI + TUI binary that owns all I/O).
๐บ๏ธ Project status
skiagram v0.1.0 is the first public release. It ships:
- Correct, deduplicated token + cost accounting
- Adapters for Claude Code, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, and Copilot CLI
- Context-window bloat attribution, sub-agent attribution, anomaly detection, and task classification
- Flamegraph SVG export, an interactive TUI, and live-tail (
watch) - A config file, optional online pricing refresh, and a fully offline default build
Planned next: a Cursor adapter (waiting on usable per-request token data), refreshable-pricing UX polish, and a homebrew-core submission.
๐ License
MIT ยฉ skiagram contributors.
Built with ๐ฆ Rust ยท Local-first ยท Offline by default
๐ Report a bug ยท ๐ก Request a feature ยท โญ Star the repo
If skiagram saved you some tokens, a โญ helps other people find it. Thank you!
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