[HN Gopher] Ccusage: A CLI tool for analyzing Claude Code usage ...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Ccusage: A CLI tool for analyzing Claude Code usage from local
       JSONL files
        
       Author : kristianp
       Score  : 73 points
       Date   : 2025-07-18 23:22 UTC (23 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | thebestmoshe wrote:
       | I really like how easy it is to run using bunx, pnpx, npx, etc.
       | 
       | But does anyone have thoughts on the security aspect. Getting
       | people used to just running code like this that has full access
       | to the system is slightly concerning.
       | 
       | On the other hand it's no different than installing npm packages
        
         | simonw wrote:
         | Maybe this kind of thing would be better written in Deno?
         | 
         | Deno has mechanisms for allow-listing the exact files the
         | process can access - in this case you would want to give it
         | read-only access to the log files in the ~/.claude directory
         | and nothing else.
        
         | ghuntley wrote:
         | > anyone have thoughts on the security aspect
         | 
         | Yes, you need to run these agents in a sandboxed environment
         | when running full AFK [1] yolo. That could be a Docker
         | container or it could be remote developer environment.
         | 
         | [1] https://ghuntley.com/ralph
        
           | pjm331 wrote:
           | They are talking about the fact that you can run this npm
           | tool without installing it - not running code agents
        
             | ghuntley wrote:
             | Ah, that's the least of their issues!
        
       | extr wrote:
       | Have been using this for awhile, I'm on the $100/mo Max plan and
       | have been running $600-800/mo in terms of usage, and I'm hardly
       | pushing it to the limits (missing lots of billing windows).
       | 
       | It makes me wonder what Anthropic's true margins are. I could
       | believe they are overcharging via the API, Sonnet is $3/$15/Mtok
       | and Opus at an ABSURD $15/$75/Mtok. But to break even for me,
       | that would mean that they're overcharging by a factor 5x-10x,
       | which doesn't seem possible. Is the music going to stop for
       | Claude Code the same way it did for Cursor? I have to imagine
       | every incentive in the world is pushing them to lower inference
       | cost rather than introduce stricter limits, and unlike Cursor
       | they can actually can reach into their stack and do this. But I'm
       | not sure they're capable of miracles.
       | 
       | Regardless, I'm bullish Anthropic. Sonnet and Opus don't
       | benchmark as well as O3/Grok4 at pure coding, and aren't as cheap
       | as Kimi K2 for theoretically similar perf, but as any user knows
       | they are top tier at instruction following, highly reliable and
       | predictable, and have a certain intangible theory of mind that is
       | unique to Anthropic.
        
         | wyldfire wrote:
         | > Sonnet and Opus don't benchmark as well as O3/Grok4 at pure
         | coding
         | 
         | Do any of the others have a "claude code" local agent? Seems
         | like a big gap IMO. Though, it should be pretty easy for them
         | to close that gap.
         | 
         | I don't usually take too many moral stances but I feel like I
         | can't use Grok. It's bad enough Musk did his Nazi salute but
         | his AI product itself is a Nazi too? It might be good at coding
         | but I really can't stomach using it.
        
           | sothatsit wrote:
           | FWIW, people report that Grok 4 is not very good at coding,
           | and xAI admit this themselves when they said they will be
           | releasing a separate coding model in "the next few weeks".
           | 
           | Also, Google does have Gemini CLI, OpenAI does have Codex
           | CLI, and then there is Aider which can support any model. I
           | think the big difference is that Anthropic's models are the
           | best for this use-case right now, and Anthropic has the Max
           | plan which makes a massive difference to the cost of using
           | Claude Code compared to competitors (although the Gemini CLI
           | has insane free tiers).
           | 
           | I'm not sure how this will play out in the future, because it
           | seems to me that Claude Code does not have much of a moat
           | beyond Anthropic having the best coding models right now, and
           | them offering model usage at heavily discounted prices.
        
             | ghuntley wrote:
             | > people report that Grok 4 is not very good at coding
             | 
             | There are agentic models and oracle models. It can be
             | modelled on a four-way quadrant of agent vs oracle and high
             | safety vs low safety.
             | 
             | https://ghuntley.com/cars
             | 
             | Grok is oracle and low safety.
        
         | perfmode wrote:
         | perhaps there are enough inactive subscribers to compensate for
         | the heavy users.
        
           | buremba wrote:
           | I doubt that there are many inactive subscribers, as Claude
           | Code / Max Plan is relatively new. They might be hoping that
           | way in a couple of months, though.
        
           | Aeolun wrote:
           | I used it really heavily for a few days, but now I just don't
           | have the time to send much instructions. Still used on the
           | order of $1000 in the first month, but imagine it will go
           | down as time goes on. CC is so convenient I think I'd have a
           | hard time living without it though
        
         | sothatsit wrote:
         | > but as any user knows they are top tier at instruction
         | following, highly reliable and predictable
         | 
         | This is spot on. Reliability is really the #1 priority for me
         | when it comes to coding agents, and Sonnet, and especially
         | Opus, really deliver on it. It makes such a huge difference
         | when it comes to agents. Anthropic really nailed it on this.
         | 
         | My process has become: get Opus to generate a plan, use o3 to
         | help me review the plan, and then get Opus to implement the
         | plan. This works extremely well for me, and is the first time
         | where I've felt AI being actually useful for coding anything
         | more than small prototypes.
        
           | buremba wrote:
           | How do you switch to o3 to review the plan?
        
             | drakenot wrote:
             | Have CC output a plan.md file.
        
             | extr wrote:
             | Personally, I use Repoprompt for this + deeper context
             | integration.
        
             | sothatsit wrote:
             | I have a workflow that tells Claude Code to generate a
             | planning markdown document: https://gist.github.com/Sothats
             | it/c9fcbcb50445ebb6f367b0a6ca...
        
             | shmoogy wrote:
             | I use zenMCP to collaborate with opus
        
         | swyx wrote:
         | any dropoff in usage limits for you recently?
         | https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/17/anthropic-tightens-usage-l...
         | 
         | cant help but think that you guys yelling about it so loudly
         | from the rooftops is really really not helping your case lol
        
           | core-utility wrote:
           | I started on the Pro plan a week ago and was already
           | contemplating jumping to Max. When I hit a limit yesterday I
           | upgraded to Max and hit a limit again before seeing the news
           | of the changed usage limit.
           | 
           | For what it's worth, everything seems fixed today.
        
           | ghuntley wrote:
           | Exactly, swyx. Any flat rate pricing plan is effectively a
           | bet against the future. It's a grab for engineers that's
           | subsidised. Now, the problem is that GPUs are expensive; they
           | are a costly resource to use. Inferencing is expensive.
           | 
           | So what happens is inevitable:
           | 
           | - Wild promises of unlimited usage and consumers feeling
           | tricked when the impossible is impossible to deliver (Cursor
           | pricing changes).
           | 
           | - Quasi-unlimited usage with rate-caps, but the models get
           | quantised to all hell? [search Twitter for folks reporting
           | Claude feels dumber around/near outages].
           | 
           | - Engineers sharing tools and techniques on how to squeeze
           | pounds out of a flat-rate plan (original post), which results
           | in more power users doing that, which puts more pressure on
           | margins.
           | 
           | In goose meme format, "What are the margins?"
           | 
           | https://x.com/GeoffreyHuntley/status/1945636266009399414
        
             | kristianp wrote:
             | > Any flat rate pricing plan is effectively a bet against
             | the future
             | 
             | How quickly we forget Moore's law, or at least what has
             | replaced Moore's law.
        
           | extr wrote:
           | People have been saying this since it first came out. I don't
           | doubt there are occasional bugs/service disruptions but
           | personally I really doubt Anthropic is silently decreasing
           | the limits.
        
         | nidnogg wrote:
         | What do you mean by music stopping for Cursor? Almost every
         | single developer I run into is transitioning/transitioned to it
         | today. It's stinks like the new VS Code.
        
           | ghuntley wrote:
           | There's a predictable journey: people start with Cursor when
           | they are new to AI, and quickly move on to something more
           | powerful once they realise that the IDE [1] is holding em
           | back and that forking VSCode is [2][3] tech-debt.
           | 
           | [1] https://ghuntley.com/overton
           | 
           | [2] https://ghuntley.com/fracture
           | 
           | [3] https://ghuntley.com/amazon-kiro-source-code/
        
           | extr wrote:
           | Their pricing change recently has people reaching for
           | alternatives.
        
       | ryoppippi wrote:
       | I'm the author of ccusage. Thank you for sharing! Also please
       | refer our website. https://ccusage.com
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2025-07-19 23:01 UTC)