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Gemini Executive Synthesis

CodeBurn – A tool to analyze Claude Code token usage by task

Technical Positioning
A specialized tool for Claude Code users to gain granular visibility into token consumption at the task level, addressing the lack of detailed cost breakdown beyond model and daily usage, and revealing inefficiencies in agent interaction patterns.
SaaS Insight & Market Implications
CodeBurn addresses a critical, emerging pain point for businesses adopting AI coding agents: cost visibility and optimization. The lack of granular token usage breakdown from providers like Claude Code leads to significant, unmanaged expenses. CodeBurn's ability to classify usage by task, rather than just model or day, provides actionable insights into where costs are incurred, highlighting inefficiencies like high spend on non-tool-using conversation turns. This tool is essential for organizations seeking to control and optimize their AI development budgets. It underscores a broader market need for robust cost management and observability solutions as AI agent usage scales, positioning itself as a necessary utility for responsible AI expenditure.
Proprietary Technical Taxonomy
Claude Code token usage JSONL session transcripts tool usage patterns LLM calls conversation turns coding (edits/writes) interactive terminal UI

Raw Developer Origin & Technical Request

Source Icon Hacker News Apr 17, 2026
Show HN: CodeBurn – Analyze Claude Code token usage by task

Built this after realizing I was spending ~$1400/week on Claude Code with almost no visibility into what was actually consuming tokens.Tools like ccusage give a cost breakdown per model and per day, but I wanted to understand usage at the task level.CodeBurn reads the JSONL session transcripts that Claude Code stores locally (~/.claude/projects/) and classifies each turn into 13 categories based on tool usage patterns (no LLM calls involved).One surprising result: about 56% of my spend was on conversation turns with no tool usage. Actual coding (edits/writes) was only ~21%.The interface is an interactive terminal UI built with Ink (React for terminals), with gradient bar charts, responsive panels, and keyboard navigation. There’s also a SwiftBar menu bar integration for macOS.Happy to hear feedback or ideas.

Developer Debate & Comments

jimbokun • Apr 17, 2026
So how much did the tokens to build this cost?
Sim-In-Silico • Apr 17, 2026
[dead]
Normal_gaussian • Apr 17, 2026
This is cool.I do find the activities a little suspect - it has 1 turn of planning for me in the last 30 days. I have claude write plans first before every coding session, often using one agent session to plan and then output a plan file, and then others to execute on it. I also have several repos dedicated to 'planning' in the sense of what should I do next based on what emails/tickets/bugs etc. I have. In other words - I do all kinds of planning!
KaiShips • Apr 16, 2026
[flagged]
Isolated_Routes • Apr 16, 2026
I like this a lot An interesting next iteration would be to add a functionality that evaluates a user's work for inefficiencies and suggests where they can improve cut cost. Might be outside the scope of your project, but it could be interesting.
ieie3366 • Apr 16, 2026
"Built this after realizing I was spending ~$1400/week on Claude Code with almost no visibility into what was actually consuming tokens."holy slop. the $200/month plan has NEVER hit rate limits for me and I often run 5+ tabs of concurrent agents in a large 300k LoC codebase
coatol5 • Apr 16, 2026
Made something similar a while back: https://www.clauderank.com/ Completely open source
hmokiguess • Apr 16, 2026
Very cool! I saw a similar product recently that I liked but I much prefer your approach to theirs[1][1] https://github.com/cordwainersmith/Claudoscope
halostatue • Apr 16, 2026
Doesn't seem to work with Cursor Agent (which may store its data in ~/.cursor).
giancarlostoro • Apr 16, 2026
> The interface is an interactive terminal UI built with Ink (React for terminals)Just like Claude Code btw.I'm working on a custom harness because I don't like or trust some of the ones out there, so I'm going to build one purely for myself and my own needs to see just how they work, and figure out some of what you've learned by looking at how Claude works, so I might add your project to my list of tooling to look at.

Frequently Asked Questions

Market intelligence mapped to CodeBurn – A tool to analyze Claude Code token usage by task.

How is CodeBurn – A tool to analyze Claude Code token usage by task positioned in the market?
Based on our AI analysis of the original developer request, its primary technical positioning is: A specialized tool for Claude Code users to gain granular visibility into token consumption at the task level, addressing the lack of detailed cost breakdown beyond model and daily usage, and revealing inefficiencies in agent interaction patterns.
How is the developer community reacting to CodeBurn – A tool to analyze Claude Code token usage by task?
Yes, we have tracked 17 direct responses and active debates regarding this specific topic originating from Hacker News.
What are the foundational technologies related to CodeBurn – A tool to analyze Claude Code token usage by task?
Our proprietary extraction maps CodeBurn – A tool to analyze Claude Code token usage by task to adjacent architectural concepts including Claude Code, token usage, JSONL session transcripts, tool usage patterns.
What open-source repositories focus on CodeBurn – A tool to analyze Claude Code token usage by task?
Yes, open-source adoption is correlated. An active project titled 'AgentSeal/codeburn' explores similar frameworks: See where your AI coding tokens go. Interactive TUI dashboard for Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor cost observability.

Engagement Signals

78
Upvotes
17
Comments

Cross-Market Term Frequency

Quantifies the cross-market adoption of foundational terms like Claude Code and macOS by tracking occurrence frequency across active SaaS architectures and enterprise developer debates.