Cost Xray

cost-xray

See what your AI coding agent actually sends to the API — and what each part costs.

Most usage tools read local logs. That shows the total cost of a call or session, but it misses the request-time context assembled before the model is invoked: system prompts, tool schemas, MCP blocks, tool results, cache reads/writes, and previous thinking blocks.

cost-xray captures the actual local API traffic for Claude Code and Codex, then attributes tokens and dollars back to the sources inside the request. It shows not just how much a turn cost, but why it cost that much.

Requirements

• A supported coding agent — Claude Code or Codex
• macOS or Linux
• No API keys, no account, no config changes to your agent — capture is a transparent local hop

Install

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tigerless-labs/cost-xray/master/install.sh | bash

The installer asks which agent(s) to capture — Claude Code, Codex, or both — and prompts even under curl … | bash.

• Skip the prompt (e.g. CI): set COST_XRAY_AGENTS=claude|codex|all.
• Already cloned the repo? Run ./install.sh.

Then open a new terminal and run claude / codex exactly as before — capture is automatic, no flags and no base-URL change. It's forward-only: runs started in that new shell are captured, not past history. Open the live TUI from anywhere:

cx

Capture runs as a background service (auto-start on boot, self-healing, port-adaptive) and doesn't change what your agent does, its results, or its cost — pause anytime with cx stop. See docs/install.md for systemd details, GUI agents (Cursor base-URL setup), manual (no-systemd) mode, and troubleshooting.

Usage

cx                  # open the live cost-xray TUI (from any directory)
cx status           # services' state, live ports, sessions captured
cx stop             # stop monitoring — proxies down; agents run direct (uncaptured)
cx start            # resume monitoring
cx restart          # restart the proxies (after a config change)
cx install          # (re)install — authoritative: installs the chosen agents, removes the rest
cx uninstall        # remove services + shell wrappers (keeps captured data)

cx is the whole CLI and works from any directory. Change port/upstream by editing ~/.cost-xray/env, then cx restart. (./run.sh <cmd> from the repo still works too — cx just calls it for you from anywhere.)

In the TUI, drill from the top down: agent → project → session → category → MCP server → tool → per-turn call → the real output. Every cell carries its cache split (read / write / fresh / output $).

Supported Agents

Agent	Status	Capture
Claude Code	Supported	reverse proxy (base-URL override) — no certificate
Codex	Supported	forward proxy + scoped local CA (self-healing wrapper)