Skip to main content
NOV 2026 Latest guide updates. Latest: AI Design Patterns Local vs cloud AI Grill me Changelog →
T22 Intermediate Technical

Third-Party Tools

The essential complementary tools in the ecosystem

PDF editions Β· Guide v3.44.1 Β· Updated

Cost tracking

The tools in this card are adjacent layers: they observe, configure, or coordinate sessions. They do not replace the runtime that owns the agent loop. Use the Agent Harness Map to choose a runtime or orchestrator.

ccusage: reads local session usage records and estimates costs. Review its network behavior and pricing source; local input alone does not establish zero network access.

Terminal window
npx ccusage daily --last 1 # Latest day
ccusage daily # Daily report
ccusage blocks --live # Real-time monitoring (5h windows)
ccusage daily --breakdown # Breakdown by model

ccburn: Python alternative with burn-rate charts in the terminal. Useful for visualizing consumption relative to billing limits, within a Python ecosystem.

Terminal window
pip install ccburn
ccburn

Dashboard & monitoring

ccboard: TUI and web interface for monitoring sessions, costs, and statistics in real time.

Terminal window
cargo install ccboard
ccboard # TUI interface
ccboard --web # Web UI on localhost:3000

Social sharing & leaderboard

Straude: social dashboard to track and share consumption stats. Pushes daily metrics (cost, tokens, models) to a public leaderboard. Note: sends machine hostname and a device UUID to Straude servers. Use --dry-run before the first push.

Terminal window
npx straude@latest # Auth + sync in one command
straude push --dry-run # Preview without sending
straude status # Streak, global rank, totals

viberank: leaderboard covering more tools (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, OpenCode, and more). Sends aggregate totals only, no hostname or device UUID. Publishes its dataset via a free JSON API under CC BY 4.0.

Terminal window
npx viberank-cli # Submit ccusage data

Token optimization

RTK (Rust Token Killer): CLI proxy that filters outputs before they enter the context. Savings depend on the command and output; its estimates do not establish a corresponding reduction in the API bill. See card T20 for details.

Terminal window
brew install rtk
rtk init # Setup with automatic hook

Parallel orchestration

Conductor: macOS application for orchestrating multiple Claude Code instances in parallel via git worktrees. Integrated interface: diff viewer, CI/GitHub Actions, Linear, PR workflow.

Install from conductor.build (macOS only as of March 2026).

Typical flow: create one workspace per feature from a GitHub or Linear issue, let the agents run, use β€œNext Workspace” to handle only those waiting for input.

Recommendation table

ProfileRecommended tools
Solo developerccusage + claude-code-viewer
Small teamccusage + Conductor or multiclaude
Multi-agentsConductor or Toad
Python ecosystemccburn + Claude Chic

Known gaps

No visual editor for .claude/skills/ skill files. No unified dashboard combining config, sessions, costs, and MCP. A dedicated TUI exists for MCP servers (claude-code-config, pip install claude-code-config), but it stays limited to the ~/.claude.json scope: no settings.json, hooks, or commands.

These projects evolve independently from Claude Code. Check the repository, permissions, and targeted release before installation; the glossary distinguishes a runtime, orchestrator, protocol, and adjacent tool.

Disclosure: the author of this guide is a core contributor to RTK.

Enter your email to read the full card and get the complete PDF bundle.

All content is free and open-source. We just ask for your email.

PDF: