Running Claude Code without tracking costs is like leaving a taxi meter running in another room - you know it's adding up, but you have no idea how fast. Kerf-CLI is a new open-source command-line tool that fixes this: it logs your Claude Code token usage and costs to a local SQLite database, giving you a queryable history of what you've spent and when.
The tool, built by developer Dhanush Kumar Sivaji and available on GitHub, captures usage data generated by each Claude Code session. SQLite means no third-party service, no account required, and no data leaving your machine. You query the database directly or use the built-in analytics commands to see spending breakdowns by day, session, or task.
For developers running Claude Code regularly, the costs can compound quietly. Claude Code bills per token - each token is roughly three-quarters of a word - and a complex refactoring session or a deep debugging loop can burn through dollars without obvious feedback in the moment. Kerf-CLI provides that feedback loop before your next invoice does.
The project is early: minimal documentation, no community traction yet. But the problem it solves is legitimate, and the local-first SQLite approach keeps it simple and auditable. If you're trying to get real visibility into Claude Code spending, this is currently the only purpose-built CLI tool doing that job.