**Biological metaphors for Claude Code telemetry**
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Biological metaphors for Claude Code telemetry
A terminal-based monitor that maps Claude Code session activity to somatic health indicators. Seven vitals provide intuitive insight into session state — context usage, cost burn rate, cache efficiency, and activity patterns.
╭────────────────────────────── Session Metrics ───────────────────────────────╮ │ │ │ ♥ Msg Rate 3.6 MPM █░░░░░░░░░ [engaged] │ │ ≋ Turn Depth 2.4/min █░░░░░░░░░ [shallow] │ │ ◉ Context 106/200kT|53% (1558⟳) █████░░░░░ [elevated] │ │ 💚 Variance 100.0% ██████████ [chaotic] │ │ ○ Cache Eff 98.6% █████████░ [excellent] │ │ 🌡 Activity 96.8 idx ██░░░░░░░░ [hypothermic] │ │ ⚡ Cost Rate $28.25/hr ██████████ [high] │ │ │ │ Session: 1dcf193a-dd2b-4c6c-b8d3-78fc2df49ecb │ Duration: 3474m │ claude │ │ │ 6459 msgs │ 1710 tools │ │ │ ╰──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯
| Vital | Computational | What It Tracks |
|---|---|---|
| ♥ | Msg Rate | Messages per minute — session rhythm |
| ≋ | Turn Depth | Response depth and turn rhythm |
| ◉ | Context | Tokens until compaction (with live %) |
| 💚 | Variance | Message timing variance (HRV) |
| ○ | Cache Eff | Cache efficiency percentage |
| 🌡 | Activity | Weighted tool calls per minute |
| ⚡ | Cost Rate | API cost burn rate ($/hour) |
Run
--help-vitalspip install rich
git clone https://gitlab.com/Technomacus/claude-session-vitals.git cd claude-session-vitals
# Monitor current (most recent) session python vitals_monitor.py # Live monitoring with auto-refresh python vitals_monitor.py --live # Live with 2-second refresh python vitals_monitor.py --live --refresh 2 # Monitor specific session python vitals_monitor.py --session UUID # List available sessions python vitals_monitor.py --list # Show detailed help about all vitals python vitals_monitor.py --help-vitals
| Flag | Short | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| | most recent | Session UUID to monitor |
| | off | Enable live updating display |
| | 5.0 | Refresh rate in seconds |
| | 5 | Time window in minutes for rate calculations |
| computational | | |
| List available sessions | ||
| Detailed vital explanations | ||
| ~/.claude/projects | Custom Claude data directory |
Computational (default): Msg Rate, Turn Depth, Context, Variance, Activity, Cache Eff, Cost Rate
Biological: Pulse, Respiration, BP, HRV, Temp, SpO2, Glucose
python vitals_monitor.py --labels biological
Shows
current/limit kT | percent% (compactions⟳)Thresholds:
API cost extrapolated to hourly rate using Opus 4.5 pricing:
Percentage of input tokens served from cache vs fresh processing:
Measures timing variance between messages:
The monitor reads Claude Code's session transcripts from
~/.claude/projects/**/*.jsonlContext calculation uses the same formula as Claude Code's UI:
context = input_tokens + cache_creation_input_tokens + cache_read_input_tokens
claude-session-vitals/ ├── vitals_monitor.py # CLI entry point ├── vitals_config.toml # Configuration ├── vitals/ │ ├── __init__.py │ ├── reader.py # JSONL parsing │ ├── calculator.py # Vital calculations │ └── display.py # Rich terminal UI ├── README.md └── LICENSE
MIT License — see LICENSE for details.
Created through human-AI collaboration: