cost-metering

<quick_start> Check current spend:

cat ~/.claude/daily-cost.json 2>/dev/null || echo "No tracking yet"

Initialize tracking:

mkdir -p ~/.claude
echo '{"date":"'$(date +%Y-%m-%d)'","spent":0,"budget_monthly":100,"budget_daily":5}' > ~/.claude/daily-cost.json

</quick_start>

<success_criteria>

• Daily cost tracking initialized at ~/.claude/daily-cost.json
• Budget alerts fire at 50% (info), 80% (warn), and 95% (block) thresholds
• Model routing applied: Haiku for search/classify, Sonnet for code, DeepSeek for bulk
• Cost-per-feature metric available via portfolio-artifact integration
• Monthly spend stays within configured budget ($100/mo default) </success_criteria>

Model Rates (Current)

v1.1.0 pricing changes: Opus $15/$75 → $5/$25 (70% cheaper with Opus 4.6). Haiku $0.25/$1.25 → $1/$5 (Haiku 3 → 4.5, 4x more expensive). Sonnet $3/$15 unchanged (model upgraded 4.5 → 4.6).

Budget Configuration

~/.claude/daily-cost.json

{
  "date": "2026-02-07",
  "spent": 2.40,
  "budget_monthly": 100,
  "budget_daily": 5,
  "alerts": {
    "info": 0.5,
    "warn": 0.8,
    "block": 0.95
  }
}

Alert Thresholds

Cost Optimization Strategies

1. Model Routing (biggest impact)

Rule: If the task doesn't generate code, use Haiku. If it doesn't need Claude, use DeepSeek.

2. Context Management

• Keep SKILL.md files under 200 lines (progressive disclosure)
• Load reference files only when needed
• Use Explore agent with haiku model for codebase search
• Avoid reading entire files — use Grep to find specific lines

3. Task Batching

• Group related searches into one Explore agent call
• Use parallel subagents (haiku) instead of serial sonnet calls
• Combine file reads when possible

Tracking Commands

Daily Spend Check

cat ~/.claude/daily-cost.json | jq '{date, spent, remaining: (.budget_daily - .spent), pct: ((.spent / .budget_monthly) * 100 | floor)}'

Weekly Report

# Aggregate daily logs
cat ~/.claude/cost-log.jsonl | jq -s 'group_by(.phase) | map({phase: .[0].phase, total: (map(.est_cost) | add), count: length})'

Monthly Summary

cat ~/.claude/cost-log.jsonl | jq -s '{
  total: (map(.est_cost) | add),
  by_model: (group_by(.model) | map({model: .[0].model, cost: (map(.est_cost) | add)})),
  by_phase: (group_by(.phase) | map({phase: .[0].phase, cost: (map(.est_cost) | add)}))
}'

Integration Points

Storage

~/.claude/
├── daily-cost.json          # Current day's budget + spend
├── cost-log.jsonl           # Append-only operation log
└── portfolio/
    └── daily-metrics.jsonl  # Includes cost-per-feature

Deep dive: See reference/cost-tracking-guide.md, reference/budget-templates.md

Emit Outcome Sidecar

As the final step, write to ~/.claude/skill-analytics/last-outcome-cost-metering.json:

{"ts":"[UTC ISO8601]","skill":"cost-metering","version":"1.1.0","variant":"default",
 "status":"[success|partial|error]","runtime_ms":[estimated ms from start],
 "metrics":{"sessions_tracked":[n],"total_cost_usd":[n],"budget_alerts":[n]},
 "error":null,"session_id":"[YYYY-MM-DD]"}

Use status "partial" if some stages failed but results were produced. Use "error" only if no output was generated.