Claude DevTools
Visualise and analyse Claude Code session executions
Quick Take: Claude DevTools
Claude DevTools is an essential companion for developers who use Claude Code regularly. The session visualization and token analytics provide insights that are impossible to get from the CLI alone. While it's niche by design, it excels at what it does.
Best For
- •Claude Code power users
- •Teams optimizing AI-assisted development costs
- •Developers debugging complex AI coding sessions
Install with Homebrew
brew install --cask claude-devtoolsWhat is Claude DevTools?
Claude DevTools is a companion application that helps developers visualize and analyze their Claude Code sessions. It provides a graphical interface to inspect the execution flow, tool calls, token usage, and conversation history of Claude Code CLI sessions. This makes it invaluable for understanding how the AI agent approaches complex coding tasks, debugging unexpected behavior, and optimizing your prompting strategy. Think of it as browser DevTools, but for your AI coding assistant.
Key Features
Session Visualization
View the complete execution timeline of Claude Code sessions, including each tool call, file read, edit, and bash command in a structured, navigable tree view.
Token Usage Analytics
Track token consumption across sessions with detailed breakdowns by message type, helping you understand cost implications and optimize your usage patterns.
Conversation Inspector
Drill into individual messages to see the full prompt, response, and tool results with syntax-highlighted code blocks.
Session Comparison
Compare multiple sessions side-by-side to analyze how different prompting strategies affect outcomes and efficiency.
Export & Sharing
Export session data as JSON or generate shareable reports for team retrospectives and knowledge sharing.
Who Should Use Claude DevTools?
1AI-Assisted Developer
A developer using Claude Code for complex refactoring wants to understand why the agent chose a particular approach. They open Claude DevTools to replay the session, seeing each tool call and decision point, then adjust their system prompt for better results next time.
2Engineering Manager
A team lead reviews Claude Code sessions across the team to identify patterns in token usage, establish best practices for prompting, and estimate AI-assisted development costs for budget planning.
3AI Researcher
A researcher studying AI coding agents uses Claude DevTools to analyze execution patterns, tool selection strategies, and error recovery behaviors across hundreds of sessions.
Install Claude DevTools on Mac
Claude DevTools is available as a Homebrew cask, making installation on macOS straightforward. It works alongside your existing Claude Code CLI installation.
Install Homebrew
If you don't have Homebrew, open your terminal and run: `/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"`
Install Claude DevTools
Run `brew install --cask claude-devtools` in your terminal. Homebrew will download and install the app automatically.
Launch & Connect
Open Claude DevTools from your Applications folder. It will automatically detect local Claude Code session logs and begin displaying them.
Pro Tips
- • Ensure Claude Code CLI is installed and has been used at least once to generate session data.
- • Session logs are stored locally — no cloud account required.
Configuration Tips
Set Custom Session Directory
If you store Claude Code sessions in a non-default location, configure the session directory path in Claude DevTools preferences.
Enable Real-Time Monitoring
Turn on live session monitoring to watch Claude Code executions in real-time as they happen, useful for debugging long-running tasks.
Alternatives to Claude DevTools
Claude DevTools fills a niche for Claude Code analysis. While there are few direct alternatives, related tools exist for AI agent observability.
LangSmith
LangSmith by LangChain provides general LLM observability but is not specific to Claude Code sessions. It requires a cloud account and is more suited for production monitoring.
Cursor
Cursor provides an integrated AI coding experience with built-in visibility into AI actions, but lacks the deep session analysis and comparison features of Claude DevTools.
Pricing
Claude DevTools is completely free and open-source. It runs locally on your machine with no cloud services required.
Pros
- ✓Deep visibility into Claude Code session execution
- ✓Local-only — no data leaves your machine
- ✓Token usage analytics help optimize costs
- ✓Session comparison for improving prompts
- ✓Open-source and free
Cons
- ✗Specific to Claude Code only
- ✗Requires existing Claude Code sessions to be useful
- ✗Community-maintained rather than officially supported
Community & Support
Claude DevTools is maintained on GitHub where users can file issues, contribute features, and share analysis techniques. The Claude Code community on Discord also discusses session analysis workflows.
Frequently Asked Questions about Claude DevTools
Our Verdict
Claude DevTools is an essential companion for developers who use Claude Code regularly. The session visualization and token analytics provide insights that are impossible to get from the CLI alone. While it's niche by design, it excels at what it does.
About the Author
Expert Tips for Claude DevTools
Use session comparison to A/B test different system prompts and see which produces fewer tool calls and faster completions.
The token breakdown view is invaluable for identifying verbose tool outputs that waste context window — trim those for better performance.