I built a tool to un-dumb Claude Code's CLI output (Local Log Viewer)
Details
- External ID
- 47004712
- Source
- HN
- Company
- β
- Product
- I built a tool to un-dumb Claude Code's CLI output (Local Log Viewer)
- Website domain
- github.com
- Launched
- Feb. 13, 2026
- Cohort
- β
- Upvotes
- 69
- Upvotes percentile
- 0.8578167115902965
- Tags
- β
- Fetched at
- Sept. 7, 2026, 9:25 p.m.
- Updated at
- Sept. 7, 2026, 9:25 p.m.
Description
Hi HN,I built this because I got tired of the Claude Code CLI hiding details from me.Recent updates have replaced critical output with summaries like "Read 3 files" or "Edited 2 files". To see what actually happened, I was forced to use `--verbose`, which floods the terminal with unreadable JSON and system prompts.I wanted a middle ground: *Full observability without the noise.*`claude-devtools` is a local Electron app that tails the session logs in `~/.claude/` to reconstruct the execution trace in real-time.*Unlike wrappers, it solves the visibility gap in your native terminal workflow:* 1. *Real Diffs:* It shows inline diffs (red/green) the moment files are edited, instead of just a checkmark. 2. *Context Forensics:* It breaks down token usage by File vs Tool Output vs Thinking (so you know exactly why your context window is full). 3. *Agent Trees:* It visualizes sub-agent execution paths which are usually interleaved and confusing in the CLI.Itβs 100% local, and works with the logs already on your machine. No API keys required.Repo: https://github.com/matt1398/claude-devtools (Screenshots and diff viewer demo are in the README)
Enrichment
- Theme
- utilities for Claude and Claude Code
- Vertical
- Horizontal
- Function
- Dev tools
- Audience
- Developer
- AI stance
- Not AI
- Project type
- Hobby / open-source project
- Normalized one-liner
- cli output viewer for claude code
- Manually corrected
- False
Could you build this?
Yes It is a local terminal or web log viewer that parses and formats Claude Code's raw JSON log files into a readable visual interface.
Discussion
20 comments analyzed.
Competitors mentioned: Braintrust Claude plugin, Open weight models from China, Claude-trace viewer, Codex
Concerns raised: Hidden information and lack of transparency in Claude Code, Forced adoption of Claude Code for subscription users, Confusing status messages and cute phrases reduce clarity, --verbose flag floods terminal making real-time debugging difficult, Agent performance degrades with longer sessions and technical debt
Feature requests: Infinite scroll in CLI interface, Setting to disable playful status messages, Better visibility into tool outputs and system prompts, Post-mortem session analysis UI for debugging
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one — 490 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #97 of 491 (itself plus its competitors, highest first — normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 101 days after the earliest competitor.
- Executable Markdown files with Unix pipes · hn · 2026-01-09 · 126 upvotes · similarity 0.58
- Nori CLI, a better interface for Claude Code (no flicker) · hn · 2026-01-14 · 37 upvotes · similarity 0.58
- Claudescope · ph · 2026-09-17 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.57
- Pull Claude Code transcripts into your Codex session, and vice versa · hn · 2026-07-03 · 7 upvotes · similarity 0.54
- Claudebin · hn · 2026-02-19 · 30 upvotes · similarity 0.54
- CodeBurn · hn · 2026-04-13 · 112 upvotes · similarity 0.53
- Claude Code usage tracking by LangWatch · ph · 2026-07-30 · 351 upvotes · similarity 0.53
- Claude-replay · hn · 2026-03-06 · 105 upvotes · similarity 0.53
Other launches for this product
- No other launches for this product.
Same idea, different domain
Nobody's really built a dev tools tool for Sales yet.