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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.It’s 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.

Other launches for this product

Same idea, different domain

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