The complete guide to ccam, the Claude Code Agent Monitor command-line interface — the full dashboard feature surface, in your terminal.
- Overview
- Installation & Linking
- Server Discovery
- Commands
- Safety Model
- Output & Scripting
- Troubleshooting
ccam (bin/ccam.js) is a dependency-free Node.js CLI over the local dashboard API. Everything the web app can do — monitoring, browsing, analytics, alerting, pricing, imports, administration — is available as a terminal command. It ships with the repository, requires no additional install step beyond the normal project setup, and talks only to your local dashboard server.
ccam <command> [options]
flowchart LR
U["Terminal\nccam <command>"] --> CLI["bin/ccam.js\n(zero dependencies)"]
CLI -->|"env override"| ENV["CLAUDE_DASHBOARD_PORT /\nDASHBOARD_PORT"]
CLI -->|"else discovery"| REG["~/.claude/.agent-dashboard.json\n(PID-liveness-checked)"]
CLI -->|"else fallback"| DEF["http://127.0.0.1:4820"]
ENV --> API["Dashboard REST API"]
REG --> API
DEF --> API
API --> OUT["Box-drawn tables / status icons / bar charts /\nplain text when piped"]
npm run setup ends with a fail-soft npm link (the link-cli script), so after a normal local setup ccam is on your PATH from any directory:
git clone https://github.com/hoangsonww/Claude-Code-Agent-Monitor.git
cd Claude-Code-Agent-Monitor
npm run setup # installs deps AND links ccam globally
ccam helpIf linking needed elevated permissions in your environment, setup still succeeds and prints a hint — run npm link once from the repo root yourself, or invoke the CLI directly with node bin/ccam.js <command>.
The CLI finds your running dashboard the same way the Claude Code hook handler does:
| Priority | Source | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | CLAUDE_DASHBOARD_PORT / DASHBOARD_PORT env vars |
Explicit override wins |
| 2 | ~/.claude/.agent-dashboard.json |
Written by every running dashboard ({port, pid, startedAt} entries); stale entries are skipped via a PID liveness check |
| 3 | http://127.0.0.1:4820 |
Default port fallback |
If no server answers, every API-backed command exits 1 with the ○ Dashboard server is NOT running indicator and the ways to start one (see Server Lifecycle).
The CLI talks to the local dashboard server — API-backed commands require it to be running. When it isn't, every such command prints a consistent indicator and exits 1:
○ Dashboard server is NOT running (tried http://127.0.0.1:4820)
This command needs the server. Start it with one of:
ccam start # production server in the background
npm run dev # dev mode (hot reload), foreground
npm start # production mode, foreground
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
ccam status |
At-a-glance up/down indicator (● running / ○ not running); exits 1 when down |
ccam start [--port N] |
Start the production server in the background (detached; survives closing the terminal), wait up to 30 s for /api/health, print the URL + PID and the kill <pid> stop command. Logs append to data/ccam-server.log. No-ops with a pointer when a server is already up. Requires a built client (npm run build once) |
ccam repl (aliases shell, i) |
Open the interactive shell — see Interactive REPL |
ccam repl (also ccam shell / ccam i) opens a persistent prompt where you type commands without the ccam prefix — ideal for a monitoring session where you run sessions, drill into a session <id>, check kanban, then cost, without re-typing ccam each time. On entry it prints a CCAM word-mark welcome banner with the version and live server status.
_____ _____ _____ _____
/\ \ /\ \ /\ \ /\ \
/::\ \ /::\ \ /::\ \ /::\____\
… (CCAM word-mark) …
Claude Code Agent Monitor · interactive shell · v1.3.0 ● 127.0.0.1:4820
Type commands without the 'ccam' prefix — e.g. sessions --limit 5
help all commands · help <cmd> details · Tab completes · ↑/↓ history · exit to quit
● ccam 127.0.0.1:4820 › sessions --limit 3
… table …
○ ccam offline › stats # prompt dot turns red when the server is down
-
Live status prompt — a green
●+ resolved host when the server is up, a red○+offlinewhen it isn't (probed with a short, cached health check). -
Tab completion for commands, subcommands (
alerts ack,pricing set, …), and flags (--limit,--status, …). -
Arrow-key history, persisted across sessions to
data/.ccam_repl_history. -
Full command surface — every command in this reference works inside the shell exactly as on the one-shot CLI (they are dispatched as child
ccamprocesses). -
Shell built-ins:
Built-in Description help/?Shell built-ins plus the full grouped command catalog help <command>Details (invocation + description) for one command commandsCompact list of every command, grouped by category watch [seconds] <command …>Re-run a command on a timer (default 2 s), clearing the screen each tick, until Ctrl+C— a terminal live view (e.g.watch 5 kanban)historyRecent command history bannerReprint the welcome banner clear/clsClear the screen exit/quit/qLeave the shell (also Ctrl+D) -
Robust isolation — each entered line runs as a short-lived child
ccamprocess, so a non-zero exit, an offline refusal, or a blockingtail/watch(both stop onCtrl+C) can never take the shell down with it. Offline reads and server-only refusals behave exactly as they do on the one-shot CLI. -
Works with piped input too (
printf 'stats\nexit\n' | ccam repl) for scripting, running each line in order and exiting at EOF.
When the server is down, read-only commands automatically fall back to reading data/dashboard.db directly (SQLite; a safe second reader). Every offline run starts with a banner:
⚠ Offline mode — server not running; reading data/dashboard.db directly.
Data is as of the last capture — live capture and full features need the server: ccam start
| Works offline | Server required (with the printed reason) |
|---|---|
sessions, session <id>*, agents, events, kanban, stats, pricing (list), alerts (list), rules, export, doctor |
tail (live capture), analytics / workflows / runs / cost (server-side aggregation & pricing math), alerts ack, webhooks (all), pricing set/delete/reset, import, cleanup, clear-data, reinstall-hooks, update-check (server-side git fetch), info, health |
* session <id> shows everything except the cost line, which requires the server's pricing engine. Offline export payloads carry "exported_offline": true. Offline data is as of the last capture — with no server running, no hooks are being ingested either.
Status correctness offline: while the server is down its dead-session liveness reap isn't running, so the DB can hold active/waiting rows for sessions that have since exited. Offline output therefore runs the same process-liveness probe the server's watchdog uses and corrects the displayed status of any active session whose cwd has no running claude process (footnote: ※ N session(s) displayed as completed by the process-liveness probe) — the database itself is never modified. Where the probe can't answer (Windows, containers), a ※ Statuses are as stored… caveat is printed instead whenever active rows are shown.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
ccam health |
One-line reachability check with the resolved URL and server timestamp |
ccam stats |
Totals (sessions, agents, events), today's event count, WS connections, and the sessions-by-status distribution |
ccam kanban |
The Kanban board as text: sessions grouped into Active / Waiting / Completed / Error / Abandoned and agents into Working / Waiting / Completed / Error, with current tools |
ccam tail [--session <id>] |
Live event feed — polls /api/events every 2 s and prints only new rows (the Activity Feed without a WebSocket client). Ctrl+C stops |
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
ccam sessions [--status s] [--q text] [--limit n] |
Server-filtered session table: short ID, status, name, agent count, duration, model, relative last-update |
ccam session <id> |
Deep dive: metadata card, per-session cost, a parent→child agent tree (├─/└─) with live tools, and the most recent events |
ccam agents [--status s] [--session id] [--limit n] |
Agent table with type, current tool, and duration |
ccam events [--session id] [--limit n] |
Newest-first event log with type, tool, and summary |
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
ccam analytics |
Token totals (input / output / cache read / cache write), top tools by call count, agent-type distribution, average events per session |
ccam workflows [--session id] |
Workflow-intelligence stats (sessions analyzed, subagents, success rate, depth, compactions) and the top detected patterns; --session drills into one session |
ccam runs [--session id] |
Dynamic Workflow-tool runs: status, agent count, tokens, tool calls, duration |
ccam cost |
Total estimated cost with a per-model bar-chart breakdown. Models with usage but no matching pricing rule (priced at $0 and excluded from the total) are listed in a warning with their token volume and the ccam pricing set invocation that fixes it |
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
ccam alerts [--unacked] [--limit n] |
Fired-alert feed with state, trigger time, rule, and message |
ccam alerts ack <id> |
Acknowledge one alert |
ccam alerts ack-all |
Acknowledge every unacknowledged alert |
ccam rules |
Alert rules with enabled state, type, and cooldown |
ccam webhooks |
Webhook targets (URLs masked server-side, secrets never returned) |
ccam webhooks test <id> |
Fire a synthetic test alert at a target and report the delivery result; exits non-zero on failure |
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
ccam pricing |
All model pricing rules with per-mtok rates, including Fast In/Out and Intro In/Out columns for fast-mode premiums and time-limited promo pricing |
ccam pricing set <pattern> --input N --output N [--cache-read N] [--cache-write N] [--cache-write-1h N] [--name label] |
Create or update a rule (SQL LIKE pattern, e.g. claude-opus-4-6%) |
ccam pricing set <pattern> … [--fast-input N] [--fast-output N] |
Also set fast-mode premium rates on the rule |
ccam pricing set <pattern> … [--intro-input N] [--intro-output N] [--intro-cache-read N] [--intro-cache-write N] [--intro-cache-write-1h N] --intro-until YYYY-MM-DD |
Set a time-limited introductory (promo) rate block. The intro fields are only sent when an --intro-* flag is present, so a plain rate edit never clobbers an existing promo; a bare --intro-until (no date) clears it |
ccam pricing delete <pattern> |
Delete a rule |
ccam pricing reset |
Restore the default rate table |
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
ccam import rescan |
Re-scan the default ~/.claude/projects tree (idempotent; prints imported / backfilled / skipped / errors) |
ccam import path <dir> |
Recursively import every .jsonl under an absolute directory (~ is expanded server-side) |
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
ccam doctor |
Diagnosis: API reachability, hook installation status + path, database path/size/row counts, server uptime and Node version, WS connections |
ccam info |
The raw /api/settings/info JSON (pipe it to jq) |
ccam export [file.json] |
Full JSON data export (sessions, agents, events, tokens, pricing) — defaults to a dated filename |
ccam cleanup --hours N --days M |
Abandon active sessions idle for N hours and/or purge completed sessions older than M days |
ccam reinstall-hooks |
Rewrite the Claude Code hook entries in ~/.claude/settings.json |
ccam update-check |
Ask the server whether the dashboard checkout is behind the canonical remote (branch- and fork-aware). Prints the behind-by count, a situation note for fork/feature-branch checkouts, and the copy-paste update command — the dashboard never restarts itself. Also refreshes the update banner in any open dashboard tab (same update_status broadcast) |
ccam clear-data --yes |
Delete all data (schema preserved). Refuses to run without --yes |
ccam open |
Open the dashboard in your default browser (open / xdg-open / start) |
ccam version |
Print the ccam version (also --version / -v) |
ccam help |
Full command reference (also shown with no arguments) |
- Read commands are always safe — they only issue
GETs. - Mutating commands (
alerts ack,pricing set/delete/reset,import,cleanup,reinstall-hooks) map 1:1 to explicit dashboard actions and run immediately, exactly like clicking the equivalent button. - The one destructive command,
clear-data, refuses to run without--yesand prints exactly what it would delete. There is no bulk-destructive behavior anywhere else.
The CLI renders a full terminal UI while staying 100% script-friendly:
- Box-drawn tables with bold headers, right-aligned numeric columns, and terminal-width fitting — over-wide columns are clipped with an ellipsis so the frame never wraps mid-row.
- Status icons + colors everywhere a status appears:
● active(green),◐ working(green),○ waiting(yellow),✔ completed(dim),✖ error(red),◦ abandoned(dim). - Inline bar charts for the sessions-by-status distribution (
stats), top tools and agent types (analytics), and the per-model cost breakdown (cost). - Real tree rendering (
├─/└─with continuation rails) for the agent hierarchy insession <id>, and status lanes with branch rows inkanban. - Session tables include a relative Updated column (
4m ago) so freshness is visible at a glance; event types are color-coded consistently acrossevents,tail, andsession <id>. ccam startanimates a spinner on a TTY (dot-trail when piped).
Color rules (informal CLI conventions):
| Condition | Effect |
|---|---|
| stdout is a TTY | Colors on |
| Output piped / redirected | Colors off automatically — ccam sessions | grep error and ccam info | jq .db.counts see plain text |
NO_COLOR=1 env or --no-color anywhere on the command line |
Colors off |
FORCE_COLOR=1 or CCAM_COLOR=1 |
Colors on even when piped (useful under watch/CI) |
ccam version(also--version/-v) prints the package version.- Exit codes:
0success,1for unreachable server, API errors, usage errors, unknown commands, or a failedwebhooks test— safe to use in scripts and CI.
| Symptom | Fix |
|---|---|
○ Dashboard server is NOT running |
Start it: ccam start (background), npm run dev, or npm start. If it runs on a custom port, set DASHBOARD_PORT or rely on the discovery file |
ccam: command not found |
Run npm link from the repo root (setup's fail-soft link may have skipped on permissions), or use node bin/ccam.js … |
| Wrong server answers (multiple dashboards) | Set CLAUDE_DASHBOARD_PORT explicitly — env overrides always beat discovery |
tail shows nothing |
Events only flow while hooks are installed and a Claude Code session is active — check ccam doctor |