Wick MCP — Claude token tracker for Desktop & Code

A local MCP server that meters Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and the CLI the same way the Wick Chrome extension meters claude.ai. It accumulates tokens, computes cost (USD + INR) and burn rate, estimates messages left, and streams it all to a live dashboard at http://localhost:6789.

Everything runs locally. No API keys, no accounts, no data leaves your machine.

How Wick MCP works

Wick tracks usage in two ways, so you pick effort vs. coverage:

Client	How it tracks	Effort	Accuracy
Claude Code / CLI	Automatic. Wick reads the usage logs Claude Code already writes (~/.claude/projects/**/*.jsonl) and ingests the real per-turn token counts.	Zero — install once, nothing else	Exact (real API numbers, incl. cache)
Claude Desktop	Claude calls the wick_track tool after each response (Desktop doesn't expose parseable logs).	Paste a one-time custom-instruction	Approximate (model self-reports tokens)

Either way the numbers land in the same session, the same dashboard, and the same wick_status / wick_summary tools. The server auto-starts the Claude Code watcher on boot — so for coding sessions, it just works.

Install in 30 seconds

One command — installs from npm and patches your Claude Desktop config automatically:

npx usewick-mcp install

Then restart Claude Desktop.

<details> <summary>Or install from source</summary>

git clone https://github.com/pranshuguptaa/wick-mcp
cd wick-mcp
npm install
npm run install-desktop

</details>

Verify it's working

Open Claude Desktop and type:

"Call wick_status"

You should see your session stats in a boxed panel.

Add to Claude Code (one command)

claude mcp add wick node /absolute/path/to/wick-mcp/server.js

That's the whole setup. Because Wick auto-reads Claude Code's logs, you do not need any custom instructions — start (or continue) any coding session and the dashboard fills in with real usage. Prefer a config file? Add the same block to .claude/settings.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "wick": { "command": "node", "args": ["/absolute/path/to/wick-mcp/server.js"] }
  }
}

Make Claude Desktop track automatically

Claude Desktop has no readable usage log, so it reports via the wick_track tool. Paste this once into Settings → Custom Instructions:

After every response, silently call wick_track with:

• model: the model you used
• input_tokens: your input token count
• output_tokens: your output token count
• cache_read_tokens: cache read tokens if any

Do this without mentioning it.

(Claude Code users can skip this entirely — the log watcher covers it.)

Feed data manually (demos / other clients)

Any tool can push a turn over HTTP — handy for screenshots or wiring up a client Wick doesn't natively watch:

curl -X POST http://localhost:6789/api/track -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d '{"model":"claude-sonnet-4-6","input_tokens":1200,"output_tokens":400,"cache_read_tokens":0}'

Dashboard

Visit http://localhost:6789 while Wick is running (Claude Desktop launches the server automatically once installed). It shows:

• Messages left, session cost (₹ + $), and tokens as live stat cards
• Two arc gauges — session usage (amber) and daily-budget spend (purple)
• A live turn-history table (last 20 turns), updated over WebSocket

A ● LIVE amber dot shows when the dashboard is connected; it auto-reconnects every 3 seconds if the server restarts.

Tools available

Tool	What it does
wick_track	Track tokens for this response
wick_status	See current session stats
wick_reset	Start a fresh session
wick_export	Export data as CSV / JSON / Markdown
wick_summary	All-time usage totals

Ports & storage

• 6789 — HTTP dashboard + GET /api/status, GET /api/summary, POST /api/track
• 6790 — WebSocket live updates
• ~/.wick/history.json — persisted session history (drives wick_summary)
• CSV exports are written to ~/wick-export-<timestamp>.csv
• Reads (never writes) ~/.claude/projects/**/*.jsonl for the Code watcher

Environment overrides: WICK_HTTP_PORT, WICK_WS_PORT, WICK_NO_WATCH=1 (disable the Code watcher), WICK_CLAUDE_PROJECTS (custom log path).

How cost is computed

Prices are per million tokens (see models.js). Cache reads are billed at 10% of the input price, and Wick reports the savings versus paying full price. INR is USD × 84.

Model	Input $/M	Output $/M	Burn
Opus 4.8 / 4.7 / 4.6	15	75	5.0
Sonnet 4.6	3	15	2.0
Haiku 4.5	0.8	4	1.0

Messages-left estimate: Haiku ≈ 50 messages per 5-hour window, scaled down by the burn multiplier (Sonnet ≈ 25, Opus ≈ 10), minus messages already used.

Troubleshooting

• wick_status says the tool isn't found — fully quit and reopen Claude Desktop (MCP servers only load at startup).
• Dashboard won't load — the server only runs while a Claude client (or node server.js) is running. Check that ports 6789/6790 are free.
• Claude Code usage isn't showing — the watcher tracks turns that happen after Wick starts (it never back-fills history). Send one message and it appears. Confirm ~/.claude/projects/ exists and isn't overridden.
• Claude Desktop isn't tracking — add the custom-instructions snippet above; Desktop only calls wick_track when told to (Code needs nothing).