# Ccc Usage

> Usage & Cost deck: what your agent work costs, and what delegating to cheaper models saved you. A self-contained artifact — burn, savings, cost by app.

- Skill: `kevinzai/ccc-usage-2` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add kevinzai/ccc-usage-2`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/kevinzai/ccc-usage-2/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: AI & ML
- Author: KevinZai (https://skillmd.com/u/kevinzai)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/kevinzai/ccc-usage-2

---


# $ccc-usage — Usage & Cost

The money deck. CC Commander already logs your model routing to `~/.claude/commander/` — `savings.json` (what delegating to cheaper models saved vs an all-Opus baseline) and `mission-control/metrics.jsonl` (cost per app per day). This turns those into one page: cumulative savings, saved/day + cost/day trends, and a cost-by-app split.

> 🔒 Privacy: the numbers are read locally. Publishing the artifact uploads it (dollar figures, per-app split, dates) to your private claude.ai artifact URL — private to your account, but it leaves the machine. Always ask before publishing; never publish automatically.

> ⚠️ Honesty: these are **estimates** (rough per-model rates vs an all-Opus baseline, not your actual bill). Say so on the page. Never present them as billing.

## How it routes

On `$ccc-usage` with no argument, open a click-first picker:

```
AskUserQuestion:
  question: "Usage & Cost — how do you want it?"
  options:
    - 🛰️ Publish the deck — a living Usage & Cost artifact you can keep beside your chat
    - 🗣️ Plain-English status — narrate the headline numbers here, no jargon
```

`$ccc-usage open` (or `snapshot`) → publish the deck. `$ccc-usage status` → narrate.

**Zero-state:** if `savings.json` and `metrics.jsonl` are both missing/empty, say so plainly — "No cost data logged yet — run some agents (`$ccc-fleet`, `$ccc-spawn`) and this deck fills in." Never render an error for an empty deck.

### 🛰️ Publish the deck

**LIVING PATTERN:** always render to the SAME file path (`scratchpad/ccc-usage-live.html`), then republish that same path with the Artifact tool — same path means same URL, so it updates one living page instead of a trail of copies. **Do not change this path** — it is the identity of every bookmark anyone already has for this deck.

Since v7.4.0 this page is the **Usage tab of the Commander Console**, published on its own — one builder renders every deck and the console, so the numbers can't disagree:

```bash
mkdir -p scratchpad
if [ -f "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/build-console.mjs" ]; then
  node "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/build-console.mjs" \
    --surface artifact --tab usage --out scratchpad/ccc-usage-live.html
else
  node commander/cowork-plugin/scripts/build-console.mjs \
    --surface artifact --tab usage --out scratchpad/ccc-usage-live.html
fi
```

The page is unchanged apart from one added line pointing at `$ccc-console` (the inline all-in-one view).

**First publish this session** → ask before publishing ($ figures leave the machine for your private artifact URL). **Every later run of `$ccc-usage`** → invoking the skill again IS the refresh consent: republish the same file path to the same URL without re-asking. Publish `scratchpad/ccc-usage-live.html` with the Artifact tool (favicon 💰). End with the artifact title + the headline: "$X saved across N dispatches." To refresh later: run `$ccc-usage` again — same URL updates in place; viewers reload.

### 🗣️ Plain-English status

Run `readUsageModel({})` and read `model.totalSavedUsd` / `model.totalDispatches` / `model.costByApp`, then narrate caveman-simple: "You saved about $X by letting cheaper models do N jobs. Most of your spend is <app>." No jargon, no tables.

## The deck also links the others

The published artifact carries the shared **Commander decks** strip at the top — one click (copy) away from the Cockpit, Mission Control, and Safety decks. Users always know the other decks exist. It also carries one line pointing at `$ccc-console`, the inline console that shows all of these tabs at once (and has a prompt bar, which a published page cannot).

> **On Codex:** some panels may be empty on Codex today — Safety's failure hotspots, Mission Control's agent roster, and Usage's savings hero are fed from Claude-only hooks right now. A follow-up workstream wires the matching Codex telemetry.

---

> ⚙️ **Fable contract:** plan before build · verifier ≠ worker · prove before alarm · loops need gates · leave durable state — `rules/fable-method.md`

> (On Codex, present these options as a numbered list and ask the user to reply with a number — AskUserQuestion is Claude-only.)