Claude-Code-Monitor/INSTALL.md

Installation

A step-by-step guide to get the Claude Code Agent Monitor up and running on your machine, with optional sections for importing history and running in a container.

Fastest path — install it as a Claude Code plugin

If all you want is a working dashboard, skip every step below. From Claude Code:

/plugin marketplace add Smartgift-AI/Claude-Code-Monitor
/plugin install ccam@claude-code-agent-monitor-plugins

The next session start installs the hooks, boots the server, puts the ccam CLI on PATH and connects the MCP tools — no clone, no npm run setup, no npm run install-hooks, no manual npm start. Run /ccam-doctor to check the result and /ccam-open to build the UI and get the URL.

Requires Node >= 22.5 (a plugin install has no native better-sqlite3, so the server stores data through node:sqlite). Full behavior, including the uninstall cleanup, is in docs/PLUGINS.md.

Follow the steps below instead when you want a checkout — to develop the dashboard, run it from source, or stay on Node 20.

Requirements

Requirement	Version	Notes
Node.js	20+ (22+ recommended)	Required for server and client
npm	9+	Comes with Node.js
Claude Code	2.x+	Required for hook integration
Python	3.6+	Optional — statusline utility only
Git	Any	For cloning the repository

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Step 1 — Clone the repository

git clone https://git.smartgift.io.vn/Smartgift-AI/Claude-Code-Monitor.git
cd Claude-Code-Agent-Monitor

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Step 2 — Install dependencies

npm run setup

This installs all server and client dependencies, plus the VS Code extension, and links the ccam CLI.

A plain root install already covers server and client — a postinstall hook installs the client dependencies automatically, so this alone is enough to build and run the dashboard:

npm install

npm run setup additionally installs the VS Code extension and links the ccam CLI. (If you install with --ignore-scripts, the postinstall hook is skipped — run cd client && npm install manually in that case.)

Or via Makefile (also installs MCP dependencies):

make setup

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Step 3 — Start the dashboard

npm run dev

This starts two processes concurrently:

Process	URL	Description
Express server	http://localhost:4820	API, WebSocket, SQLite
Vite dev server	http://localhost:5173	React frontend with HMR

Open http://localhost:5173 in your browser.

Tip

When you run the dashboard directly on the host with npm run dev or npm start, the server automatically writes the Claude Code hook configuration to ~/.claude/settings.json. If you run the dashboard in Docker or Podman, install hooks from the host with npm run install-hooks after the container is up.

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Step 4 — Start a Claude Code session

Start a new Claude Code session from any directory after the dashboard server is running. The hooks will fire automatically and your sessions, agents, and events will appear in real-time.

# In a separate terminal, from any project directory:
claude

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Verification

After starting a Claude Code session, you should see:

• Sessions page — your session listed with status Waiting (a fresh CLI sitting at the prompt) or Active (mid-turn)
• Agent Board — a Main Agent card in the Waiting column until you type your first message; it flips to Working on UserPromptSubmit / PreToolUse and back to Waiting after each Stop
• Activity Feed — events streaming in as Claude Code uses tools
• Dashboard — stats updating in real-time
• Settings page — model pricing rules, hook configuration status, data export and cleanup tools

If nothing appears after 30 seconds, see SETUP.md.

PWA install (optional)

The dashboard is a Progressive Web App. After opening it in a supported browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox), you can install it to your dock / home screen:

1. Look for the install icon (⊕) in the browser address bar, or open the browser menu → "Install app"
2. Once installed, the dashboard launches in its own window with no browser chrome
3. Offline support: previously visited pages and assets are served from the Service Worker cache when the network is unavailable

The landing page and wiki are also installable PWAs with their own manifests and service workers — visit each in a browser to install independently.

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Step 5 — (Optional) Import existing Claude Code history

The server automatically imports every session under ~/.claude/projects/ on startup, so if you've used Claude Code on this machine before, your historical sessions, agents, events, token counts, and cost totals should already be visible in the Sessions list.

To bring in history from another machine, a backup, or a .tar.gz archive a teammate sent you, use Settings → Import History in the UI. It supports three modes:

flowchart LR
    UI["Settings →<br/>Import History"] --> M1["Rescan default folder<br/>~/.claude/projects"]
    UI --> M2["Scan a folder<br/>any absolute path"]
    UI --> M3["Upload files<br/>.jsonl / .zip / .tar.gz / .gz"]
    M1 --> P["Same parser as live<br/>hook ingestion"]
    M2 --> P
    M3 --> P
    P --> DB[("SQLite<br/>sessions + tokens + cost")]

    style UI fill:#a855f7,stroke:#c084fc,color:#fff
    style P fill:#f59e0b,stroke:#fbbf24,color:#000
    style DB fill:#10b981,stroke:#34d399,color:#fff

Re-imports are idempotent: sessions are deduplicated by UUID and compaction baselines preserve pre-compaction token totals, so running the importer twice never double-counts tokens or cost.

Verify it worked by opening the Analytics page and checking that per-model token totals and estimated cost look correct. Full walkthrough with per-OS archive commands in SETUP.md → Importing existing Claude Code history.

Optional: tune import limits

If you regularly import very large archives, these environment variables can be raised (the defaults are generous for typical use):

Variable	Default	Purpose
CCAM_IMPORT_MAX_BYTES	1 GB	Maximum size per uploaded file
CCAM_IMPORT_MAX_FILES	2000	Maximum files per upload request
CCAM_IMPORT_MAX_EXTRACT_BYTES	4 GB	Ceiling on uncompressed bytes per archive (zip-bomb guard)

Set them before npm run dev or npm start:

CCAM_IMPORT_MAX_EXTRACT_BYTES=17179869184 npm start   # allow 16 GB extraction

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Production mode

To run as a single process serving the built client:

npm run build   # Build the React client
npm start       # Start Express serving client/dist on port 4820

Open http://localhost:4820 in your browser.

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Optional: Local MCP server

If you want AI agents to call dashboard functionality through MCP tools, run the local MCP server in mcp/:

npm run mcp:install
npm run mcp:build
npm run mcp:start              # stdio (for MCP host integration)
npm run mcp:start:http         # HTTP + SSE server on port 8819
npm run mcp:start:repl         # interactive CLI with tab completion

The MCP server supports three transport modes:

graph LR
    HOST["MCP Host<br/>(Claude Code / Desktop)"] -->|"stdin/stdout"| STDIO["stdio mode<br/>mcp:start"]
    RC["Remote Client"] -->|"POST /mcp<br/>GET /sse"| HTTP["HTTP mode<br/>mcp:start:http<br/>:8819"]
    OP["Operator"] -->|"interactive CLI"| REPL["REPL mode<br/>mcp:start:repl"]

    STDIO --> API["Dashboard API<br/>http://127.0.0.1:4820/api/*"]
    HTTP --> API
    REPL --> API

    style STDIO fill:#6366f1,stroke:#818cf8,color:#fff
    style HTTP fill:#f59e0b,stroke:#fbbf24,color:#000
    style REPL fill:#a855f7,stroke:#c084fc,color:#fff

See mcp/README.md for host config, tool catalog, and safety flags.

To build the MCP server as a container image instead:

npm run mcp:docker:build
# or
npm run mcp:podman:build

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Optional: Agent extension packs

This repository includes extension packs for both Claude Code and Codex.

• Claude Code loads project extensions from:
  • CLAUDE.md
  • .claude/rules/
  • .claude/skills/
  • .claude/agents/
• Codex project packs live under .codex/:
  • AGENTS.md
  • .codex/rules/
  • .codex/agents/
  • .codex/skills/

See .codex/README.md for Codex extension details.

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Optional: VS Code extension

The Claude Code Agent Monitor is also available as a dedicated VS Code extension for seamless, integrated monitoring.

Features

• Real-time Sidebar: Monitor agent status, health, and usage stats in the Activity Bar.
• Pulse Status Bar: High-level session and agent counts in the bottom status bar.
• Direct Navigation: Jump to specific dashboard pages or recent sessions.
• Embedded Dashboard: Full dashboard interface within a native VS Code tab.

Installation

1. Open the vscode-extension folder in VS Code.
2. Install via the Marketplace or package it manually:

   cd vscode-extension
   npm install
   # Generate .vsix for local install
   npm run package
   

3. After installation, ensure the main dashboard server is running (npm run dev).
4. Look for the Radar icon in your VS Code Activity Bar.

For advanced configuration, refer to the .vscode and vscode-extension directories.

Tip

Extension on VS Code Marketplace: Claude Code Agent Monitor

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Container mode (Docker / Podman)

The repository includes both a multi-stage Dockerfile and a docker-compose.yml file. Docker and Podman are both supported.

Compose

# Docker Compose
docker compose up -d --build

# Podman Compose
CLAUDE_HOME="$HOME/.claude" podman compose up -d --build

Open http://localhost:4820 in your browser.

Plain Docker / Podman

# Docker
docker build -t agent-monitor .
docker run -d --name agent-monitor \
  -p 127.0.0.1:4820:4820 \
  -v "$HOME/.claude:/root/.claude:ro" \
  -v agent-monitor-data:/app/data \
  agent-monitor

# Podman
podman build -t agent-monitor .
podman run -d --name agent-monitor \
  -p 127.0.0.1:4820:4820 \
  -v "$HOME/.claude:/root/.claude:ro" \
  -v "$HOME/.claude/agent-dashboard:/app/data" \
  agent-monitor

Container notes

Mount	Purpose
~/.claude:/root/.claude:ro	Lets the server import legacy Claude session history
~/.claude/agent-dashboard:/app/data	Canonical SQLite database (shared with native installs)

Note

The image sets DASHBOARD_HOST=0.0.0.0 and DASHBOARD_DATA_DIR=/app/data internally (baked into the Dockerfile). The 0.0.0.0 bind is required because a container's loopback is a separate namespace the published port cannot reach; /app/data is bind-mounted to ~/.claude/agent-dashboard on the host so Docker uses the same database as npm start. The trust boundary is the host port publish — the examples use -p 127.0.0.1:4820:4820, so the dashboard is local-only. To expose it on a LAN, publish on 0.0.0.0 (-p 4820:4820) and set DASHBOARD_TOKEN.

Important

Claude Code hooks run on the host, not inside the container. After the container is healthy on http://localhost:4820, run npm run install-hooks on the host so Claude Code posts hook events back to the containerized server. The installer refuses to run inside a container (issue #193) to avoid writing a container-internal handler path into a bind-mounted ~/.claude; use CCAM_ALLOW_CONTAINER_HOOKS=1 only if you run Claude Code inside the same container.

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Troubleshooting

npm run setup shows better-sqlite3 errors

This is expected and non-fatal. better-sqlite3 is a native C++ module listed as an optional dependency. If prebuilt binaries are not available for your Node version or platform, npm will print gyp/compilation errors but still complete successfully.

At runtime the server uses this fallback chain:

1. better-sqlite3 — used when prebuilt binaries are available (Node 20/22/24 on Windows x64, macOS arm64/x64, Linux x64/arm64)
2. node:sqlite — Node.js built-in SQLite module, used automatically on Node 22+ when better-sqlite3 is unavailable

If you see an error box at startup saying "SQLite backend not available", either:

• Upgrade to Node.js 22+ (recommended — zero native dependencies needed), or

• Install build tools so better-sqlite3 can compile from source:

  • Windows: npm install -g windows-build-tools or install Visual Studio Build Tools with the C++ workload
  • macOS: xcode-select --install
  • Linux: sudo apt install python3 make g++ (Debian/Ubuntu) or equivalent

  Then run: npm rebuild better-sqlite3

npm run dev fails immediately

Ensure both server and client dependencies are installed:

npm run setup

If the error mentions a missing module like express or react, dependencies may be incomplete. Delete node_modules in both root and client/, then re-run setup:

rm -rf node_modules client/node_modules
npm run setup

Server starts but client shows a blank page

The Vite dev server and Express server run on different ports. Make sure both are running (npm run dev starts both). Open http://localhost:5173, not http://localhost:4820, during development.

No sessions appearing after starting Claude Code

See SETUP.md — Troubleshooting for detailed hook debugging steps.

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Ports

Service	Default	Override
Dashboard server	4820	DASHBOARD_PORT=xxxx npm run dev
Client dev server	5173	Edit client/vite.config.ts