The latest articles on DEV Community by Joe Davies (@joedaviesio). https://dev.to/joedaviesio https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F3883183%2F30a39195-2433-42e7-bbf4-9dd0c87aad3c.png https://dev.to/joedaviesio en Joe Davies Thu, 16 Apr 2026 21:19:04 +0000 https://dev.to/joedaviesio/built-a-cli-that-tells-me-what-im-spending-on-ai-apis-before-the-invoice-does-4kjn https://dev.to/joedaviesio/built-a-cli-that-tells-me-what-im-spending-on-ai-apis-before-the-invoice-does-4kjn <p>I kept finishing coding sessions with a small idea what I'd just spent on API calls :'D.</p> <p>The dashboards from the providers lag, and none of them give you a per-call breakdown tied back to your own code.</p> <p>So I built <strong>Tirith</strong>; an open-source CLI that sits as a transparent proxy between your code and any AI API. One import to add, one to remove.</p> <h2> What it does </h2> <ul> <li>Drops in with a single line; no config changes</li> <li>Works with any provider you're already using (OpenAI, Anthropic, whatever)</li> <li>Tracks cost per call in real time</li> <li>Everything stays local on your machine; no data leaves your laptop</li> </ul> <h2> Why a proxy instead of an SDK wrapper </h2> <p>Wrappers break when providers ship new endpoints or change their SDK. A transparent proxy just forwards requests, logs what it sees, and gets out of the way. Provider-agnostic by design.</p> <h2> Try it </h2> <ul> <li>GitHub: [<a href="https://github.com/joedaviesio/tirith" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://github.com/joedaviesio/tirith</a>]</li> <li>Launch video: [<a href="https://youtube.com/shorts/uZCAqzqLfi4?si=k311z4DUVO2bwqYa" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://youtube.com/shorts/uZCAqzqLfi4?si=k311z4DUVO2bwqYa</a>]</li> </ul> <p>MIT licensed. Feedback very welcome; especially edge cases where the proxy behaves weirdly. First release, so I'm expecting rough edges.</p> opensource ai cli showdev