Claude DevTools
Claude DevTools is a local desktop app that reads Claude Code session logs from ~/.claude/ and restores tool calls, thinking steps, and context breakdown the terminal hides. We trial it for post-session debugging, subagent review, and copy-friendly transcript inspection.
Blurb
Your Claude is coding blind.
Summary
When to use:
- After Claude Code v2.1.20+ collapsed terminal output into opaque summaries
- Inspecting Read/Edit/Bash I/O and subagent trees
- Per-turn context attribution (CLAUDE.md, skills,
@-mentions, tool output) - Cross-session search or SSH remote session review
- Alerting on sensitive file access or high token use
When to skip: aggregate cost dashboards and quota progress bars (use Claude Usage or CodexBar); sessions with no local JSONL (Cowork); replacing --verbose when you only need a one-off raw dump.
Trade-offs: MIT desktop app (macOS Homebrew cask, Windows .exe, Linux AppImage, Docker self-host). Reads disk only. No login, API keys, or outbound calls. Works on historical sessions from any tool that wrote ~/.claude/ logs.
Details
| Topic | Notes |
|---|---|
| Site | claude-dev.tools |
| Repo | matt1398/claude-devtools (MIT, TypeScript, ~3.7k stars) |
| Install | brew install --cask claude-devtools; or GitHub Releases (.dmg, .exe, AppImage); Docker self-host |
| Data source | Read-only access to ~/.claude/ session JSONL already on disk |
| Not a wrapper | Does not hook or modify Claude Code; parses existing logs |
Key features:
- Context reconstruction: per-turn token attribution across seven categories with compaction visualization
- Tool call inspector: syntax-highlighted reads, inline edit diffs, bash output, nested subagent trees
- Project memory pane: browse
~/.claude/projects/memory layers with in-app search and “Open in…” launchers - Notification triggers: regex alerts for sensitive paths, tool errors, token thresholds
- SSH remote sessions: inspect logs on remote hosts via
~/.ssh/config - Command palette: Cmd+K cross-session search with snippet highlights
- Multi-pane layout: compare sessions side by side
Fit: Tool / AI Agent debugging layer for Claude Code. Complements Claude Usage (charts and cost totals) and CodexBar (provider quota windows).