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Xerg audits AI usage in dollars rather than tokens. It reads OpenClaw logs/transcripts or an independent sanitized trace capture, Hermes v0.17+ state.db, Claude Code transcripts, and Cursor usage CSV exports — or event payloads from any framework via xerg ingest — normalizes activity locally, and surfaces where spend is leaking.
Local audits and --compare are free with no account. A Free hosted workspace (up to 2 members) saves the last 30 days of pushed audits with up to 100 stored snapshots per month. Ask Xerg, hosted MCP, Slack, and policies require a Pro or Enterprise workspace.
Working inside a coding agent? Install the Xerg skill with npx skills add xergai/skills and ask your agent to audit your spend. See skill bundle.

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What Xerg does

  • Guides first-time local setup with xerg init.
  • Audits local OpenClaw or Hermes activity from default paths or explicit files.
  • Optionally collects OpenClaw traces over loopback with collect openclaw, sanitizing before local persistence and never pushing automatically.
  • Audits local Claude Code session transcripts from ~/.claude/projects/.
  • Audits local Cursor usage CSV exports.
  • Audits any other framework through a versioned JSON event payload with xerg ingest.
  • Compares the current audit with the newest compatible cached snapshot.
  • Audits OpenClaw SSH and Railway targets from your local machine.
  • Exports human-readable, Markdown, and machine-readable JSON output.
  • Connects to a hosted workspace with xerg connect, pushes summaries when you choose, and can fail CI when confirmed waste is above a threshold.
  • Tracks pushed audits, sources, trends, Optimizations, policies, and workspace API keys in the hosted dashboard.
  • Exposes hosted audit history, recommendations, sources, policies, and guarded write actions through hosted MCP.

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What Xerg surfaces

Xerg splits findings into two buckets:
  • Confirmed waste: retry-waste, loop-waste, and Cursor cache-carryover when its billed pattern clears the waste bar
  • Savings opportunities: context-outlier, idle-spend, candidate-downgrade, and Cursor max-mode-concentration
The opportunity classes are directional. They are worth testing, but they are not proven waste.

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Default data sources

By default, Xerg looks for:
  • OpenClaw gateway logs at /tmp/openclaw/openclaw-*.log
  • OpenClaw session transcripts at ~/.openclaw/agents/*/sessions/*.jsonl
  • Hermes state database at ~/.hermes/state.db (preferred and read-only)
  • optional Hermes observer ledger at ~/.hermes/xerg/events/; legacy logs/transcripts remain fallback inputs where present
  • Claude Code session transcripts at ~/.claude/projects/
  • Cursor usage CSV exports through --cursor-usage-csv
  • Event payloads from any framework through xerg ingest --file
If your data lives elsewhere, use --state-db for Hermes, --log-file / --sessions-dir for legacy sources, or --claude-code-dir for Claude Code. For optional OpenClaw traces, see OpenClaw trace collection. Existing captures use --otlp-file and remain independent from transcript/log audits.

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Start here

  1. Install Xerg.
  2. Start with xerg init or run the quickstart.
  3. Keep the most useful commands nearby with the CLI cheat sheet.
  4. If the data lives elsewhere, start with doctor. Use remote audits for OpenClaw SSH and Railway targets.
  5. Learn the core model in waste taxonomy, metrics, and how it works.
  6. When you want hosted features, use hosted dashboard, connect and push, hosted MCP, and optimizations and policies.
  7. When you want local automation, use CI gates.

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Hosted workspace features

With a free Xerg workspace, you can: Pro and Enterprise workspaces additionally get full pushed audit history, unlimited members, Ask Xerg, hosted MCP for Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, or another MCP client, Slack notifications, and policy drafts.

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Current limits

  • Cost per outcome requires outcome signals (declared with xerg outcome, carried on ingest events, or derived from terminal call states); runs without a signal stay untracked. See metrics for details.
  • Opportunity findings are recommendations to test, not proven waste.
  • Xerg stores economic metadata and audit summaries locally. It does not store prompt or response content.