agent-top

htop, but for your AI agents. Live token burn rate, $ cost, API call rate, and loop detection — in your terminal, with a one-key kill switch.

Why this exists

You can htop your CPU. You can docker stats your containers. But your AI agent — the thing that can rack up a $400 API bill in 20 minutes from a silent retry loop — runs invisibly until the bill arrives.

agent-top wraps any agent process and shows you, live, in your terminal:

• Tokens/min — bar fills up, turns red as it approaches your scale
• API calls/min — same, for outbound API call rate
• Running total cost in $ (estimated from tokens, or reported directly)
• Top repeated action with an automatic ⚠ loop warning
• One key (k) to kill it instantly — no Ctrl-C dance, no "are you sure"

Install & run (under 60 seconds)

npx agent-top -- python my_agent.py

For live cost/token tracking, your agent prints one JSON line per event to stdout — these lines are automatically stripped from the visible output:

import json
print(json.dumps({"agent_top": {"tokens": 1500}}))
print(json.dumps({"agent_top": {"api_call": "openai.chat.completions"}}))
print(json.dumps({"agent_top": {"action": "tool:bash:ls"}}))

No telemetry? agent-top still works — you get uptime, exit status, and the kill key, no code changes needed.

What it looks like

agent-top  pid 5821  uptime 00:01:42

  tokens/min  ████████████████████████░░░░░░░░  38,400 / 50,000
  api calls/m ████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░  16 / 60

  total tokens   194,200
  total api calls 78
  est. cost      $0.3884
  top action     tool:web_search:query=1 (x14/min)  ⚠ possible loop

  [k] kill agent now    [q] detach    aegis-node: active

Pairs with Aegis-Node

agent-top is the dashboard; aegis-node is the enforcement layer. Install both — agent-top detects aegis-node automatically and shows enforcement status in the footer. Use agent-top to watch, aegis-node to guarantee the limits hold even when you're not looking.

npm install agent-top aegis-node

Cost estimation

By default, cost is estimated at $0.002 / 1k tokens (rough blended small-model rate). Override with --price-per-1k:

npx agent-top --price-per-1k 0.015 -- python my_agent.py

Or report cost_usd directly per event for exact accounting:

{"agent_top": {"tokens": 1500, "cost_usd": 0.0225}}

Roadmap

• [ ] Multi-agent view (tile multiple agent-top panes for agent swarms)
• [ ] Historical session log + replay
• [ ] Web dashboard mode (same telemetry protocol, browser UI)
• [ ] Per-tool cost breakdown table

More from ScriptMasterLabs

Part of the agent-economy infrastructure stack: aegis-node (kill switch), proof402-middleware (x402 payments — RLUSD/XRPL or USDC/Base), and the full agent-payment architecture.

→ scriptmasterlabs.com/stack · Full architecture map

License

MIT