AI Lens

Analytics for AI coding sessions. Captures hook events from Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex, normalizes them to a unified format, queues locally, and ships to a centralized server with a web dashboard and MCP integration.

Hook fires → capture.js → normalize → queue.jsonl → sender.js → POST /api/events → server → dashboard

Developer Setup (client)

Run the init command on each developer machine:

npx -y ai-lens init

This will:

1. Detect installed AI tools (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex)
2. Copy client files to ~/.ai-lens/client/
3. Configure hooks in ~/.claude/settings.json and/or ~/.cursor/hooks.json
4. Start the Codex watcher for user-level and project-local Codex sessions
5. Register the MCP server for in-editor analytics (optional)

Re-running is safe — it updates outdated hooks and skips current ones.

Deploying hooks in a specific project (project-level hooks)

To write hooks into the project directory (.cursor/hooks.json and .claude/settings.json) instead of global ~/.cursor/ and ~/.claude/, run from the project root:

npx -y ai-lens init --server https://ai-lens.rantsports.com --no-mcp --project-hooks

Add --use-repo-path to run capture.js directly from the package (repo or npx cache) instead of copying to ~/.ai-lens/client/. Useful when the repo is next to the workspace.

CLI commands

npx ai-lens init       # Setup wizard — detect tools, install hooks, configure MCP
npx ai-lens status     # Run health checks and generate a diagnostic report
npx ai-lens remove     # Remove hooks, client files, and MCP config
npx ai-lens version    # Show installed version

CLI options

| Flag | Description | |------|-------------| | --server URL | Server URL (default: http://localhost:3000) | | --yes, -y | Non-interactive mode, accept all defaults | | --no-mcp | Skip MCP server registration | | --mcp-scope SCOPE | MCP scope: user (default), local, or project | | --projects LIST | Comma-separated project paths to monitor (default: all) | | --project-hooks | Write hooks into project directory instead of global config | | --use-repo-path | Run capture.js from package path instead of copying to ~/.ai-lens/client/ |

Environment variables (client)

# In your shell profile (~/.zshrc, ~/.bashrc)
export AI_LENS_SERVER_URL=https://ai-lens.rantsports.com
export AI_LENS_PROJECTS="~/meta/, ~/meta-cursor/"   # optional, default: all

Claude Code — ~/.claude/settings.json (hooks section):

{
  "hooks": {
    "SessionStart": [{ "matcher": "", "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "node ~/.ai-lens/client/capture.js" }] }],
    "UserPromptSubmit": [{ "matcher": "", "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "node ~/.ai-lens/client/capture.js" }] }],
    "PreToolUse": [{ "matcher": "", "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "node ~/.ai-lens/client/capture.js" }] }],
    "PostToolUse": [{ "matcher": "", "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "node ~/.ai-lens/client/capture.js" }] }],
    "Stop": [{ "matcher": "", "hooks": [{ "type": "command", "command": "node ~/.ai-lens/client/capture.js" }] }]
  }
}

Cursor — ~/.cursor/hooks.json:

{
  "version": 1,
  "hooks": {
    "sessionStart": [{ "command": "node ~/.ai-lens/client/capture.js" }],
    "beforeSubmitPrompt": [{ "command": "node ~/.ai-lens/client/capture.js" }],
    "postToolUse": [{ "command": "node ~/.ai-lens/client/capture.js" }],
    "afterFileEdit": [{ "command": "node ~/.ai-lens/client/capture.js" }],
    "afterShellExecution": [{ "command": "node ~/.ai-lens/client/capture.js" }],
    "afterMCPExecution": [{ "command": "node ~/.ai-lens/client/capture.js" }],
    "stop": [{ "command": "node ~/.ai-lens/client/capture.js" }],
    "sessionEnd": [{ "command": "node ~/.ai-lens/client/capture.js" }]
  }
}

Codex — no hook file. Run ai-lens init to start the local watcher, or start it manually:

node ~/.ai-lens/client/codex-watcher.js

The watcher tails the user-level Codex directory (~/.codex) and any project-local .codex directories found under AI_LENS_PROJECTS. It respects AI_LENS_PROJECTS the same way as Claude Code and Cursor: only sessions whose cwd is inside a configured monitored root are sent.

Server Setup

Docker (production)

docker compose up -d

Starts three containers:

| Container | Image | Purpose | |-----------|-------|---------| | app | ai-lens/app | API server + web dashboard (port 3000) | | postgres | postgres:16-alpine | PostgreSQL 16 database | | analyzer | ai-lens/analyzer | Background session analyzer (needs claude login) |

Dashboard: https://ai-lens.rantsports.com

Images are stored in ECR (267996409571.dkr.ecr.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/ai-lens/) and mirrored to GHCR (ghcr.io/r-ms/ai-lens/) on every push to main.

Environment variables (server)

| Variable | Default | Description | |----------|---------|-------------| | PORT | 3000 | Server port | | DATABASE_URL | (required) | PostgreSQL connection string | | POSTGRES_PASSWORD | ailens | PostgreSQL password (docker compose) | | ANALYSIS_INTERVAL | 60 | Seconds between analysis runs | | AI_LENS_ADMIN_SECRET | (none) | Admin secret for auth token management | | OPENAI_API_KEY | (none) | OpenAI API key for FAISS vector search; text search works without it | | TEAMS_CONFIG | (none) | JSON config for team definitions | | CORS_ALLOWED_ORIGINS | (none) | Allowed CORS origins |

Auth0 SSO

| Variable | Description | |----------|-------------| | AUTH0_DOMAIN | Auth0 tenant domain | | AUTH0_CLIENT_ID | Auth0 SPA client ID | | AUTH0_AUDIENCE | Auth0 API audience identifier | | AUTH0_ALLOWED_DOMAIN | Restrict login to a specific email domain | | AUTH0_CLI_CLIENT_ID | Auth0 Native app client ID for device code flow | | MCP_SERVER_URL | Public server URL for MCP OAuth callbacks |

Without Auth0, the server uses git email headers for identity (personal mode).

Local development

docker compose up postgres -d
npm install
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://ailens:ailens@localhost:5432/ailens npm start

Dashboard

React + TypeScript SPA with:

• Organization-wide KPIs and adoption trends
• Team and developer breakdowns
• Session timelines with tool usage
• AI-generated session and team analyses
• Token usage by model
• MCP server and skill distribution
• Knowledge base and recurring problems

cd dashboard
npm install
npm run dev          # Vite dev server with HMR (proxies API to localhost:3000)
npm run build        # Production build (served by Express as static files)

Tech: Vite, Tailwind CSS, Nivo charts, TanStack Query, react-router-dom.

MCP Tools

When MCP is enabled during npx ai-lens init, these tools become available inside Claude Code and Cursor:

| Tool | Description | |------|-------------| | who_am_i | Identify yourself by git email — returns your developer profile and team(s) | | get_overview | Organization-wide KPIs: active developers, adoption rate, AI hours, MCP and skill distribution | | list_teams | List all teams with member counts, adoption rate, and AI hours | | get_team | Team detail: KPIs, members, tasks, activity trend, MCP and skill distribution | | get_team_analysis | AI-generated team analysis: achievements, recurring problems, recommendations | | get_developer | Developer profile: sessions, AI hours, tasks, MCP and skill usage, team comparison | | get_mcp_distribution | MCP server usage across the organization | | get_chain | Session chain with compact event timeline, plan mode segments, and timing | | get_events | Full event data for specific event IDs | | get_chain_analysis | AI-generated chain analysis: tasks, problems, tool errors, unanswered questions | | request_analysis | Manually trigger analysis for a specific session chain | | get_token_usage | Token usage statistics grouped by model (input/output/cache tokens) | | knowhow_search | Search the team knowledge base built from session analyses | | knowhow_update | Add or update a knowledge base entry | | export_developer_tips | Export personalized tips as a Markdown document | | search | Natural language search across sessions, tasks, and projects |

API

POST /api/events

Batch insert events. Deduplicates by event_id (ON CONFLICT DO NOTHING) — safe to re-send.

Headers: X-Developer-Git-Email, X-Developer-Name, X-Auth-Token
Body: [{ source, session_id, type, project_path, timestamp, data, raw, event_id }]
Response: { received, skipped, deduplicated }

GET /api/sessions

List sessions. Query params: developer_id, source, days (default 30).

GET /api/sessions/:id

Session detail with all events, plan segments, and metadata.

GET /api/developers

List all developers.

GET /api/dashboard/*

Aggregate endpoints for dashboard charts: overview, teams, developers, tokens, MCP distribution, developer activity, knowledge base, problems, company/team/developer analyses.

Event Types

| Type | Source | Description | |------|--------|-------------| | SessionStart | All | Session opened | | SessionEnd | All | Session closed | | UserPromptSubmit | All | User sent a prompt | | PostToolUse | All | Tool execution completed | | PostToolUseFailure | All | Tool execution failed | | Stop | All | Agent stopped | | PreCompact | All | Context compaction triggered | | PlanModeStart | Claude Code | Entered plan mode | | PlanModeEnd | Claude Code | Exited plan mode (plan content in raw payload) | | SubagentStart | All | Subagent spawned | | SubagentStop | All | Subagent finished | | FileEdit | Cursor | File edited | | ShellExecution | Cursor | Shell command executed | | MCPExecution | Cursor | MCP tool executed | | AgentResponse | Cursor | Agent response (includes token usage in raw payload) | | AgentThought | Cursor | Agent reasoning |

Supported Tools

| Tool | Hook mechanism | |------|---------------| | Claude Code | Hooks via ~/.claude/settings.json | | Cursor | Hooks via ~/.cursor/hooks.json | | Codex | File watcher on ~/.codex and project-local .codex directories |

Client Data

Stored in ~/.ai-lens/:

| File | Purpose | |------|---------| | client/ | Installed client files (capture.js, sender.js, config.js) | | config.json | Server URL, auth token, project list | | queue.jsonl | Pending events | | queue.sending.jsonl | Events being sent (atomic rename as mutex) | | sender.log | Sender activity log | | capture.log | Capture drop log (normalization failures, write errors) | | session-paths.json | Session-to-project path cache |

Development

npm test               # Run all tests (vitest, 683 tests)
npm run test:watch     # Watch mode
npm run dev:dashboard  # Dashboard dev server

Tests require PostgreSQL — set DATABASE_URL or use docker compose up postgres -d (test DB ailens_test is created automatically).

Deployment

GitLab CI (.gitlab-ci.yml) on push to main:

1. build-app — builds ai-lens/app Docker image, pushes to ECR + GHCR
2. build-analyzer — builds ai-lens/analyzer Docker image, pushes to ECR + GHCR
3. deploy — zero-downtime rolling deploy to production (scale up new container, health check, remove old)

Build jobs trigger only when relevant files change (Dockerfile, server/, dashboard/, etc.).

Requirements

• Node.js 20+
• Docker + Docker Compose (for production deployment)
• PostgreSQL 16 (for local development without Docker)