clientcast

Get paid faster for the work you already ship.

clientcast turns your Git commits into a client update email, delivers it for you, and tells you whether the reply was an approval, real feedback, or a request for additional work — with hours and dollars attached. Built on Claude Code.

Why this exists. Freelancers and agencies bleed hours on status updates and "can you also..." emails that quietly become unpaid work. clientcast reads your commits, drafts a plain-English update for the client, and when the client replies, Claude tells you whether it was approval, feedback, a concern, or scope creep — with hours and dollars attached.

What you get

• clientcast — CLI that reads recent commits and drafts a client update with Claude
• Auto-email delivery — clientcast send ships the update straight to your client's inbox via Resend (no manual copy-paste)
• Hosted approval page — a no-login link your client opens to read, comment, and approve
• Live preview embed — point at your Vercel/Netlify deploy and the update page shows the actual site, not just commits
• Reply classifier — Claude tags every reply as approve, feedback, additional-work, concern, or mixed
• Additional-work flagger — when a reply asks for new work, you get an estimate in hours and dollars based on your hourly rate and original scope doc
• One-click Stripe invoicing — when additional work is flagged, click "Approve & invoice" to generate a Stripe payment link, in-page, no leaving the viewer
• Reply notifications — Slack webhook or email-back to you the moment your client replies
• Multi-project dashboard — /projects/<token> lists every update for a project with totals, status, and flagged work in one view
• clientcast-mcp — MCP server so Claude Code agents can drive the whole loop from inside any session

Requirements

• Node 20+
• Claude Code CLI installed and signed in (claude command on PATH) — uses your Pro/Max subscription, no API key needed for the CLI
• A git repository
• (For email delivery) RESEND_API_KEY env var — get one free at resend.com. Without it, clientcast send still uploads and prints the URL — you just have to email it yourself.

The hosted viewer needs these deployment env vars:

• BLOB_READ_WRITE_TOKEN (Vercel Blob) — required
• ANTHROPIC_API_KEY — required (the viewer can't spawn claude so it hits the API directly)
• RESEND_API_KEY — optional, enables reply-notification emails to the developer
• STRIPE_SECRET_KEY — optional, enables one-click invoicing on flagged additional work

Install

npm install -g clientcast

Quickstart

cd path/to/your/project
clientcast init
# Project name: Acme Marketing Site
# Client name: Bob
# Client email: [email protected]
# Hourly rate: 120
# Scope doc path: ./scope.md

# Make some commits...

clientcast send
# Reading commits...
# Drafting update from 8 commits...
# Uploading...
# ✓ Update ready: https://clientcast.vercel.app/u/8af2k3lq01
# Send this link to Bob for review.

# Bob replies on the page. Then:

clientcast status
# [replied] Acme Marketing Site · 1 scope-creep flag (~$960)
# Reply: "Looks good. Can you also add a Spanish version of the site?"
# [scope_creep · high] Bob
#   Asked for a new Spanish translation, not in original scope.
#   Action items:
#     - Translate site into Spanish
# Scope creep flagged — 1 item, ~$960 total:
# - **[MAJOR]** Add Spanish version of site — ~8h, $960
#   _Translation and copy-flow not in scope.md._

CLI commands

| Command | What it does | |---|---| | clientcast init | Initialize the project — creates .clientcast.json (asks for client info, hourly rate, scope, dev email, preview URL, Slack webhook) | | clientcast send [--since <ref>] | Draft + upload an update from recent commits | | clientcast preview | Same as send --dry-run | | clientcast list [--all] | List recent updates | | clientcast status [<id>] | Show status of an update (latest if id omitted) | | clientcast export <id> [--format markdown\|email] | Export as markdown or email format | | clientcast config | Show current project config |

Useful flags

• --since <ref> — git ref or date to start from (default: all commits)
• --model <sonnet\|opus\|haiku> — pick model (default sonnet)
• --limit <n> — max commits to include (default 50)
• --no-email — skip auto-delivery, just upload + return URL
• --from <addr> — override sender on the email
• --preview-url <url> — override the live preview URL embedded in this update

Reply notifications

When a client replies, Claude classifies the reply server-side and pings you. Pick one channel during clientcast init:

• Slack — paste an Incoming Webhook URL. You get a formatted message with classification, reply text, and any flagged work.
• Email — provide your dev email. You get a styled HTML email with the reply and flag summary.

If neither is set, replies are silent (you check clientcast status).

Stripe — turn flagged work into paid work

Add STRIPE_SECRET_KEY to your viewer deployment, set stripeEnabled: true in .clientcast.json, and any flagged additional work in the client view gets an "Approve & invoice $X" button. Click it → Stripe payment link generated → client pays → you get notified by Stripe. The flag stores the paymentLink so reloading the page shows a "Pay $X →" CTA instead.

This is the closed loop: git commit → AI summary → client reply → flagged work → payment link → money in bank.

Multi-project dashboard

Every project gets a unique projectToken at init. Visit <viewerUrl>/projects/<token> to see every update for that project — status, flagged work totals, reply counts. Bookmark it for clients you have ongoing work with.

MCP server — drive clientcast from Claude Code

Add this to ~/.claude.json under mcpServers:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "clientcast": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "clientcast-mcp"
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Code. From inside any session you'll have 5 tools:

• client_init({ projectName, clientName, clientEmail, hourlyRate, scope? })
• client_send({ since?, model?, dryRun? })
• client_status({ updateId? })
• client_list({ limit?, all? })
• client_export({ updateId, format? })

Now Claude can wrap up your work and ping the client without leaving the editor.

How it works

1. CLI reads commits via simple-git (with stats: files changed, insertions, deletions)
2. Spawns claude subprocess with a draft-update prompt that includes commits + your scope doc
3. Saves the update payload (commits + draft + scope doc snapshot + hourly rate snapshot) to Vercel Blob
4. Hosted viewer at clientcast.vercel.app/u/<id> renders the update with a reply form
5. Reply submission hits the viewer's API route → Anthropic API classifies it → if scope creep is detected, the flagger runs against the saved scope doc → cost estimate added to the payload
6. clientcast status reads back the updated payload

The viewer uses the Anthropic API directly (server-side env var) because Vercel functions can't spawn the claude binary. The CLI uses the subprocess to keep your Pro/Max subscription as the only credential needed for local use.

Privacy

By default everything is local until you send:

• Config lives in .clientcast.json in your project
• Local copies of past updates live in ~/.clientcast/updates/
• Nothing leaves your machine until you run clientcast send

When you send, the entire update payload (commits + draft + scope doc + hourly rate) is uploaded to a publicly readable Vercel Blob URL. The shareable URL contains only the update ID — but anyone with the URL can read the payload. Don't include secrets in commit messages or scope docs.

Self-hosted viewer

Deploy viewer/ to your own Vercel project:

cd viewer
vercel --prod

Then set on the deployment:

• BLOB_READ_WRITE_TOKEN — from your Vercel Blob store
• ANTHROPIC_API_KEY — from console.anthropic.com

And point clientcast at it:

export CLIENTCAST_VIEWER_URL=https://your-deployment.vercel.app
clientcast init

Development

git clone https://github.com/nikolas-sapa/clientcast
cd clientcast
npm install
npm test
npm run build

# CLI dev
npm run dev -- send --dry-run

# Viewer dev
npm run viewer

License

MIT