cost-katana-cli

v2.2.2

Published

21 days ago

The simplest AI CLI. Chat with any AI model and track costs automatically.

Cost Katana CLI 🥷

AI in your terminal. Costs on your screen.

Chat with GPT-4, Claude, Gemini—all from one command. See exactly what you spend, in real-time.

🚀 Get Started in 30 Seconds

Step 1: Install

npm install -g cost-katana-cli

Step 2: Initialize

cost-katana init

Step 3: Chat

cost-katana chat

You: Hello!
AI: Hi! How can I help you today?
💰 Cost: $0.0001

You: Write me a Python function to sort a list
AI: Here's a Python function...
💰 Session: $0.0023

That's it. You're now chatting with AI and tracking every cent.

📖 Tutorial: Master the CLI

Part 1: Interactive Chat

Start a conversation that remembers context:

cost-katana chat

In-session commands: | Command | Action | |---------|--------| | help | Show all commands | | cost | Display session cost | | models | Switch AI model | | clear | Clear chat history | | save | Export conversation | | quit | Exit chat |

Part 2: Quick Questions

Skip chat mode for one-off questions:

# Get an instant answer
cost-katana ask "What is the capital of France?"

# Save output to file
cost-katana ask "Explain recursion" --output answer.md

# Use a specific model
cost-katana ask "Write a haiku" --model gpt-4

Part 3: Choose Your Model

# Use Claude for creative writing
cost-katana chat --model claude-3-sonnet

# Use GPT-4 for complex reasoning
cost-katana chat --model gpt-4

# Use GPT-3.5 for simple tasks (10x cheaper)
cost-katana chat --model gpt-3.5-turbo

Part 4: Add a System Prompt

Shape the AI's personality:

# Code reviewer
cost-katana chat --system "You are a senior developer. Be concise and critical."

# Writing assistant
cost-katana chat --system "You are a professional copywriter. Focus on clarity."

# Tutor
cost-katana chat --system "You are a patient teacher. Explain concepts step by step."

Part 5: Enable Cost Optimization

# Cortex: 40-75% savings on long content
cost-katana chat --cortex

# Caching: 100% savings on repeated questions
cost-katana chat --cache

# Both together
cost-katana chat --cortex --cache

🎯 Essential Commands

Chat

cost-katana chat                              # Start interactive chat
cost-katana chat --model claude-3-sonnet      # Use specific model
cost-katana chat --system "Be concise"        # Add system prompt
cost-katana chat --cortex                     # Enable optimization

Ask

cost-katana ask "Your question"               # Quick answer
cost-katana ask "Question" --output file.md   # Save to file
cost-katana ask "Question" --model gpt-4      # Use specific model

Analyze

cost-katana analyze                           # View spending summary
cost-katana analyze --days 7                  # Last 7 days
cost-katana analyze --export costs.csv        # Export to CSV

Models

cost-katana models                            # List all models
cost-katana models --provider openai          # Filter by provider
cost-katana models --prices                   # Show pricing

Compare

cost-katana compare "Your prompt" --models gpt-4,claude-3-sonnet,gemini-pro

Budget

cost-katana budget set --daily 10             # Set $10/day limit
cost-katana budget status                     # Check remaining budget
cost-katana budget alerts                     # View alerts

Config

cost-katana config                            # View current config
cost-katana config set model gpt-4            # Change default model
cost-katana config set temperature 0.7        # Set creativity level
cost-katana config set daily-limit 5          # Set spending limit

🤖 Supported Models

| Provider | Models | |----------|--------| | OpenAI | GPT-5, GPT-4, GPT-4 Turbo, GPT-4o, GPT-3.5 Turbo, O1, O3 | | Anthropic | Claude Sonnet 4.5, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Claude 3.5 Haiku, Claude 3 Opus | | Google | Gemini 2.5 Pro, Gemini 2.5 Flash, Gemini 1.5 Pro, Gemini 1.5 Flash | | AWS Bedrock | Claude, Titan, Mistral, Nova models | | Others | xAI Grok, DeepSeek, Mistral AI, Cohere, Meta Llama |

Run cost-katana models for the complete list with pricing.

⚙️ Configuration

Environment Variables

# Option 1: Cost Katana API Key (Recommended)
export COST_KATANA_API_KEY="dak_your_key"
export COST_KATANA_MODEL="gpt-4"

# Option 2: Direct Provider Keys (self-hosted)
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."          # Required for GPT models
export GEMINI_API_KEY="..."             # Required for Gemini models
export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="..."          # For AWS Bedrock
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="..."

⚠️ Self-hosted users: You must provide your own OpenAI/Gemini API keys.

💡 Real-World Examples

Code Review Assistant

$ cost-katana chat --system "You are a senior developer. Be concise."

You: Review this code: [paste code]
AI: Issues found:
    1. Missing error handling on line 15
    2. Inefficient loop—use map() instead
    3. Variable 'x' should be descriptive
💰 Cost: $0.0045

You: How do I fix issue #2?
AI: Replace the for loop with: const results = items.map(item => transform(item));
💰 Session: $0.0067

Content Writer with Optimization

$ cost-katana chat --model gpt-4 --cortex

You: Write a blog post about machine learning trends in 2024
AI: [Generates comprehensive 1500-word post]
💰 Cost: $0.0123 (saved $0.041 with Cortex!)

Quick Research

$ cost-katana ask "Best Node.js weather API libraries"
> Popular options: axios + OpenWeatherMap, node-fetch + WeatherAPI...
💰 Cost: $0.0002

$ cost-katana ask "Python datetime format examples" --output cheatsheet.md
✅ Saved to cheatsheet.md
💰 Cost: $0.0003

Model Cost Comparison

$ cost-katana compare "Explain quantum computing" --models gpt-4,gpt-3.5-turbo,gemini-pro

📊 Cost Comparison

Model              Cost        Tokens    Latency
─────────────────────────────────────────────────
gpt-4              $0.0120     450       2.3s
gpt-3.5-turbo      $0.0012     420       0.8s
gemini-pro         $0.0003     435       1.1s

💡 Recommendation: gemini-pro (40x cheaper than gpt-4)

💰 Cost Optimization Tips

| Strategy | Savings | Command | |----------|---------|---------| | Use GPT-3.5 for simple tasks | 90% | --model gpt-3.5-turbo | | Enable Cortex for long content | 40-75% | --cortex | | Cache repeated queries | 100% | --cache | | Use Gemini for high-volume | 95% | --model gemini-pro |

# ❌ Expensive
cost-katana chat --model gpt-4

# ✅ Smart: Match model to task
cost-katana chat --model gpt-3.5-turbo

# ✅ Smarter: Add optimization
cost-katana chat --model gpt-3.5-turbo --cortex --cache

🔧 Troubleshooting

"API key not found"

cost-katana init
# or
export COST_KATANA_API_KEY="dak_your_key"

"Model not available"

cost-katana models                    # See available models
cost-katana chat --model gpt-3.5-turbo  # Try alternative

"Rate limit exceeded"

# CLI auto-retries. If persistent:
cost-katana chat --model claude-3-haiku  # Switch provider

📊 Dashboard Integration

All CLI usage syncs to costkatana.com/dashboard:

Real-time cost tracking
Usage breakdown by model
Daily/weekly/monthly stats
Budget alerts
Optimization recommendations

📚 More Examples

Explore 45+ complete examples:

🔗 github.com/Hypothesize-Tech/costkatana-examples

| Section | Description | |---------|-------------| | CLI Examples | Complete CLI guides | | Cost Tracking | Track costs across providers | | Semantic Caching | 30-40% cost reduction | | Workflows | Multi-step AI orchestration |

🆚 Why Cost Katana CLI?

| Feature | Traditional CLIs | Cost Katana CLI | |---------|------------------|-----------------| | Setup | Multiple API keys | One command: cost-katana init | | Providers | One per tool | All providers, one command | | Cost tracking | ❌ | ✅ Real-time | | Optimization | ❌ | ✅ 40-75% savings | | Dashboard | ❌ | ✅ Full analytics |

📞 Support

| Channel | Link | |---------|------| | Documentation | docs.costkatana.com/cli | | Dashboard | costkatana.com | | GitHub | github.com/Hypothesize-Tech/costkatana-cli | | Discord | discord.gg/D8nDArmKbY | | Email | [email protected] |

📄 License

Start chatting with AI in your terminal 🥷

npm install -g cost-katana-cli
cost-katana init
cost-katana chat