Metadata-Version: 2.4
Name: roost-top
Version: 0.5.0
Summary: top for Claude Code -- live sessions, models, context, and the subagents they spawn
Project-URL: Homepage, https://github.com/gmhoward9289-ops/roost
Project-URL: Issues, https://github.com/gmhoward9289-ops/roost/issues
Author-email: "George M. Howard" <dev@swamplink.com>
License: MIT
License-File: LICENSE
Keywords: claude,claude-code,context,monitoring,top,tui
Classifier: Development Status :: 3 - Alpha
Classifier: Environment :: Console
Classifier: Intended Audience :: Developers
Classifier: License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License
Classifier: Operating System :: MacOS :: MacOS X
Classifier: Operating System :: Microsoft :: Windows
Classifier: Operating System :: POSIX :: Linux
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13
Classifier: Topic :: System :: Monitoring
Requires-Python: >=3.9
Description-Content-Type: text/markdown

# roost

[![ci](https://github.com/gmhoward9289-ops/roost/actions/workflows/ci.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/gmhoward9289-ops/roost/actions/workflows/ci.yml)

`top` for Claude Code. Every live session, the model it is on, how much context
it has burned — and, unlike anything else, **the subagents it spawned**.

One file, no dependencies, Python 3.9+. Runs on macOS, Linux and Windows.

![roost watching a fleet: buckets, subagents, the advice panel, and a cancelled stop](demo/roost-demo.gif)

```
  WORKER    MODEL    CTX  IDLE    TASK
NEAR LIMIT
  demo-a1   opus-5   85%  12s     refactor the parser
PARKED + COSTLY
  demo-b2   opus-5   61%  4h10m   audit the build scripts
WORKING NOW
  demo-c3   fable-5  22%  3s      add integration tests
STARTING
  demo-d4   -        -    -

QUIET (4)  demo-e5 . demo-f6 . demo-g7 . demo-h8

8 worker(s)  |  fable-5, opus-5

SUBAGENTS
  STATE    AGENT       MODEL     CTX  IDLE   TASK
  working  a812aca59f  opus-5    33%  2s     survey the config loaders
  idle     adaffaba4b  sonnet-5  67%  1h22m  draft the migration notes

  2 subagent(s), 1 working

INFRA  ollama:11434 up qwen2.5-coder:14b (9.2 GB)   litellm:4000 up   openwebui:8080 DOWN
```

Sessions are grouped by what it costs to ignore them, not by size: `NEAR LIMIT`
is about to stop working, `PARKED + COSTLY` bills its whole context on the next
turn, and everything quiet collapses to a single line.

## Install

Homebrew (macOS and Linux):

```bash
brew install gmhoward9289-ops/tap/roost
```

Debian and Ubuntu, from the repo — this also gets you `apt upgrade`:

```bash
curl -fsSL https://gmhoward9289-ops.github.io/roost/roost-archive-keyring.asc | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/roost-archive-keyring.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/roost-archive-keyring.gpg] https://gmhoward9289-ops.github.io/roost stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/roost.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install roost
```

Or, without adding a repo — grab `roost_<version>_all.deb` from the
[latest release](https://github.com/gmhoward9289-ops/roost/releases/latest):

```bash
sudo apt install ./roost_0.4_all.deb
```

Both resolve `python3` exactly as a normal repo install would. The repo is
signed with a dedicated key (not tied to any personal identity); its public
half is `packaging/apt/pubkey.asc` in this repo, published unchanged as
`roost-archive-keyring.asc` above.

With pipx:

```bash
pipx install roost-top
```

PyPI holds the bare name `roost` in reserve — a prior project's name, retained
after deletion — so the *package* is `roost-top`; the command it installs is
plain `roost`. Installing straight from the repo skips the index entirely:

```bash
pipx install git+https://github.com/gmhoward9289-ops/roost
```

With npm — the one channel that gives Windows a real `roost` command:

```bash
npm install -g roost-top
```

Or run it without installing: `npx roost-top`. The npm package is a wrapper, not
a port: it ships the same `roost.py` and finds a Python to run it with (`py -3`
first on Windows, `python3` elsewhere, 3.9 or newer either way). Python still has
to be on `PATH` — npm delivers the script and puts `roost` on `PATH`, it does not
bring an interpreter. As on PyPI, the bare name `roost` was already taken, so the
package is `roost-top` and the command is plain `roost`.

Or just take the file. It is one script, stdlib only, no dependencies:

```bash
curl -o roost https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gmhoward9289-ops/roost/main/roost.py
chmod +x roost && ./roost
```

Windows: save it as `roost.py` and run it — `.PY` is in `PATHEXT`, so `roost.py`
works from anywhere on `PATH`. Beyond npm above there is no Windows package; the
single file is the install.

The man page (`man roost`) ships with the Homebrew and `.deb` installs. A pipx
install puts it under the venv's own `share/man`, which is not on the default
`MANPATH`; read it in place with
`man "$(pipx environment --value PIPX_LOCAL_VENVS)/roost-top/share/man/man1/roost.1"`.

## Use

```
roost              live, refreshing every second
roost -w 5         slower refresh
roost -1           one frame, then exit
roost --json       joined records, for piping
```

While running: `space` refresh now · `a` advice panel · `s` subagents panel · `m` local models panel · `h` or `?` what am I looking at · `i` arm interactive · `q` quit

## Acting on a session

> **Experimental, and off by default.** `i` arms interactive mode — the
> cursor, `x`, `y`, and the `EXPERIMENTAL` marker in the top-right corner all
> come alive together, and it means it: `x` ends a real process. Reading the
> dashboard has never been the risky half; `i` is the one key that draws the
> line. Press it again to disarm — the cursor drops and `x`/`y`/`j`/`k` stop
> responding until you press it once more.

Once armed, `j`/`k` (or the arrow keys) raise a cursor. Raising it expands the
`QUIET` group, because a session idle for hours is exactly what a sweep is
looking for and it is unreachable while collapsed.

| key | does |
| --- | --- |
| `i` | arm or disarm interactive mode |
| `j` `k` `↓` `↑` | move the cursor (interactive mode only) |
| `x` | stop the selected session — confirms first, and only `y` proceeds |
| `y` | copy its sessionId, for `claude --resume <id>` |
| `esc` | drop the cursor, re-collapse `QUIET` |

Start already armed with `roost --interactive` if you know you'll be acting on
a session right away.

`x` ends a process. It does not compact, save, or otherwise negotiate with the
session — **there is no local control channel into a running Claude Code
session**, so nothing gentler is available from outside it. On Unix that is a
`SIGTERM` and the session exits on its own terms; on Windows there is no
cross-process equivalent, so it is a `TerminateProcess` hard kill. Transcripts
are written a turn at a time, so at most an in-flight turn is lost.

Both keys act on the row object that was on screen when you pressed them, never
on an index re-resolved afterwards. Rows reorder between frames as sessions go
quiet, and an index that outlived its frame would eventually stop the wrong one.

roost refuses to stop its own process or its parent — run it from inside the
session it is pointed at and the cursor can land on the row that owns your
terminal.

Only one panel is open at a time: `a`, `s`, `m`, and `h` flip between ADVICE,
SUBAGENTS, LOCAL MODELS, and HELP rather than stacking. With two dozen sessions
on screen a stacked second panel lands below the bottom of the terminal, which
is indistinguishable from the key not working. For the same reason the frame
now says `... N more line(s) below` instead of quietly truncating.

## Help

`h` or `?` opens a HELP panel — not a keybinding reference (the footer hint
already lists the keys), but a one-line-each rundown of what each screen on
the display means: INFRA, WORKERS, SUBAGENTS, ADVICE, LOCAL MODELS. roost is
small enough that this is the whole manual.

## Local models

The INFRA line only ever shows what Ollama currently has resident in VRAM —
`ollama:11434 up  qwen-coder-16k:latest (5.5 GB)` — because it reads
`/api/ps`. A model that is installed but idle drops out of that line entirely,
which reads as "roost doesn't see it" rather than "it isn't loaded right now."

Press `m` for the full picture: every model `ollama list` knows about, each
row showing disk size, residency, VRAM when loaded, and how long until Ollama
unloads it. It reads `/api/tags` merged with `/api/ps`; if Ollama isn't
running, the panel says so instead of showing nothing.

## What it logs

Every session stopped with `x` appends one JSON line to
`~/.claude/logs/roost.jsonl` — same shape and the same 5000-line cap as the hook
logs beside it:

```json
{"ts":"2026-07-31T00:22:57-0400","action":"stop","ok":true,"host":"COOPER",
 "name":"models-ca","pid":4321,"session_id":"abc-123","model":"claude-opus-5",
 "ctx_tokens":484030,"idle_secs":92500}
```

The session's **task text is deliberately not recorded.** It is free-form prose
out of a transcript, and an audit trail of what was stopped should not become a
copy of what was being worked on.

Because each record carries the context that session was holding, the log
answers afterwards what a sweep actually reclaimed rather than just how many
rows you closed. `--no-log` records nothing. A log that cannot be written is
ignored rather than raised — losing the log is survivable, losing the display
is not.

## Why subagents are the interesting part

Subagents have **no process of their own** — they run as sidechains inside the
parent's process. Every pid-based view is structurally blind to them.

They do each get a transcript, one directory deeper than the session transcripts:

```
~/.claude/projects/<slug>/<sessionId>/subagents/agent-<id>.jsonl
```

The short task description ("Scout source URLs") lives only in the *parent's*
`toolUseResult`, keyed by `agentId`. roost joins the two, and falls back to the
opening words of the subagent's own first message when the parent's record has
scrolled out of reach.

## Where the numbers come from

Three local, read-only sources. Nothing is sent anywhere; there is no network
call except a localhost probe of the infra ports.

| source | gives |
| --- | --- |
| `~/.claude/sessions/<pid>.json` | live sessions: pid, sessionId, launch cwd, name |
| `~/.claude/projects/*/<sid>.jsonl` | model in use, token usage |
| `127.0.0.1` ports | ollama / litellm / openwebui |

**Context** is the last assistant turn's `input_tokens + cache_read_input_tokens
+ cache_creation_input_tokens`. Cross-checked against an independent tool on the
same session: 77% vs 77.29%.

**The context window is inferred, not recorded.** Nothing on disk states which
window a session opened with, and a session on the 1M window will read 480k+
cache tokens in a single call — scoring that against 200k yields a nonsense
"242%". roost picks the smallest standard tier the usage fits and prints it in
the `WIN` column, so the assumption is visible rather than silent. If a new tier
ships, `WINDOW_TIERS` is the one line to edit.

## Caveats

- It reads an **undocumented on-disk format** that can change without warning.
  That is the whole foundation; treat breakage as expected, not exceptional.
- The window inference above is a heuristic.
- The `ADVICE` panel's thresholds are tuned to one person's usage. Read
  `EXPENSIVE_TOKENS` and friends before trusting the advice.
- Daily-driven on macOS and Windows. CI runs the suite and a smoke frame on
  Linux, and it detects live sessions there — but nobody lives on it yet.
  Field reports welcome.

## Help wanted

roost is one person's tool with a public issue tracker. The
[`help wanted` issues](https://github.com/gmhoward9289-ops/roost/labels/help%20wanted)
are real asks, not decoration: Linux field reports, a canary test for the
undocumented on-disk format, adapters for other agent CLIs (gated on demand —
comment if you would use one), and config seams for the window tiers and the
ADVICE thresholds.

## License

MIT — see [LICENSE](LICENSE). Contact: dev@swamplink.com

Built in a Digital Swamp. From my swamp to yours.
