CLI

vibeview is a single binary that serves the web interface and provides CLI tools for inspecting and searching Claude Code session data.

Commands

vibeview web

Starts the web server.

vibeview web
vibeview web --port 8080 --open

Flag	Default	Description
--port	4880	Port to listen on
--open	false	Open the browser on startup
--lan	false	Enable LAN mode: bind to 0.0.0.0 with token auth
--tls-cert	—	Serve HTTPS with this PEM certificate (requires --tls-key)
--tls-key	—	Serve HTTPS with this PEM private key (requires --tls-cert)
--cors-origin	—	Allow an additional exact browser origin; may be repeated
--dirs		Comma-separated project path substrings to filter (OR-combined)
--claude-dir	~/.claude	Path to claude data directory
--log-level	warn	Log level: debug, warn, error

You can also pass file paths or directories as positional arguments to run in standalone mode:

vibeview web session.jsonl
vibeview web /path/to/sessions/

LAN mode

By default the server binds to 127.0.0.1 and is reachable only from your own machine. Passing --lan binds to 0.0.0.0 so other devices on your local network can reach it, and generates a random access token to guard against unauthorized access. The threat model is a trusted LAN: plaintext mode does not protect the token or session contents from another device that can observe network traffic. Treat public Wi-Fi, shared office networks, and compromised home networks as hostile and use TLS or an encrypted tunnel.

Vibeview applies best-effort redaction before session data is sent to the UI. It recognizes common provider credentials, JWTs, private-key blocks, connection strings, and high-entropy token-like values. Redaction is pattern-based, not a security boundary: novel formats, short secrets, credentials split across fields, and ordinary text that resembles a secret can be missed or masked by mistake. Review session contents before sharing them and do not rely on redaction to make an untrusted network safe.

vibeview web --lan

On startup, vibeview prints a warning and a ready-to-use URL that includes the token:

WARNING: LAN mode uses plaintext HTTP. Any device able to observe local-network traffic can read the access token and your complete session contents. Use --tls-cert and --tls-key on untrusted networks.
listening on 0.0.0.0:4880
access URL: http://192.168.1.42:4880/#token=<generated-token>

The token travels in the URL fragment (#token=), which browsers never send to the server — keeping it out of access logs and Referer headers. On load, the web app reads the token, removes it from the visible URL, and then authenticates with an Authorization: Bearer <token> header. The live session stream (which cannot send headers) is authorized by a short handshake that sets an HttpOnly cookie, so the token is never placed in a request URL. Because LAN mode exposes your session data on a network interface, only enable plaintext LAN mode on networks you trust.

For encrypted transport, supply a certificate and matching private key. A local CA tool such as mkcert can issue a certificate trusted by your devices:

vibeview web --lan --tls-cert ./vibeview.pem --tls-key ./vibeview-key.pem

Alternatively, keep vibeview on its default loopback address and reach it through an encrypted SSH tunnel (ssh -L 4880:127.0.0.1:4880 host).

The embedded UI is same-origin and needs no CORS permission. LAN mode therefore does not trust arbitrary RFC1918 browser origins. If a separate frontend must call the API, opt in to its exact scheme, host, and port:

vibeview web --lan --cors-origin https://dashboard.example.test:8443

vibeview inspect

Inspect a session and report metadata, path resolution, token usage, and insights.

# By session ID (looks up in ~/.claude/history.jsonl)
vibeview inspect 877fff1e-80c9-4d20-a600-f278eb2c7bdc

# By file path
vibeview inspect /path/to/session.jsonl

# By directory (inspects all .jsonl files)
vibeview inspect /path/to/sessions/

Output is a styled, human-readable terminal report by default. Use --json or --yaml for machine-readable formats.

vibeview inspect --json 877fff1e-80c9-4d20-a600-f278eb2c7bdc
vibeview inspect --yaml 877fff1e-80c9-4d20-a600-f278eb2c7bdc
vibeview inspect -v 877fff1e-80c9-4d20-a600-f278eb2c7bdc

Flag	Default	Description
--json	false	Output as JSON
--yaml	false	Output as YAML
--verbose, -v	false	Include diagnostic sections (resolution, parse, enrichment)

Session ID lookup

When given a session ID, inspect traces the full discovery pipeline:

1. Validates the session ID format
2. Searches history.jsonl for matching entries
3. Encodes the project path and checks the expected directory exists
4. Verifies the session .jsonl file is on disk
5. Runs enrichment (message count, model, token usage, cost)
6. Extracts insights (tools, files, errors, commands, skills, subagents)

Any problems found along the way are reported in the Problems section (or problems field in JSON/YAML), making it useful for diagnosing why a session might not appear in the web interface.

Example output

The default styled output shows sections for session metadata, conversation stats, tool usage, files, errors, subagents, and skills. Empty sections are omitted.

Session
  ID           877fff1e-80c9-4d20-a600-f278eb2c7bdc
  Project      ~/myproject
  Slug         I want to create my personal website...
  Started      2026-03-26 21:07  (2h ago)
  Duration     45m30s
  Model        claude-opus-4-6
  Activity     idle

Conversation
  Messages     698 total, 120 user, 340 assistant, 238 progress

Tool Usage
  Tool                  Calls     Errors
  Write                 44        0
  Edit                  44        2
  Bash                  20        1
  Read                  12        0

Files
  Read         12 files
  Written      34 files
    ~/myproject/src/index.ts
    ~/myproject/src/app.ts
    ...

With --verbose, additional diagnostic sections are appended (Resolution, Enrichment).

vibeview sessions

List all Claude Code sessions in a formatted table. Supports filtering by directory, sorting by various columns, pagination, and JSON output for scripting.

vibeview sessions
vibeview sessions --json
vibeview sessions --dir myproject --limit 10
vibeview sessions --sort messages
vibeview sessions --limit 10 --offset 20

Flag	Default	Description
--dir		Filter by project directory (substring match)
--sort	timestamp	Sort by: timestamp, cost, messages, model, dir
--limit	25	Maximum number of sessions to show
--offset	0	Number of sessions to skip (for pagination)
--json	false	Output as JSON

vibeview show

Render a session's full conversation as compact, human-readable text. Shows user and assistant messages with role labels, tool calls as one-line summaries, and omits raw JSON, token counts, and metadata.

Input can be a session ID (full or 8-character prefix) or a .jsonl file path.

vibeview show 877fff1e-80c9-4d20-a600-f278eb2c7bdc
vibeview show 877fff
vibeview show --verbose 877fff1e
vibeview show --thinking 877fff1e
vibeview show --json 877fff1e
vibeview show session.jsonl

Flag	Default	Description
--verbose, -v	false	Expand tool calls with full input/output
--thinking	false	Include thinking blocks
--json	false	Output raw messages as JSON
--no-color	false	Strip ANSI color codes

vibeview export

Render one session to a self-contained HTML file. The page carries both the session and the viewer that renders it, so it opens straight from disk with no server and no network requests — suitable for attaching to a report, sharing, or archiving next to other artifacts.

Input can be a session ID (full or prefix) or a .jsonl file path. Output goes to stdout unless --out is given.

vibeview export 877fff1e --out session.html
vibeview export 877fff1e-80c9-4d20-a600-f278eb2c7bdc --format html --out page.html
vibeview export session.jsonl > page.html

Flag	Default	Description
--format	html	Output format (only html today)
--out	-	Output file, or - for stdout

The page renders the same session view as the web interface — conversation, tool calls, timeline, subagent conversations, and token/cost totals — with two differences that come from having no backend:

• Conversation search is omitted (it queries the server). The Timeline tab's filter is client-side and still works.
• Code blocks in less common languages render unhighlighted; the bundled grammars cover the mainstream languages.

Pages are roughly 800 KB plus the session's own content.

Go programs can render the same page without this binary by importing the Go SDK: go get github.com/driangle/vibeview/apps/lib@v0.2.0.

vibeview search

Full-text search across all session content. Uses the same search algorithm as the web interface.

vibeview search "database migration"
vibeview search --limit 5 "auth middleware"
vibeview search --dirs myproject "TODO"

Flag	Default	Description
--limit	20	Maximum number of results
--dirs		Comma-separated project path substrings to filter (OR-combined)
--json	false	Output as JSON instead of YAML

Example output

query: database migration
total: 2
results:
  - session_id: 877fff1e-80c9-4d20-a600-f278eb2c7bdc
    project: /Users/you/myproject
    slug: help me fix the database migration...
    model: claude-opus-4-6
    timestamp: "2026-03-26T21:07:06+01:00"
    snippet: "...help with the database migration issue..."

vibeview stats

Display an aggregate usage summary across all Claude Code sessions.

# All sessions
vibeview stats

# Filter by project directory
vibeview stats --dirs myproject

# Analyze a specific project folder
vibeview stats /path/to/project

# Analyze a single session file
vibeview stats session.jsonl

# Machine-readable output
vibeview stats --json
vibeview stats --yaml

Flag	Default	Description
--dirs		Comma-separated project path substrings to filter (OR-combined)
--json	false	Output as JSON
--yaml	false	Output as YAML

vibeview related

Reconstruct a whole multi-agent work episode from a single session ID. Given a session, related groups it with:

• Subagent transcripts — the agent-*.jsonl files the session spawned (its subagents/ directory), each shown with its agent type, description, and message/turn counts.
• Sibling sessions — other sessions from the same project whose time windows cluster with the target's. Clustering includes any session whose [start, end] window is within --gap of the target's window (overlapping or nearly so). Sessions outside the window, or in other projects, are excluded.

Accepts a full session ID or any-length ID prefix.

vibeview related 877fff1e-80c9-4d20-a600-f278eb2c7bdc
vibeview related 877fff
vibeview related --gap 1h 877fff1e
vibeview related --no-siblings 877fff1e
vibeview related --json 877fff1e

Flag	Default	Description
--gap	30m	Max gap between time windows to cluster siblings (Go duration, e.g. 10m, 1h)
--no-subagents	false	Skip the subagents section
--no-siblings	false	Skip the sibling-sessions section
--json	false	Emit the grouped structure (target, subagents, siblings) as JSON for scripting
--no-color	false	Strip ANSI color codes

Example output

Session
  ID           7425387b-39ff-4bf5-91a9-83f210b92c5c
  Title        typescript-session-management-port
  Project      starfish
  Started      2026-07-10 15:47  (23d ago)

Subagents (2)
  AGENT ID            TYPE              DESCRIPTION                 MSGS   TURNS
  a86318110715528c0   Explore           Explore Go session code     34     20
  aec4c3c310e017380   Explore           Explore TS server code      52     31

Sibling sessions (4)
  ID        TITLE                        DATE               MSGS
  b3c400c9  websocket-server-handshake   2026-07-10 15:47   135
  ...

vibeview self

Discover which Claude Code session launched this process. Walks up the process tree and matches against active PID files in ~/.claude/sessions/.

vibeview self
vibeview self --json

Flag	Default	Description
--json	false	Output as JSON ({"session_id": "..."})

This is useful when running vibeview from within a Claude Code tool-use context (e.g. a Bash tool call) to identify and inspect the current session.

Example output

Session:  877fff1e-80c9-4d20-a600-f278eb2c7bdc

Commands:
  vibeview inspect 877fff1e-80c9-4d20-a600-f278eb2c7bdc
  vibeview show 877fff1e-80c9-4d20-a600-f278eb2c7bdc
  vibeview sessions

When no matching session is found:

error: no active Claude Code session found for this process tree

vibeview completion

Generate shell autocompletion scripts for bash, zsh, fish, or powershell.

# Generate and load completions for your shell
vibeview completion bash > /etc/bash_completion.d/vibeview
vibeview completion zsh > "${fpath[1]}/_vibeview"
vibeview completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/vibeview.fish
vibeview completion powershell > vibeview.ps1

Supported shells: bash, zsh, fish, powershell. Run vibeview completion <shell> --help for shell-specific setup instructions.

Global flags

These flags are available on all commands:

Flag	Default	Description
--claude-dir	~/.claude	Path to claude data directory
--log-level	warn	Log level: debug, warn, error
--version		Print version and exit (no -v shorthand; -v is used by inspect for --verbose)

Environment variables

Variable	Default	Description
CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR	~/.claude	Claude data directory, if --claude-dir is not given (see Session discovery).
VIBEVIEW_COST_ENABLED	(off)	Show cost ($) figures in the CLI and web UI. Set to 1/true to enable.
NO_COLOR		If set, disables ANSI colors in CLI output.

Cost display is off by default

Cost ($) figures are hidden by default in both the CLI and the web UI while token→cost estimation is being reworked for accuracy. Interactive sessions carry per-message token counts but no authoritative cost, and estimating from a model pricing table is not yet reliable enough to show.

Set VIBEVIEW_COST_ENABLED=1 to turn cost back on for both surfaces at runtime — no rebuild:

VIBEVIEW_COST_ENABLED=1 vibeview web     # or: export it for the whole session
VIBEVIEW_COST_ENABLED=1 vibeview stats

Machine-readable output (--json / --yaml) is unaffected: it still includes authoritative cost where a session provides it. See docs/cost.md in the repo for the full rationale and the path to re-enabling.

Session discovery

vibeview automatically discovers sessions from Claude Code's data directory (~/.claude/projects/). No configuration is needed. The web server watches the session directory and picks up new sessions in real time.

The data directory is resolved in this order:

1. The --claude-dir flag, if provided.
2. The CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR environment variable, if set.
3. The default ~/.claude.

Aliasing

If you prefer a shorter command, add an alias to your shell profile:

alias vv=vibeview

Then use vv inspect, vv search, etc.