A Programmer Built a Small Screen That Shows Him How Much He's Using AI

Hermann Bjorgvin made a small desktop gadget called Clawdmeter that displays how much he's using Claude, an AI coding assistant. The gadget is built around an ESP32, a cheap programmable computer chip, connected to a tiny 2.16-inch screen. It shows him his token consumption — essentially, how many requests he's making to the AI — in real time on his desk.

What the Hardware Does

The heart of Clawdmeter is a Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-AMOLED-2.16 development board. That's a microcontroller (a small computer that does one job well) paired with a high-quality display.

The ESP32-S3 is a popular chip among hobbyists and makers. It's small, cheap, can connect to Wi-Fi, and runs fast enough for this job. The screen attached to it is an AMOLED display, which means it's bright, shows pure blacks clearly, and uses less power than older LCD screens. Think of it like the difference between a glossy magazine page and a flat piece of paper — the AMOLED just looks crisper.

How It Gets the Data

The gadget doesn't talk to the internet to fetch usage numbers. Instead, it reads directly from the files on Bjorgvin's computer where Claude Code stores its usage information. That data lives in a folder called .claude/ on his machine.

This is a smart design choice. Once the ESP32 is set up on his local network, it doesn't need the internet to work. It just checks those files every so often to see what the latest numbers are.

What You See on the Screen

The small screen displays how many tokens — the "currency" of AI usage — Bjorgvin has used. It might show how much he's used today, or in his current work session, or even older data if it's available.

AMOLED screens are especially good at this job because they're designed to show text and numbers clearly. They also don't use much power when displaying mostly dark backgrounds with bright text, which is what a dashboard like this would do.

Why a Physical Screen Matters

Most of the time, when you use a program, all your information lives inside your computer. You have to open a window or tab to see it. Bjorgvin wanted something different — a dedicated screen sitting on his desk that he could glance at without switching away from his code.

This solves a real problem with AI coding assistants. When you're focused on writing code, tokens get used up quickly, and you might not notice how much you've spent. A notification that pops up can get lost among all your other alerts. But a little screen sitting there, always visible, reminds you without getting in the way.

How It Actually Works Behind the Scenes

The ESP32 probably checks the usage files on Bjorgvin's computer every few seconds or minutes. To do this, it needs to connect to his computer through the local network — using a system that shares files over a home or office network, not the internet.

The dual-core processor in the ESP32 (meaning it has two processing brains working at once) handles the network checking in the background while keeping the screen responsive to touch if you want to change what's displayed.

What This Means More Broadly

Bjorgvin released Clawdmeter as open-source code, meaning anyone can download it and build their own version. Some people might modify it to track other AI tools, or add different metrics beyond just tokens.

As AI assistants become part of everyday coding work, people will probably want better ways to see how much they're using them. Right now, projects like Clawdmeter are still novel — they're something a skilled programmer builds for themselves. But over time, this kind of usage information might become a standard feature built into the tools themselves.

The interesting thing here is that even as software gets more powerful, dedicated hardware — a simple screen that does one job — still has a place. A physical display offers something software windows can't: it's always there, always visible, and it doesn't compete for attention with the dozen other windows on your screen.