Problem

Currently the ⚡ lightning bolt indicator shows when a message is being processed, but users have no visibility into token consumption or costs during the conversation.

Proposed Solution

Enhance the ⚡ indicator to optionally display token count and cumulative cost information:

Examples:

• ⚡[1800] Hey Doug looking good! - Shows token count for this message
• ⚡[1800|/bin/zsh.03] Processing your request... - Shows tokens and cost
• ⚡[1.8K] Large response incoming... - Abbreviated format for large numbers

Configuration Options:

• show_tokens: true/false - Enable/disable token display
• show_cost: true/false - Enable/disable cost display
• format: "tokens"|"cost"|"both"|"auto" - What to show
• abbreviate_large: true/false - Use K/M notation for large numbers

Benefits

• Cost awareness: Users can see token burn in real-time
• Session budgeting: Monitor spend as conversations progress
• Model comparison: Compare token efficiency between models
• Debugging: Identify unexpectedly expensive operations
• Transparency: Clear visibility into AI resource consumption

Implementation Notes

• Should work across all channels (WebChat, WhatsApp, Discord, etc.)
• Token count from the current message's usage stats
• Cost calculated using current model's pricing
• Cumulative session totals could also be useful
• Keep format compact to avoid message clutter

Related

This complements existing /status and session_status commands by providing real-time feedback during active conversations rather than on-demand summaries.