Promptmeter

Pre-flight token count and cost estimation for Cursor / VS Code — before you hit send.

Features

• Live status bar — token count and estimated cost updates as you type, on every file
• Clipboard auto-watcher — copy your prompt anywhere → cost estimate appears instantly (no button press)
• Sidebar panel — model picker, cursor mode selector, output size override, cost breakdown, pool burn tracker
• Cursor mode presets — Ask / Edit / Agent / Debug / Plan — each with tuned output token and step estimates
• Output size override — Minimal / Low / Auto / Large / XL — fine-tune output token estimate on top of mode default
• Cursor-native models — Composer 1.5, Composer 1, and Auto (plan) all supported
• Auto mode shadow pricing — shows what a turn would cost, with 2.6–3.6× Cursor overhead range
• Attach files — pick specific files to include in token count (simulates @file context)
• Smart folder scan — top 30 most-recently-modified files (simulates Cursor codebase retrieval) or full folder scan
• Cache cost row — shows estimated cost with Cursor prompt caching vs cold
• Max mode surcharge — toggle +20% for Cursor overage billing
• Cursor hooks — logs every agent turn to ~/.cursor-preflight/usage.log automatically
• Usage Log tab — turn counts by model, project, and day; monthly pool burn tracker
• Live prices — fetched from OpenRouter at startup, falls back to hardcoded table offline

Supported Models

Install

# One-time: install the VS Code packager
npm install -g @vscode/vsce

# Package the extension
cd token-preflight
vsce package --no-dependencies

# Install in Cursor
cursor --install-extension promptmeter-0.2.0.vsix

# Or in VS Code
code --install-extension promptmeter-0.2.0.vsix

Restart Cursor. You'll see:

• A speedometer icon in the left activity bar
• A token counter in the bottom-right status bar
• A 📋 clipboard status bar item (appears after first copy)
• A ✓ hooks / ⊘ hooks indicator

Keyboard Shortcut

Workflow

Draft prompt (file, editor, or anywhere)
        ↓
Copy it  →  📋 status bar updates in 1.5s
        ↓
Sidebar auto-fills + estimates
        ↓
Cost OK?  →  paste into Cursor agent box  →  send
Cost high? →  trim prompt  →  repeat
        ↓
After agent finishes  →  hook logs the turn

Setup Cursor Hooks (Usage Log)

1. Open the sidebar panel (speedometer icon)
2. Click Usage Log tab
3. Click ⚙ Setup Cursor Hooks
4. Done — every agent turn is now logged to ~/.cursor-preflight/usage.log

Or run from Command Palette: Promptmeter: Setup Cursor Hooks

Settings

Token Accuracy

For exact Claude token counts, use Anthropic's count_tokens API (free, rate-limited separately from inference).

Privacy

• No data leaves your machine except the OpenRouter price fetch (GET request, no prompt content)
• Usage log is stored locally at ~/.cursor-preflight/usage.log
• Clipboard text is processed entirely in-process; never sent anywhere