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Budgetary: estimate token spend

Official registry Developer tools

Pre-flight token-spend estimate (range, scenario, confidence) for a coding task, or an abstention.

Source code Website Documentation

Install

Add this to your client's MCP configuration (Claude Desktop: claude_desktop_config.json; Cursor: .cursor/mcp.json; VS Code and others use the same "mcpServers" shape).

NPM package @budgetary/mcp
Claude Code 
claude mcp add budgetary-estimate-token-spend -e 'BUDGETARY_API_KEY=<your budgetary_api_key>' -e 'BUDGETARY_HOST=<BUDGETARY_HOST>' -- npx -y @budgetary/mcp@0.13.0
JSON configuration (Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code) 
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "budgetary-estimate-token-spend": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "@budgetary/mcp@0.13.0"
            ],
            "env": {
                "BUDGETARY_API_KEY": "<your budgetary_api_key>",
                "BUDGETARY_HOST": "<BUDGETARY_HOST>"
            }
        }
    }
}

Environment variables

  • BUDGETARY_API_KEY required secret Budgetary API key (bg_live_ or bg_test_ prefix). Get one at https://budgetary.tools.
  • BUDGETARY_HOST Optional tag naming the MCP host this server runs under — e.g. claude-code, cursor, codex, copilot. It labels each estimate with where it came from, and an explicit value overrides the host name the MCP handshake reports. Free-form; defaults to "mcp" when unset.

Documentation

From the project's README on GitHub, refreshed weekly. Links open on GitHub.

Contents
  1. Budgetary clients
  2. Quick example
  3. Install
  4. API
  5. Status
  6. License

Budgetary clients

Budgetary tells you how many tokens an LLM query will cost — before you run it.

Budgetary is a hosted API at https://api.budgetary.tools that returns probabilistic pre-inference token-spend estimates for LLM queries. This repository holds the open-source clients that talk to it: language SDKs and editor plugins.

Quick example

import { BudgetaryClient } from "@budgetary/sdk";

const budgetary = new BudgetaryClient({ apiKey: process.env.BUDGETARY_API_KEY! });
const estimate = await budgetary.estimate("Summarize the attached PDF in three bullets.");

The SDK in this release is a stub — the call above illustrates the shape of the API surface, not a working implementation.

Install

See docs/installation.md for per-client setup:

  • TypeScript / JavaScript SDK — @budgetary/sdk on npm
  • Python SDK — budgetary on PyPI
  • VS Code extension (dashboard)
  • Claude Code plugin
  • Codex plugin

API

Bearer-auth HTTP API at https://api.budgetary.tools. The wire contract is published at docs/api-contract.md.

Status

Early access. The hosted API is live, but client interfaces may change between releases until they reach 1.0. Pin exact versions in production.

License

Apache-2.0. Copyright Budgetary.

Frequently asked questions

What is Budgetary: estimate token spend?

Pre-flight token-spend estimate (range, scenario, confidence) for a coding task, or an abstention.

How do I install Budgetary: estimate token spend?

It runs on your machine. In Claude Code: claude mcp add budgetary-estimate-token-spend -e 'BUDGETARY_API_KEY=<your budgetary_api_key>' -e 'BUDGETARY_HOST=<BUDGETARY_HOST>' -- npx -y @budgetary/mcp@0.13.0. For other clients, paste the JSON configuration from this page into their MCP settings.

Does Budgetary: estimate token spend need an API key?

Yes. It expects BUDGETARY_API_KEY, which you set in its configuration.

Is Budgetary: estimate token spend open source?

Yes. Its code is on GitHub under the Apache-2.0 license.

Who maintains Budgetary: estimate token spend?

It is published by thriftell. AI.tn lists it but does not maintain or endorse it.

From the official MCP Registry. Listing is not an endorsement: review a server's code and permissions before giving it access to your data.