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Monitor Agent Performance with Turn Statistics

Track tokens, time, and turns in real-time for better AI interaction insights

ai beginner January 22, 2026 · JosephTLyons
#agent #ai #performance #monitoring

When working with the Agent panel, understanding the performance and cost of your AI interactions can be valuable. The turn statistics feature displays real-time metrics about your agent conversations.

What You’ll See

With turn statistics enabled, the agent panel displays:

  • Timer: How long the current operation has been running
  • Token count: Number of tokens used in the conversation
  • Turn indicator: Whose turn it is (you or the agent)

This helps you:

  • Estimate costs based on token usage
  • Understand how “expensive” a request might be
  • Get a sense of how much effort the agent is putting into a task
  • Monitor performance in real-time

How to Enable

Add this to your settings.json:

{
  "agent": {
    "show_turn_stats": true
  }
}

By default, this setting is false to keep the interface clean. Enable it when you want detailed insights into your agent interactions.

Why It’s Useful

This feature originated from Claude Code and helps developers:

  • Budget wisely: Track token usage to manage API costs
  • Optimize prompts: See which interactions use more resources
  • Debug issues: Understand if the agent is working or stuck
  • Learn patterns: Notice which tasks require more tokens/time

Perfect for power users who want visibility into their AI assistant’s resource usage!


Related PR: #46390