cost-guard vs ai.circulara/plugin
cost-guard is a plugin bundle for AI coding tools published by oggeh-dev. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Claude Code: claude-plugins-community). ai.circulara/plugin is an MCP server published by circulara.ai. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Official MCP Registry). As of our marketplace pass on 2026-10-17. This pair was picked by a reader, not by our comparison rule, so search engines are asked not to index the page.
Where each is published
| Marketplace |  cost-guard | |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code: claude-plugins-community | Listed Version: 0.2.0 Forks (GitHub): 1 Stars (GitHub): 1 Not marked · First seen |
Not listed |
| Official MCP Registry | Not listed | Listed Version: 0.1.2 Downloads/month (npm): 229 Downloads/week (npm): 47 Not marked · First seen |
Each figure is the marketplace's own and is never added up across marketplaces. A marketplace that publishes no figure shows none: no number is not zero.
The facts side by side
| Fact | cost-guard | ai.circulara/plugin |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplaces that list it | 1 | 1 |
| Stars (GitHub) (differs) | 1 | No figure on GitHub |
| Forks (GitHub) (differs) | 1 | No figure on GitHub |
| Last release | Not published | Not published |
| Where it runs (differs) | Installs as a plugin bundle | On your machine (@circulara/plugin) |
| Transport (differs) | Not stated | stdio |
| Tools it declares | Not published | Not published |
| Environment variables it asks for (differs) | Not published | 5, secrets among them: 1 |
| Hooks it runs (differs) | 6 | Not published |
| Parts of the bundle (differs) | 17 | Not a bundle |
| Licence (differs) | MIT | Not stated |
| Repository (differs) | github.com/oggeh-dev/claude-cost-guard | github.com/circularroute/circulara-core |
| Changes in the last 7 days | 0 | 0 |
| First seen | 2026-10-11 | 2026-10-11 |
Lines where the two differ have a tinted background and bold values. Where the data itself says which value is better (more marketplaces, a larger figure of the same marketplace, a fresher release, a verified mark on a marketplace that lists both), the better one is also marked green with ▲ and the worse one red with ▼. Where it runs, the transport, the tools, the settings, hooks, the bundle's parts, the licence and the week's changes are marked only as different: more or fewer is not better in itself.
What each says it does
cost-guard
Real-time USD cost enforcement for Claude Code. Halts runaway agentic loops mid-step before they burn through your budget. The plugin enforces real-time USD cost limits in Claude Code. It uses hooks to read the session's the moment any cap is crossed — between tool batches, between turns, or at prompt-submit time. The result: a single greedy turn cannot spiral into a $30+ spend, sessions cannot silently accumulate cost over hours, and runaway burn rates are stopped before they hurt. Five configurable USD-based caps: • Per-session total spend • Per-step (prompt → response) cost • Trailing 5-minute burn rate • Per-step subagent fan-out count • Compaction gate (blocks the expensive context-compaction model call when limits are tight) Eleven slash commands for status, runtime config, pause/resume, and an optional bottom-row indicator. The indicator shows session spend, rate, current step cost, context %, and (on Claude.ai Pro/Max) 5-hour slot consumption with an estimated USD plan value. It composes with any exis
ai.circulara/plugin
Circulara Observe MCP plugin - meters your AI agents' token spend and carbon, free tier.
How to run each
cost-guard As a Claude Code plugin
/plugin marketplace add anthropics/claude-plugins-community
/plugin install cost-guard@claude-communityai.circulara/plugin As a local MCP server: npm package
claude mcp add --env "CIRCULARA_BACKEND_URL=<YOUR_CIRCULARA_BACKEND_URL>" --env "CIRCULARA_SEAT_ID=<YOUR_CIRCULARA_SEAT_ID>" --env "CIRCULARA_TENANT_ID=<YOUR_CIRCULARA_TENANT_ID>" --env "CIRCULARA_TOKEN=<YOUR_CIRCULARA_TOKEN>" --env "CIRCULARA_USER_ID=<YOUR_CIRCULARA_USER_ID>" --transport stdio plugin -- npx -y -p @circulara/plugin circulara-mcp @circulara/pluginRequires: CIRCULARA_BACKEND_URL, CIRCULARA_SEAT_ID, CIRCULARA_TENANT_ID, CIRCULARA_TOKEN (secret), CIRCULARA_USER_ID
Commands built only from what the marketplaces declare; the full set for every client is on each card.
Tools each declares
Neither one's marketplaces publish a list of tools, so there is nothing to compare.
Settings each asks for
The marketplaces of cost-guard publish no settings it asks for, so we do not compare settings.
What it can do: cost-guard · What it can do: ai.circulara/plugin · Compare two other plugins
Data comes from the public marketplace file https://github.com/anthropics/claude-plugins-community/blob/HEAD/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json. Data comes from the Official MCP Registry (registry.modelcontextprotocol.io), CC0 1.0. Figures come from our own regular passes over the marketplaces, last read on . We publish no contact details for plugin publishers.