File: C:/Users/fred/.codex/.tmp/plugins/plugins/plugin-eval/references/observed-usage.md
# Observed Usage Inputs
`plugin-eval` can ingest local JSON or JSONL files that contain token telemetry from real runs.
## Supported Shapes
The parser accepts these common patterns:
- a Responses API object with a top-level `usage`
- a `response.done` event with `response.usage`
- a wrapper object with `response.usage`
- arrays of the objects above
- JSONL files where each line is one object
## Example
```json
{
"id": "resp_123",
"usage": {
"input_tokens": 180,
"output_tokens": 96,
"total_tokens": 276,
"input_token_details": {
"cached_tokens": 48
},
"output_tokens_details": {
"reasoning_tokens": 22
}
},
"metadata": {
"scenario": "cold-start refactor task"
}
}
```
## CLI
```bash
plugin-eval analyze ./skills/my-skill --observed-usage ./runs/responses.jsonl
plugin-eval measurement-plan ./skills/my-skill --observed-usage ./runs/responses.jsonl --format markdown
```
## Interpretation
- Static budgets remain the deterministic local estimate.
- Observed usage adds a second signal based on real sessions.
- The tool compares `trigger_cost_tokens + invoke_cost_tokens` against the observed average input tokens.
- Cached and reasoning tokens are reported when present so warm-cache runs do not get mistaken for cold-start runs.