Laser based directed energy deposition (DED) is a category of additive manufacturing (AM) that employs a laser to melt and deposit either powder or wire feedstock to build up standalone features or resurface existing components making DED a practical option for repair. The use of DED to repair parts in the aerospace and defense industries has helped to reduce costs of replacement parts. Currently, however, DED lacks the reliability of other manufacturing processes. Many researchers have developed in-situ monitoring methods of key process parameters of the DED process. However, few studies have focused on a method to monitor the powder flow, a parameter that is critical to the success of a DED repair. And none have related variations in powder flow directly to deposition geometry and quality with data collected in-situ. This work presents methods to monitor the powder flow rate and spatial powder flow distribution below the nozzle exit. In-situ powder flow monitoring analysis methods are developed and used to identify anomalies in the powder flow from nozzle exit through the powder focal plane. The ability for the system to detect a powder flow anomaly that impacts deposition quality is validated by performing a set of experiments that show irregular powder flow yields reduced build height.