Zellaude

A Zellij status bar plugin that replaces the default tab bar with Claude Code activity awareness.

Features

• Full tab bar — shows all Zellij tabs (not just Claude sessions), replacing the native tab bar
• Session & mode display — shows the Zellij session name and current input mode (NORMAL, LOCKED, PANE, etc.) with color-coded indicators
• Live activity indicators — see what every Claude Code session is doing at a glance; non-Claude tabs shown dimly
• Clickable tabs — click any tab to switch to it
• Smart pane focus — clicking a waiting (⚠) session focuses the exact pane so you can respond to the permission prompt immediately
• Permission flash — sessions pulse bright yellow for 2 seconds when a permission request arrives
• Desktop notifications — macOS notification on permission requests (rate-limited to once per 10s per tab), with click-to-focus support via terminal-notifier
• Elapsed time — shows how long a session has been in its current state (after 30s), making it easy to spot stuck sessions
• Multi-instance sync — all Zellij tabs show a unified view of all sessions

Activity symbols

Symbol	Meaning
$\color{#b4afc3}{◆}$	Session starting
$\color{#b48cff}{●}$	Thinking
$\color{#ffaa32}{⚡}$	Running Bash
$\color{#ffaa32}{◉}$	Reading / searching files
$\color{#ffaa32}{✎}$	Editing / writing files
$\color{#ffaa32}{⊜}$	Spawning subagent
$\color{#ffaa32}{◈}$	Web search / fetch
$\color{#ffaa32}{⚙}$	Other tool
$\color{#50c878}{▶}$	Waiting for user prompt
$\color{#ff3c3c}{⚠}$	Waiting for permission
$\color{#50c878}{✓}$	Done
$\color{#b4afc3}{○}$	Idle

Settings

Click the Zellaude prefix on the left side of the bar to open the settings menu. Click it again (or the × button) to close. Settings are persisted to ~/.config/zellij/plugins/zellaude.json.

Setting	Options	Default	Description
Notifications	Always / Unfocused / Off	Always	Desktop notifications on permission requests. "Unfocused" only notifies when the requesting pane is on a different tab.
Flash	Persist / Brief / Off	Brief	Yellow flash on permission requests. "Persist" keeps flashing until resolved, "Brief" flashes for 2 seconds.
Elapsed time	On / Off	On	Show time since last activity (appears after 30s).

Install

Prerequisites

• Zellij
• jq — used by the hook script at runtime

Quick install

Add the plugin to your Zellij layout — that's it:

default_tab_template {
    pane size=1 borderless=true {
        plugin location="https://github.com/ishefi/zellaude/releases/latest/download/zellaude.wasm"
    }
    children
}

On first load, the plugin automatically installs the hook script and registers it with Claude Code. No cloning, no install scripts.

Build from source

Prerequisites: Rust (in addition to the above)

git clone https://github.com/ishefi/zellaude.git
cd zellaude
./install.sh

This builds the WASM plugin and copies it to ~/.config/zellij/plugins/. Hook registration happens automatically when the plugin loads.

Then add the plugin to your Zellij layout (replaces the default tab bar):

default_tab_template {
    pane size=1 borderless=true {
        plugin location="file:~/.config/zellij/plugins/zellaude.wasm"
    }
    children
}

Or try the included layout directly:

zellij --layout layout.kdl

Optional: click-to-focus notifications

For desktop notifications that focus the right pane when clicked, install terminal-notifier:

brew install terminal-notifier

Without it, notifications still appear via osascript but clicking them won't focus the pane.

Uninstall

./install.sh --uninstall

How it works

Two components:

1. WASM plugin — runs inside Zellij, receives events, maintains state in memory, renders the status bar, sends desktop notifications. On first load, writes the hook script to ~/.config/zellij/plugins/zellaude-hook.sh and registers it in ~/.claude/settings.json.
2. Hook script — a thin bash bridge that forwards Claude Code hook events to the plugin via zellij pipe

Claude Code hook → zellaude-hook.sh → zellij pipe → plugin → render

The hook script and registration are version-tagged and updated automatically when the plugin version changes.

All state lives in WASM memory. No temp files, no race conditions. Multiple plugin instances (one per tab) sync state automatically via inter-plugin messaging. Sessions are cleaned up automatically when tabs are closed.

License

MIT