claude-stat - A Status Line for Claude Code

A compact, information-dense status line for Claude Code showing context window usage, rate limits, cache-hit percentage, model, effort level, git branch, and session totals. Zero dependencies - just Node.js.

claude-stat replaces Claude Code's default status bar with a dense, color-coded read-out of everything that matters during a coding session: how much of your context window is used, how close you are to your 5-hour and 7-day rate limits, what percentage of input tokens came from the prompt cache (i.e., nearly free), plus the model, effort level, git state, and output style. It's a single ~270-line Node.js script - no npm dependencies, no background processes, no network calls.

Features

• Model-aware context window bar - auto-detects the active model's ceiling (200k, 1M, etc.) from the Claude Code payload. Color shifts green → lime → yellow → orange → red as you fill.
• Live rate-limit display - shows % used and time-until-reset for both the Claude.ai 5-hour and 7-day quotas. Hidden for API-key users.
• Cache-hit percentage - parses the session transcript to compute the fraction of input tokens served from the prompt cache. Size-keyed cache keeps repaints cheap (typical render: 5–20 ms).
• Effort badge - LO·MD·HI·XH·MX color-coded from cheap → cost-danger, read from ~/.claude/settings.json.effortLevel.
• Git-aware - directory name + branch, orange ● for uncommitted changes, worktree badge when applicable.
• Conditional badges - vim mode (INS/NRM), subagent name, git worktree, non-default output style.
• Zero dependencies - pure Node.js standard library. No npm install, no background daemons.
• Non-destructive install - backs up ~/.claude/settings.json with a timestamped filename before touching it. Leaves hooks, plugins, env, and permissions untouched.

Install

Option 1 - One-liner via npx (recommended)

npx claude-stat

This runs the installer from the npm package. No clone required. Re-run any time to update to the latest version.

Option 2 - From source

git clone https://github.com/waelmas/claude-stat.git
cd claude-stat
node install.js

After either install path, start a new Claude Code session (or reload) - the new status line appears on the next prompt.

What the installer does

• Copies statusline.js → ~/.claude/statusline-command.js (mode 0755).
• Backs up your existing ~/.claude/settings.json to settings.json.backup-<timestamp>.
• Sets settings.json.statusLine to { "type": "command", "command": "node ~/.claude/statusline-command.js" }.
• Touches nothing else.

Manual install

If you'd rather not run the installer:

1. Copy statusline.js somewhere stable (e.g. ~/.claude/statusline-command.js).
2. In ~/.claude/settings.json, add or update:

   {
     "statusLine": {
       "type": "command",
       "command": "node /absolute/path/to/statusline-command.js"
     }
   }

3. Reload Claude Code.

What it shows

Left to right, separated by ┃:

Segment	Example	Meaning
Project + branch	claude-stat on main●	Directory name + git branch. Orange ● = uncommitted changes. Branch truncates at 22 chars.
Model + effort	Opus 4.7 XH	Model name (strips parentheticals like (1M context)). Badge = effort level: LO·MD·HI·XH·MX, colored from meh (gray) → cost-danger (red).
Context bar	[██░░░░░░] 28.4% 284k/1.0M	Fill bar for context-window usage. Color shifts green → lime → yellow → orange → red as you fill. Ceiling adapts to the active model.
Rate limits	5h:50%·3h 7d:54%·2d4h	Claude.ai subscription quotas. % used + time until reset. Hidden for API-key users.
Session totals	in↑12.2k(+98% cached) out↓353k	Cumulative billed input + output tokens. (+98% cached) = fraction of input served from the prompt cache.
Badges (conditional)	INS ⬡ agent ⎇ worktree ✳ style	Only shown when present: vim mode, subagent name, git worktree, non-default output style.

How the numbers are computed

• Context %, used, ceiling - read directly from Claude Code's statusline JSON payload (context_window.used_percentage, context_window_size, etc.). Model-aware; no hardcoded 200k.
• Billed input / output - context_window.total_input_tokens / total_output_tokens. These track uncached input - what you actually pay for.
• Cache-hit % - computed by parsing the session transcript JSONL and summing cache_read_input_tokens across all assistant turns. Formula: cache_read / (cache_read + cache_creation + fresh_input). Cache-creation is in the denominator because those tokens are billed (at the write rate). Cached by transcript file size to keep repaints cheap.
• Rate-limit % and reset time - read from rate_limits.{five_hour,seven_day}.{used_percentage,resets_at}.
• Effort badge - read from ~/.claude/settings.json.effortLevel. Per-session --effort CLI overrides are not reflected - only the persistent setting.

What resets when

Action	Context %	in↑/out↓	Cache-hit %
New session (/clear)	resets	resets	resets
Compact (/compact)	drops	keeps growing	keeps growing
Resume session	continues	continues	continues

So: drop in context bar + stable session totals = compaction. Everything at zero = new session.

Customize

All styling lives at the top of statusline.js:

• Colors - edit the ANSI color constants (GREEN, YELLOW, ORANGE, etc.). They use 256-color codes (c(n)), so you can swap any to your preferred hue.
• Thresholds - ctxBar() defines when the bar turns lime / yellow / orange / red. fmtRL() defines the same for rate-limit colors. cacheHitPct thresholds are inline where the cached-% is rendered.
• Effort badge labels / colors - EFFORT_MAP object. Change LO·MD·HI·XH·MX labels or their colors.
• Segment order / separator - scroll to the bottom where parts is assembled. Reorder the parts.push(...) calls to taste. SEP defines the group separator.
• Branch / model truncation - branch.length > 22 and modelShort.length > 20. Adjust for your terminal width.

How Claude Code statusline scripts work

On every prompt repaint, Claude Code spawns your configured statusLine.command as a subprocess and pipes a JSON payload to its stdin. Your script writes ANSI-styled text to stdout, and that becomes the status line.

The payload includes (among other fields):

{
  "session_id": "...",
  "transcript_path": "...",
  "cwd": "...",
  "model":  { "id": "...", "display_name": "..." },
  "workspace": { "current_dir": "..." },
  "context_window": {
    "total_input_tokens": 426,
    "total_output_tokens": 21654,
    "context_window_size": 1000000,
    "current_usage": { "input_tokens": 1, "cache_read_input_tokens": 53138, "...": "..." },
    "used_percentage": 6
  },
  "rate_limits": {
    "five_hour":  { "used_percentage": 50, "resets_at": 1776733200 },
    "seven_day":  { "used_percentage": 54, "resets_at": 1776970800 }
  }
}

Rendering a status line is pure formatting - almost every number you'd want is pre-computed by Claude Code. The only exception is the cache-hit %, which requires summing per-turn values across the transcript JSONL.

Performance

Every prompt repaint invokes the script, so it's engineered to be cheap:

• Git calls use GIT_OPTIONAL_LOCKS=0 so they never wait on a lock held by another process.
• Transcript parsing (for cache-hit %) is cached by transcript file size in os.tmpdir(). The JSONL file is append-only, so a matching size means nothing has changed and we reuse the cached totals. Fresh turns invalidate the cache and trigger one re-parse.
• No network calls, no dynamic dependencies, no background processes.

Typical render time: 5–20 ms.

Uninstall

npx claude-stat uninstall

Or manually:

1. Remove the statusLine key from ~/.claude/settings.json.
2. Delete ~/.claude/statusline-command.js.
3. Optionally delete cached transcript totals: rm /tmp/statusline-cache-*.json (macOS/Linux) or the equivalent in %TEMP% on Windows.

FAQ

Q: Does claude-stat work with both Claude.ai subscriptions and API keys? A: Yes. Rate-limit segments are automatically hidden when the rate_limits field is absent from the payload (the API-key case). Everything else - context window, model, cache stats - works identically.

Q: Does it work with Claude Code plugins, hooks, or output styles? A: Yes. The installer only touches the statusLine key in settings.json. Hooks, plugins, permissions, env vars, and output styles are preserved. Non-default output styles show up as a ✳ style-name badge.

Q: Why is my cache-hit percentage lower than expected? A: Claude Code's prompt cache writes new entries at a higher token cost than reads (cache-write vs. cache-read pricing). claude-stat counts cache-creation tokens in the denominator of the cache-hit % because they're billed (just at the write rate), so they're honestly "not a hit." Pure cache-read percentage would look higher but would overstate the cost savings.

Q: Can I use this with git worktrees? A: Yes. When a Claude Code session is in a git worktree, the ⎇ worktree-name badge appears. Branch, dirty state, and project name all resolve correctly inside worktrees.

Q: Does it support vim mode? A: Yes. When input.vim.mode is present, an INS (green) or NRM (yellow) badge appears.

Q: Is claude-stat affiliated with Anthropic? A: No. It's an independent open-source project. Claude Code is Anthropic's official CLI; claude-stat is a community-built renderer for the statusLine extension point that Claude Code exposes.

Q: Does it run on Windows? A: Yes, on Windows with Node.js installed. The installer uses cross-platform path joins. On Windows, the temp cache lives in %TEMP% instead of /tmp. Git commands work via the system git on PATH.

Q: How do I change colors or the segment order? A: Edit ~/.claude/statusline-command.js directly after install - color constants and the parts.push(...) assembly are at the top and bottom of the file respectively. See the Customize section above.

Q: Will heavy transcript parsing slow down my prompt? A: No. The cache-hit % calculation is memoized by transcript file size and stored in os.tmpdir(). A repaint with no new assistant turns is effectively free. Full typical render time is 5–20 ms.

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome at github.com/waelmas/claude-stat. Scope is intentionally narrow: a fast, zero-dependency status line. New segments should keep the "5–20 ms render" budget.

License

MIT - see LICENSE.