claude-status-bar

Name: claude-status-bar
Author: m1ckc3s

Verified

A tiny macOS menu bar status indicator for Claude Code: animated icons, elapsed timer, and open/close lifecycle.

575stars

44forks

Swift

Installation

# Add to your Claude Code skills
git clone https://github.com/m1ckc3s/claude-status-bar

Getting Started

Guides for using cli tools skills like claude-status-bar.

Getting Started with AI Skills
First-time install walkthrough for Claude Code, Codex CLI, and ChatGPT.
SkillsLLM Features Guide
Voting, bookmarks, comments, comparison pages, and security scanning explained.
What is an AI Skills Marketplace?
Definitions, how marketplaces work, and how to choose between them in 2026.

Security ReportVerified

Last scanned: 6/28/2026

{
  "issues": [],
  "status": "PASSED",
  "scannedAt": "2026-06-28T07:51:28.200Z",
  "npmAuditRan": true,
  "pipAuditRan": true,
  "promptInjectionRan": true
}

README.md

Frequently Asked Questions

What is claude-status-bar?

claude-status-bar is an open-source cli tools skill for AI coding assistants such as Claude Code, Codex CLI, and ChatGPT, built by m1ckc3s. A tiny macOS menu bar status indicator for Claude Code: animated icons, elapsed timer, and open/close lifecycle. It has 575 GitHub stars.

Is claude-status-bar safe to use?

Yes. claude-status-bar passed SkillsLLM's automated security scan — a dependency vulnerability audit plus prompt-injection heuristics — with no high-severity issues. You can read the full report in the Security Report section on this page.

How do I install claude-status-bar?

Clone the repository with "git clone https://github.com/m1ckc3s/claude-status-bar" and add it to your Claude Code skills directory (see the Installation section above).

What programming language is claude-status-bar written in?

claude-status-bar is primarily written in Swift. It is open-source under m1ckc3s on GitHub, so you can review or fork the full source.

Are there alternatives to claude-status-bar?

Yes. SkillsLLM lists many other CLI Tools skills you can browse and compare side by side. Open the CLI Tools category from the badge at the top of this page, or use the Related Skills and comparison links further down to weigh claude-status-bar against similar tools.

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Signed and notarized by Apple

Claude Status Bar

A tiny macOS menu bar app that shows Claude Code's live status: an animated Claude icon while it's thinking or running a tool, a yellow dot when it's awaiting your permission, and the elapsed time of the current turn. Lightweight, no window, no dock icon, no usage dashboards.

Built so you can tab away during a long "thinking" stretch and still see, at a glance, whether Claude is working, waiting on you, or done.

What it shows

Thinking / working — the icon animates, with a live 1m 1s timer.
Running a tool — a short label (Editing, Reading, Running command, Using tool, …).
Awaiting permission — a paused yellow dot, in both the CLI and the Desktop app.
Idle / done — rests on the Claude logo.

Everything is controlled from the menu:

Show timer: toggle the elapsed 1m 1s clock.
Thinking words: rotate a playful verb (Manifesting…, Percolating…) in place of Thinking…, like Claude Code (on by default).
Animation style:
- Claude Spark, the web/chat "morph" spark
- Claude Code, the terminal glyph spinner
- Crab Walking, a pixel-art Clawd crab that scuttles while Claude works
Icon color: Orange or System (adaptive black/white). All three styles follow this setting: in System mode Crab Walking renders as a shaded monochrome silhouette that matches the menu bar.
Version and update: the menu shows your current version, with a one-click "Update available" when a newer release exists.

Multi-session support. When several Claude Code sessions run at once (multiple terminals, or a terminal plus the desktop app), the menu bar surfaces the highest-priority one: a session awaiting your permission is never hidden behind one that's thinking. The dropdown lists every live session. Precise per-tab focus is in progress: issue #19 →.

Where it works

Surface	Tracked?
Claude Code CLI (terminal)	✅
Claude Code Desktop — Code tab	✅
Cursor (Claude Code extension)	✅
Claude Desktop — Chat/Cowork tab	❌

Install

Option A — DMG (recommended)

Signed and notarized.

Download the latest ClaudeStatusBar.dmg from Releases.
Open it and drag Claude Status Bar into Applications.
Launch it once. On first launch it wires up the Claude Code hooks for you automatically.
Start a new Claude Code session, the icon appears whenever Claude Code is running.

Updating

[!IMPORTANT] Updated mid-session? Sessions already open won't show up until they do something (send a prompt) or you start a new claude session.

Download the latest DMG and drag it into Applications (choose Replace). That's it: it refreshes its own hooks the next time it starts up (on a version change it re-runs its installer automatically), so there's nothing to run by hand. Your next Claude Code session picks them up.

Requirements

macOS 12+
Claude Code (CLI or the Desktop app)
Node.js

Option B — Claude Code plugin

Installs the hooks (status + open/close lifecycle) automatically from inside Claude Code:

/plugin marketplace add m1ckc3s/claude-status-bar
/plugin install claude-status-bar@claude-status-bar

The plugin installs the hooks but not the app itself, so drag Claude Status Bar into Applications once (from the DMG). The plugin launches it automatically on session start.

How it works

The app is stateless. Claude Code fires hooks as it works; the app polls those updates and aggregates them across every live session into a single icon, a permission dot if one needs you, animating if any session is working, resting when all are idle. It launches itself when Claude Code opens and quits when nothing's running, so there's nothing to manage.

The installer merges its hooks into ~/.claude/settings.json (backing it up first), and the app's only network call is a once-a-day GitHub release check (details).

Troubleshooting

Icon quitting right after you open it, not showing, or not moving in Cursor? See Troubleshooting, most of it is expected behavior, not a bug.

Uninstall

node "/Applications/ClaudeStatusBar.app/Contents/Resources/uninstall.js"   # removes only our hooks

Then drag the app to the Trash.

Acknowledgements

I built this for myself, then open-sourced it because other people might find it handy too, and I'm genuinely thrilled that so many of you do. An extra thank-you to everyone who went the extra mile and contributed code, fixes, and ideas.

See the contributors →

Trademark / Not Affiliated

This is an unofficial, open-source side project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Anthropic. "Claude" and the Claude spark logo are trademarks of Anthropic, used here nominatively. This project is MIT licensed, but that covers the source code only and conveys no rights to Anthropic's trademarks or brand.

If I'm violating or impeding your trademark, Contact me on X (@mickces) This is a free side project; I'm not monetizing it.

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for what fits, what doesn't, and how to build.

License

MIT