CCCandybar

Powerline statusline for Claude Code — daemon-backed, config-driven, zero-config-file required.

What it is

CCCandybar is a statusline renderer for Claude Code. It shows session cost, context usage, git status, model info, rate-limit utilization, and more, configured through a JSON5 DSL with hot-reloading.

A background daemon caches git state, usage data, and per-session values across concurrent Claude Code sessions. The renderer connects to the daemon over a Unix socket, so every invocation is fast (~50ms budget) and stateful.

Quick start

pnpm dlx @promptctl/cc-candybar@latest install

That single command (re-run it any time to update to the latest release):

1. Stages the runtime at a stable path independent of any package-manager cache — ~/Library/Application Support/CCCandybar/ on macOS, $XDG_DATA_HOME/cc-candybar/ on Linux — as bin/cc-candybar (the prebuilt native render binary for your platform, or a node entry where none exists) beside dist/index.mjs (the daemon + CLI bundle).
2. On macOS, builds ~/Applications/CCCandybarURLHandler.app and registers the cc-candybar:// URL scheme with Launch Services.
3. Writes the staged bin/cc-candybar path as the statusline command into ~/.claude/settings.json (skipped with a notice if you've customized the command; --force overwrites).

Restart Claude Code. The statusline appears with the bundled default layout — an identity row (directory, gitaculous, toolbar) over a status row (model, context, cacheTimer, block, weekly). On macOS, Cmd-clicking clickable cells fires cc-candybar:// URL verbs that the daemon dispatches (via the URL handler registered in step 2).

Customization

Drop a .cc-candybar.json5 (or .cc-candybar.json — both extensions are accepted) at any of these locations (highest precedence first):

1. $CC_CANDYBAR_CONFIG (literal path, supports ~ expansion)
2. <project>/.cc-candybar.json5 (then .json at the same location)
3. <cwd>/.cc-candybar.json5 (then .json)
4. $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/cc-candybar/config.json5 (then .json; defaults to ~/.config/cc-candybar/config.json5)

JSON is a strict subset of JSON5, so the same parser handles both — .json5 is the documented format (supports inline comments, trailing commas, unquoted keys), .json is the legacy/compat extension. When both exist at the same location, .json5 wins and the bar shows a persistent warning so you can remove the shadowed duplicate.

The file is a complete replacement for the bundled default — no merge layer. Start by copying src/demo/statusline.json5 from the repo as a minimal example, or src/config/default-dsl-config.ts for the full standard library.

// minimal example — user, directory, branch, model, session, clock
{
  globals: { palette: 'textual-dark' },
  variables: {
    user:    { kind: 'env', name: 'USER', default: 'anon' },
    cwd:     { kind: 'input', path: 'workspace.current_dir', default: '?' },
    branch:  { kind: 'shell', command: 'git branch --show-current',
               cache: { ttl: '5s' }, default: '' },
    clock:   { kind: 'time', layout: '15:04:05', cache: { ttl: '1s' } },
    // per-segment hue rotation (degrees), read by the renderer. A literal pins
    // it; make it `{ kind: 'state', key: 'hue-step' }` + a stepper widget to
    // adjust it live.
    'hue.step': { kind: 'literal', value: 14 },
  },
  segments: {
    user:      { template: ' {{ .user }} ',   bg: 'primary', fg: 'auto' },
    directory: { template: ' {{ basename .cwd }} ', bg: 'surface', fg: 'foreground' },
    branch:    { template: ' {{ .branch }} ', bg: 'accent',  fg: 'auto',
                 when: '{{ ne .branch "" }}' },
    clock:     { template: ' {{ .clock }} ',  bg: 'primary', fg: 'auto' },
  },
  layout: ['user', 'directory', 'branch', 'clock'],
}

Saving the file triggers a hot-reload of every active session.

Architecture

┌─────────────┐   Unix socket   ┌──────────────────┐
│ Claude Code │ ──────────────► │ cc-candybar daemon│
│  (hook)     │   render req    │                  │
│             │ ◄────────────── │  git cache       │
└─────────────┘   ANSI output   │  usage cache     │
                                │  session state   │
                                │  render cache    │
                                └──────────────────┘

• Daemon (src/daemon/) — long-lived background process. One per user. Caches git state via filesystem watchers, usage data, and per-session key/value state. Runs until it exits on an RSS backstop (default 512 MB) or the host restarts; there is no idle or age timeout.
• Client (src/daemon/client.ts) — each Claude Code hook invocation connects to the daemon, sends a render request, and prints the ANSI response. On failure, spawns a fresh daemon and emits empty output.
• Renderer (src/render/, src/segments/) — segments produce styled output from cached data. Themes cascade from defaults through palette resolution using OKLCH color math.
• TUI grid (src/tui/) — CSS Grid-inspired layout engine with breakpoints, column sizing (auto, 1fr, fixed), spanning, and automatic culling of empty segments.

Segments

| Segment | Shows | Symbol | |---------|-------|--------| | directory | CWD name (full, fish, basename) | — | | git | Branch, SHA, working tree, upstream, stash, tags | ⎇ | | model | Current Claude model | ✱ | | session | Per-session cost/tokens/breakdown | § | | today | Daily usage with budget monitoring | ☉ | | context | Context window usage with auto-compact threshold | ◔ | | block | 5-hour rate-limit utilization | ◱ | | weekly | 7-day rolling rate-limit utilization | ◑ | | metrics | Response time, duration, lines changed | ⧖ | | version | Claude Code version | ◈ | | tmux | tmux session name | — | | sessionId | Session identifier (cmd-click to copy) | ⌗ | | env | Arbitrary environment variable | ⚙ |

Each segment is a DSL declaration with a template (text + interpolation + style functions), a bg/fg palette spec, and optional when predicate. Templates compose freely — every formatter in the bundled function library (formatCost, formatTokens, formatLongTimeRemaining, budgetStatus, link, urlEncode, the sprig string/list/dict library, …) is available in every segment.

Themes

The DSL config picks a base palette via globals.palette (e.g. textual-dark, gruvbox). Each segment may override with its own palette: field, and bg/fg evaluate as palette spec names (primary, surface, panel, accent, foreground, auto, warning, error, …). Color math runs through OKLCH for perceptual uniformity; the hue.step variable (read via the conventional HUE_STEP_VAR name) rotates adjacent segments by that many degrees to keep them visually distinct without authoring per-segment colors — a literal pins it, a state var driven by a stepper widget makes it adjustable live.

Installation

Requires Node.js 20.19+ (within the 20.x line) or 22.12+, Claude Code, and Git 2.0+. For best display, install a Nerd Font so the powerline glyphs render correctly.

Manual setup

Run the install once to stage the runtime, then point ~/.claude/settings.json at the staged entry (this is also exactly what install writes):

{
  "statusLine": {
    "type": "command",
    "command": "'/Users/you/Library/Application Support/CCCandybar/bin/cc-candybar'"
  }
}

Developing against a checkout

just deploy builds dist/index.mjs and stages the native binary at bin/cc-candybar-native — point your statusline command at that path. On a machine without cargo, pnpm install && pnpm build builds only the bundle — point your statusline at the committed bin/cc-candybar node entry instead. Either way the bar renders HEAD; the daemon watches the built bundle and respawns itself on rebuild.

Config file

Customization lives in .cc-candybar.json5. See the Customization section above for the resolution order. Saved edits hot-reload — no restart needed.

Contributing

Contributions welcome. See CONTRIBUTORS.md for people who have contributed outside of GitHub PRs.

License

MIT