Why?

Claude Code doesn't show you how much a session is costing, how full your context window is, or how long you've been going. claude-bar adds a status line at the bottom of your terminal with all of that — and lets you pick how it looks.

Themes

Six built-in styles. Switch anytime. Zero restart.

 emoji       📂 myproject | 🔢 322K ($5.02) | 📊 ████░░░░░░ 43% | ⏱ 1h10m | 🤖 Opus 4.6
 minimal     myproject ~ main +3-1 ~ tok:322K $5.02 ~ ctx:43% ~ t:1h10m ~ Opus 4.6
 ascii       [DIR:myproject] [GIT:main +3-1] [TOK:322K $5.02] [CTX:43%] [Opus 4.6]
 compact     myproject|main+3-1|322K$5.0|43%|1h10m|O46
 powerline   ▌ myproject ▌ main +3-1 ▌ 322K $5.02 ▌ CTX:43% ▌ Opus 4.6 ▌
 nerd         myproject │  main │  322K ($5.02) │ ▓▓▓▓░░░░░░ 43% │  Opus 4.6

nerd and powerline require a Nerd Font or Powerline-patched font.

Preview them live in your terminal:

claude-bar theme preview

Setup

Requires jq (brew install jq / apt install jq) and Claude Code v2.1+.

npm (recommended):

npm install -g claude-bar
claude-bar             # interactive — choose a theme
claude-bar -y          # skip prompts, use defaults

npx (no install):

npx claude-bar
npx claude-bar -y

git:

git clone https://github.com/AbdulrahmanMasoud/claude-bar.git ~/.claude/claude-bar
cd ~/.claude/claude-bar
bash bin/claude-bar

Then restart Claude Code. That's it.

1. Verifies jq is available
2. Copies runtime scripts to ~/.claude/
3. Installs theme files to ~/.claude/themes/
4. Writes config to ~/.claude/claude-bar.conf
5. Backs up ~/.claude/settings.json
6. Adds the statusLine entry:

   { "statusLine": { "type": "command", "command": "bash ~/.claude/statusline.sh" } }

What you get

| | Section | Example | |-|---------|---------| | Dir | Project name | myproject | | Git | Branch + changes | main +12 -3 | | Tokens | Session usage + cost | 322K ($5.02) | | Context | Window usage bar | ████░░░░░░ 43% | | Time | Session duration | 1h10m | | Model | Active model | Opus 4.6 | | Today | Daily tokens + cost | 450K ($7.80) | | Month | Monthly spend | $42.50 |

Every section can be toggled on/off or reordered.

Configure

Edit ~/.claude/claude-bar.conf:

THEME=emoji                    # any built-in or custom theme name

SECTION_DIR=1                  # 1 = visible, 0 = hidden
SECTION_GIT=1
SECTION_SESSION=1
SECTION_CONTEXT=1
SECTION_SESSION_TIME=1
SECTION_MEM=0
SECTION_MODEL=1
SECTION_TODAY=1
SECTION_MONTH=1

SECTION_ORDER="dir,git,session,context,time,model,today,month"

Changes apply on next refresh. No restart needed.

Switch themes from the command line:

claude-bar theme list          # see all available
claude-bar theme set minimal   # switch instantly

Make your own theme

Drop a .sh file in ~/.claude/themes/ with these functions:

theme_init()                         # colors, variables
theme_separator()                    # between sections
theme_dir "$dir"
theme_git "$branch" "$adds" "$dels"
theme_tokens "$display" "$cost"
theme_context "$pct"
theme_time "$display"
theme_memory "$display"
theme_model "$name"
theme_today "$tokens" "$cost"
theme_month "$cost"
theme_wrap "$content"                # optional outer wrapper

Then activate it:

claude-bar theme set my-theme

Use any file in lib/themes/ as a starting point.

Manage

claude-bar update              # update scripts, keep config
claude-bar uninstall           # clean remove, restore settings.json
claude-bar --help

Troubleshooting

Restart Claude Code (Ctrl+C then claude). Verify ~/.claude/settings.json contains the statusLine key.

The correct format is:

{ "statusLine": { "type": "command", "command": "bash ~/.claude/statusline.sh" } }

Not a plain string.

Normal on a fresh session. Values populate after your first message.

Your font doesn't support the theme's glyphs. Switch to ascii: claude-bar theme set ascii

brew install jq (macOS) or apt install jq (Linux)

License

MIT