termads

Get paid while Claude Code thinks. TermAds shows a small sponsored line in your terminal and pays you 80% of the ad revenue. One command to install, one to remove.

npx termads init      # install
npx termads status    # check install + your claim link
npx termads restore   # remove, restoring your settings byte-for-byte

What it installs

termads init adds ad surfaces to ~/.claude/settings.json — all rendered by code (no model involvement), all reverted cleanly by restore:

| Surface | What you see | Status | |---|---|---| | Status line | Your side of the deal — today's earnings and a copy-paste claim link (no ad in your own status bar). | on | | Thinking spinner | The current sponsor shown in Claude Code's "thinking" verb (spinnerVerbs). | on | | Stop hook | A one-line sponsor message after Claude finishes each turn. | built, off by default |

The thinking spinner is where the ad shows; the status line is your personal readout (earnings + claim link). The status line is also the impression heartbeat: it runs on every render — which the spinner can't — so it credits the spinner ad each time (rate-limited), without putting an ad in your own status bar. The Stop hook is an extra surface, currently disabled (installHook is commented out in src/cli.mjs) — uncomment to re-enable.

Earnings

After install, termads status prints your claim link: https://www.termads.com/claim?device=<your-device-id>. Sign in there to link the device to your account and cash out (Stripe, 80% share, $10 minimum).

Safe by design

• Reversible: restore puts your settings.json back byte-for-byte. If you had your own status line or spinnerVerbs, they're preserved and reinstated.
• Never clobbers your edits: it only touches values it installed, and aborts rather than overwrite a settings.json it can't parse.
• Never breaks your session: every surface is built to never throw, hang, or block — losing an ad always beats disrupting Claude Code.
• Opt out anytime: npx termads restore.

Privacy

The client stores a random device id locally (~/.termads/device.json) and sends only impression/click events ({type, adId, ts}) to termads.com. No prompt content, code, or file contents ever leave your machine.

Requirements

Node ≥ 18, Claude Code (terminal CLI).

Closed source. © TermAds.