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.

Install

Homebrew (recommended)

The one launch at the end matters: it wires up the Claude Code hooks automatically. After that it starts itself whenever Claude Code runs.

Already using the app from the DMG? The same command switches you to Homebrew. Your settings and hooks carry over, and the old copy cleans itself up on first launch. Full details, edge cases, and the tested upgrade matrix: HOMEBREW.md.

Updated (or installed) mid-session? Sessions already open appear the next time they do something (a prompt or a tool call). Starting a new claude session also works.

DMG

*Signed and notarized by Apple*

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

Updating

The menu tells you when an update is ready. Installed via brew, it shows Update via brew with a copy button (paste the command in your terminal); it appears once Homebrew can actually deliver the new version, which can lag a release by up to a day. Installed via DMG, Update available opens the releases page, plus a one-click Switch to Homebrew option.

Or just run brew upgrade --cask claude-status-bar (brew), or download the latest DMG and drag it into…