A Status Line for Your Context Window

Screenshot of the status line

Definitions (click to expand)

Context window — how much text Claude can “remember” in a conversation. Hit the limit and it compresses, losing details.
Rate limit window — Claude limits usage over a 5-hour period.

Why I built this

Claude Code’s default UI is bare. The more I used it, the more I wanted feedback and stats baked into the prompt. Luckily, Claude Code supports custom status lines, so I built one. I’ve been tweaking it for a few months now and feel ready to share it. Use it as-is or harvest it for parts.

I need constant feedback on how much context I have left, especially when I’m deep in a hard problem and nowhere near a solution. If I see the limit coming, I can save what I’ve learned to a markdown doc and start fresh without losing progress.

Without it, I’d blow past the limit, Claude compresses the conversation, forgets half of what we’d figured out, and I’m stuck.

What it shows

The default status line doesn’t surface context usage. This one does, plus the other things I check most: branch, model, rate limit, and whether my Claude Code is outdated.

Setup

Drop the script in ~/.claude/ and add this to settings.json:

"statusLine": {
  "type": "command",
  "command": "python3 ~/.claude/statusline.py"
}

Repo: github.com/dustatron/claude-code-statusline

Five minutes to set up. Worth it if you’re tired of guessing.