5 ms·

Show HN: macOS menu bar app to track Claude usage in real time

161 points by RichHickson 9mo ago

I built a macOS menu bar app to track Claude usage in real time via API after hitting limits mid-flow too often. Signed and notarised by Apple. Open source. https://github.com/richhickson/claudecodeusage https://github.com/richhickson/claudecodeusage https://x.com/richhickson https://x.com/richhickson

dewey 9mo ago
Alternatively there's also this with 1.7k stars already and supporting more services (Despite the name): https://github.com/steipete/CodexBar https://github.com/steipete/CodexBar (https://codexbar.app https://codexbar.app)
- RichHickson 9mo ago
  Good shout. CodexBar covers a lot more ground. This one is intentionally minimal and Claude focused because that is all I personally needed.
- ttoinou 9mo ago
  Is it safe ? It needs to reads Keychain. Like the OP app
  - RichHickson 9mo ago
    The app only reads ONE specific keychain entry: Service: "Claude Code-credentials" This is the entry created by the official Claude Code CLI when you log in. The app: 1. Only reads - never writes, modifies, or deletes any keychain data 2. Only accesses this one service name - cannot read any other passwords, keys, or credentials 3. Extracts only the OAuth access token - used to call api.anthropic.com/api/oauth/usage 4. Sends data only to Anthropic's API - no analytics, no third-party servers The token never leaves your machine except to Anthropic's own API endpoint. You can verify this yourself - the entire source is ~400 lines of Swift: https://github.com/richhickson/claudecodeusage macOS will also prompt you the first time the app tries to access this keychain entry, giving you control to allow or deny.
- realharo 9mo ago
  Or just vibe code your own. Seems fitting.
  - deleted 9mo ago
    [deleted]
- touristtam 9mo ago
  [flagged]
  - prawn 9mo ago
    "I'm on Intel and would be interested in this if you find a way to make that work."
    - DrammBA 9mo ago
      Funny thing I went down a rabbit hole, cause I first scanned the open PRs and saw a PR to enable universal builds to support intel macs but the whole thing was pure AI slop and someone commented that codexbar already supports intel, and sure enough v.15 added it (the AI slop PR completely missed that), I then looked into the cask script and it has a hardcoded dependency on arm which prevents brew from installing v.17 even if it's already an universal binary since v.15.
      - touristtam 9mo ago
        I came to the same conclusion before making that snarky and apparently offensive comment. Live to learn I guess.
        DrammBA 9mo ago
        You mean "after" making the comment? Your offensive comment makes no sense if you already had the universal build context
- iLemming 9mo ago
  btw, I have failed to make the proper use of either of them - claudecodeusage keeps saying that I'm not signed in (I have Claude Desktop and CLI installed and signed in on both). CodexBar keeps saying "Claude usage probe timed out", even though it does show some numbers. I don't have a subscription, I just use the API.
kingkongjaffa 9mo ago
If I wanted to vibe code my own macOS menu bar apps is this a good starter project to use as a template? Are there any others? Do I just not need one (claude code can do it without a starter template at all)?
- RichHickson 9mo ago
  That is exactly what I did. Claude scaffolded it from scratch based on behaviour, then I iterated and had Codex review it for safety.
- realharo 9mo ago
  Speaking of the macOS menu bar, is there some way to make it overflow into a hidden area behind an "expand" button that would appear when there is no more room, like the notification area in Windows does? The macOS UI decision of "just pretend that whatever doesn't fit to the right of the notch doesn't exist" is baffling. I've seen a few apps that claim to do that, but it's always done in some really hacky way (such as needing screen recording permissions), and the behavior is never that of simple overflow handling. Instead they have "always hidden" sections and things like that, which is not what I want.
  - bartvk 9mo ago
    I decrease the spacing that macOS applies between menubar icons: % defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain NSStatusItemSelectionPadding -int 8 % defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain NSStatusItemSpacing -int 8
  - RichHickson 9mo ago
    I used to use Bartender, which worked really well, until the newest version, which had so many issues. Since then, I've just basically put up with it.
    - karlshea 9mo ago
      The new version has improved a bit since launch, you may want to give it another try.
codepoet80 9mo ago
Love it, installed and set it to run at Login. Can I follow you on any social media that isn't Xitter?
- RichHickson 9mo ago
  Thanks, appreciate it. Honestly, I am only really on X at the moment.
  - cbeach 9mo ago
    [flagged]
    - einsteinx2 9mo ago
      If you honestly think only “leftwingers” don’t like X you’re living in a bubble (ironically probably on X lol). Plenty of us hated Twitter well before Elon renamed it.
dionian 9mo ago
i like it, thanks for sharing
- RichHickson 9mo ago
  Thanks, Glad you like it!
diimdeep 9mo ago
[flagged]
- arondeparon 9mo ago
  Very constructive comment, the “grow up already” really was the cherry on top. (Yes, this is sarcasm)
deleted 9mo ago
[deleted]
rootlocus 9mo ago
"Follow me on X" Why... just why? Why do people keep insisting on using it?
- bigyabai 9mo ago
  Form over followers over function, the 21st century design ethos.
  - dcreater 9mo ago
    you mean followers over form over function?
- rootusrootus 9mo ago
  The charitable explanation is "because that is where most people are." Network effect is real.
  - platevoltage 9mo ago
    Was that ever true, even during the Twitter days?
    - rootusrootus 9mo ago
      I guess that depends on the scope. For people who like that flavor of social media, Twitter was where it was at, and X remains the main place. But if the scope is 'of all people' then of course it is not true -- most of us (myself included) never got into Twitter or any of the similar social media sites.
    - spiderfarmer 9mo ago
      [flagged]
- cbeach 9mo ago
  [flagged]
brtkwr 9mo ago
I tried another alternative yesterday as I found myself hitting that /usage command too often and it didnt work too well but yours worked straight out of the box! Great job! I built another tool that should have really been part of the core Claude Code CLI (which you may or may not find useful): https://github.com/agentic-utils/ccs https://github.com/agentic-utils/ccs It lets you search and resume past Claude code conversations from anywhere.
- SparkyMcUnicorn 9mo ago
  Have you seen aichat[0]? Doesn't support the "from anywhere" part, but the resume strategies are pretty cool. [0] https://github.com/pchalasani/claude-code-tools#aichat-session-management https://github.com/pchalasani/claude-code-tools#aichat-sessi...
luisvillamil 9mo ago
Looks really cool
deleted 9mo ago
[deleted]
JLO64 9mo ago
Just yesterday I was trying to figure out a method to accurately estimate my remaining usage for the five hour sessions for a shell script. It wasn't until I pointed Claude at your repo and had it make something based off of that that I got it to work well. Thank you!
ebbi 9mo ago
This looks great. What am I doing wrong? I downloaded it, installed, but all I see is a red X in the toolbar. When I click on it, it says "Authentication expired. Run 'claude' to re-aut..." so I run claude in terminal and still nothing...
- RichHickson 9mo ago
  Hmmm. What version are you running?
DrammBA 9mo ago
I loved the screenshot section of the readme followed by zero screenshots.
seriocomic 9mo ago
Interesting, but not original - a simple search shows at least a dozen same/similar (better?) solutions? Anything that yours does that those don't?
8mobile 9mo ago
This is a great idea and a useful one for avoiding having to monitor Claude's consumption. I've often exceeded the limit mid-process. If I'm not mistaken, something like this already exists, but I like the graphics and how the information is displayed. Congratulations!
virajk_31 9mo ago
cool! I had to always go to claude settings for this.
lebed2045 9mo ago
what would be really cool (maybeme i missed it?), is for your tool show clear useful info on the "top panel", not just logo. Like mac-stats or littleSnitch do.

161 points by RichHickson 9mo ago

dewey 9mo ago

Alternatively there's also this with 1.7k stars already and supporting more services (Despite the name): https://github.com/steipete/CodexBar https://github.com/steipete/CodexBar (https://codexbar.app https://codexbar.app)

RichHickson 9mo ago
Good shout. CodexBar covers a lot more ground. This one is intentionally minimal and Claude focused because that is all I personally needed.
ttoinou 9mo ago
Is it safe ? It needs to reads Keychain. Like the OP app
- RichHickson 9mo ago
  The app only reads ONE specific keychain entry: Service: "Claude Code-credentials" This is the entry created by the official Claude Code CLI when you log in. The app: 1. Only reads - never writes, modifies, or deletes any keychain data 2. Only accesses this one service name - cannot read any other passwords, keys, or credentials 3. Extracts only the OAuth access token - used to call api.anthropic.com/api/oauth/usage 4. Sends data only to Anthropic's API - no analytics, no third-party servers The token never leaves your machine except to Anthropic's own API endpoint. You can verify this yourself - the entire source is ~400 lines of Swift: https://github.com/richhickson/claudecodeusage macOS will also prompt you the first time the app tries to access this keychain entry, giving you control to allow or deny.
realharo 9mo ago
Or just vibe code your own. Seems fitting.
- deleted 9mo ago
  [deleted]
touristtam 9mo ago
[flagged]
- prawn 9mo ago
  "I'm on Intel and would be interested in this if you find a way to make that work."
  - DrammBA 9mo ago
    Funny thing I went down a rabbit hole, cause I first scanned the open PRs and saw a PR to enable universal builds to support intel macs but the whole thing was pure AI slop and someone commented that codexbar already supports intel, and sure enough v.15 added it (the AI slop PR completely missed that), I then looked into the cask script and it has a hardcoded dependency on arm which prevents brew from installing v.17 even if it's already an universal binary since v.15.
    - touristtam 9mo ago
      I came to the same conclusion before making that snarky and apparently offensive comment. Live to learn I guess.
      - DrammBA 9mo ago
        You mean "after" making the comment? Your offensive comment makes no sense if you already had the universal build context
iLemming 9mo ago
btw, I have failed to make the proper use of either of them - claudecodeusage keeps saying that I'm not signed in (I have Claude Desktop and CLI installed and signed in on both). CodexBar keeps saying "Claude usage probe timed out", even though it does show some numbers. I don't have a subscription, I just use the API.

kingkongjaffa 9mo ago

If I wanted to vibe code my own macOS menu bar apps is this a good starter project to use as a template? Are there any others? Do I just not need one (claude code can do it without a starter template at all)?

RichHickson 9mo ago
That is exactly what I did. Claude scaffolded it from scratch based on behaviour, then I iterated and had Codex review it for safety.
realharo 9mo ago
Speaking of the macOS menu bar, is there some way to make it overflow into a hidden area behind an "expand" button that would appear when there is no more room, like the notification area in Windows does? The macOS UI decision of "just pretend that whatever doesn't fit to the right of the notch doesn't exist" is baffling. I've seen a few apps that claim to do that, but it's always done in some really hacky way (such as needing screen recording permissions), and the behavior is never that of simple overflow handling. Instead they have "always hidden" sections and things like that, which is not what I want.
- bartvk 9mo ago
  I decrease the spacing that macOS applies between menubar icons: % defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain NSStatusItemSelectionPadding -int 8 % defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain NSStatusItemSpacing -int 8
- RichHickson 9mo ago
  I used to use Bartender, which worked really well, until the newest version, which had so many issues. Since then, I've just basically put up with it.
  - karlshea 9mo ago
    The new version has improved a bit since launch, you may want to give it another try.

codepoet80 9mo ago

Love it, installed and set it to run at Login. Can I follow you on any social media that isn't Xitter?

RichHickson 9mo ago
Thanks, appreciate it. Honestly, I am only really on X at the moment.
- cbeach 9mo ago
  [flagged]
  - einsteinx2 9mo ago
    If you honestly think only “leftwingers” don’t like X you’re living in a bubble (ironically probably on X lol). Plenty of us hated Twitter well before Elon renamed it.

dionian 9mo ago

i like it, thanks for sharing

RichHickson 9mo ago
Thanks, Glad you like it!

diimdeep 9mo ago

[flagged]

arondeparon 9mo ago
Very constructive comment, the “grow up already” really was the cherry on top. (Yes, this is sarcasm)

deleted 9mo ago

[deleted]

rootlocus 9mo ago

"Follow me on X" Why... just why? Why do people keep insisting on using it?

bigyabai 9mo ago
Form over followers over function, the 21st century design ethos.
- dcreater 9mo ago
  you mean followers over form over function?
rootusrootus 9mo ago
The charitable explanation is "because that is where most people are." Network effect is real.
- platevoltage 9mo ago
  Was that ever true, even during the Twitter days?
  - rootusrootus 9mo ago
    I guess that depends on the scope. For people who like that flavor of social media, Twitter was where it was at, and X remains the main place. But if the scope is 'of all people' then of course it is not true -- most of us (myself included) never got into Twitter or any of the similar social media sites.
  - spiderfarmer 9mo ago
    [flagged]
cbeach 9mo ago
[flagged]

brtkwr 9mo ago

I tried another alternative yesterday as I found myself hitting that /usage command too often and it didnt work too well but yours worked straight out of the box! Great job! I built another tool that should have really been part of the core Claude Code CLI (which you may or may not find useful): https://github.com/agentic-utils/ccs https://github.com/agentic-utils/ccs It lets you search and resume past Claude code conversations from anywhere.

SparkyMcUnicorn 9mo ago
Have you seen aichat[0]? Doesn't support the "from anywhere" part, but the resume strategies are pretty cool. [0] https://github.com/pchalasani/claude-code-tools#aichat-session-management https://github.com/pchalasani/claude-code-tools#aichat-sessi...

luisvillamil 9mo ago

Looks really cool

deleted 9mo ago

[deleted]

JLO64 9mo ago

Just yesterday I was trying to figure out a method to accurately estimate my remaining usage for the five hour sessions for a shell script. It wasn't until I pointed Claude at your repo and had it make something based off of that that I got it to work well. Thank you!

ebbi 9mo ago

This looks great. What am I doing wrong? I downloaded it, installed, but all I see is a red X in the toolbar. When I click on it, it says "Authentication expired. Run 'claude' to re-aut..." so I run claude in terminal and still nothing...

RichHickson 9mo ago
Hmmm. What version are you running?

DrammBA 9mo ago

I loved the screenshot section of the readme followed by zero screenshots.

seriocomic 9mo ago

Interesting, but not original - a simple search shows at least a dozen same/similar (better?) solutions? Anything that yours does that those don't?

8mobile 9mo ago

This is a great idea and a useful one for avoiding having to monitor Claude's consumption. I've often exceeded the limit mid-process. If I'm not mistaken, something like this already exists, but I like the graphics and how the information is displayed. Congratulations!

virajk_31 9mo ago

cool! I had to always go to claude settings for this.

lebed2045 9mo ago

what would be really cool (maybeme i missed it?), is for your tool show clear useful info on the "top panel", not just logo. Like mac-stats or littleSnitch do.