Status Line

The Claude Code status line shows live session context usage directly in your terminal status bar. It uses a powerline-style display with color-coded context indicators so you always know how much context remains.

What It Does

The status line is a shell script (scripts/statusline.sh) that reads JSON input from Claude Code (available since v2.1.6+) and renders a compact, color-coded bar showing:

Model name (e.g. opus-4, sonnet)
Current directory
Git branch and status (staged, modified, ahead/behind)
Context usage as a progress bar with percentage

Color States

The context progress bar changes color based on usage level:

Green (0—70%)

Plenty of context remaining.

green

Yellow (71—85%)

Context is filling up — consider wrapping up the current task or preparing to resume.

yellow

Orange (86—95%)

Context is running low — finish the current task and resume soon.

orange

Red (96—100%)

Context is nearly exhausted. The bar blinks to draw attention. Resume immediately.

red

Setup

Copy the script to your Claude config directory:

cp scripts/statusline.sh ~/.claude/
chmod +x ~/.claude/statusline.sh

Add to ~/.claude/settings.json:

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

Requires jq and a Nerd Font for powerline symbols.

How It Works

The script receives JSON on stdin with fields including:

model — Current model name or object
workspace.current_dir — Working directory
context_window.used_percentage — Context usage (0—100)

It then:

Extracts and cleans the model name.
Reads git status from the working directory.
Builds a powerline-style output with ANSI colors.
Renders a 10-character progress bar for context usage, color-coded by level.

The model segment background is green when git is clean and yellow when there are uncommitted changes, giving you a quick visual indicator of repository state.