claude-hud-statusline

What This Skill Does

The claude-hud-statusline skill acts as an enhanced, real-time observability layer for your Claude Code workflow. By injecting a persistent status line directly into your terminal, it transforms opaque background processes into visual, actionable data. The plugin provides a granular overview of context window saturation, tool-use telemetry, and active agent operations. It effectively solves the problem of 'terminal blindness,' where users often lose track of how many tokens are being consumed or which sub-agents are performing background file edits. By providing a clear, color-coded visual indicator of system state, it ensures that developers maintain awareness of their usage limits and project status without needing to query the model manually.

Installation

To integrate this HUD into your environment, follow these steps within your active Claude Code session:

1. Add the plugin repository: /plugin marketplace add jarrodwatts/claude-hud
2. Install the core plugin: /plugin install claude-hud
3. If on Linux and experiencing path issues, ensure your temporary directory is set via TMPDIR=~/.cache/tmp.
4. Initialize the configuration: /claude-hud:setup
5. Finalize the integration by restarting your Claude Code session to ensure the status line renders correctly.

Use Cases

This skill is ideal for power users who manage complex codebases across multiple files. It is particularly useful for tracking multi-step agent tasks, such as automated refactoring or complex debugging sessions, where understanding the 'state' of the model is critical. It is also excellent for cost-conscious developers who need to monitor API usage limits throughout the day to avoid hitting unexpected consumption caps.

Example Prompts

1. "Configure the Claude HUD to display only the essential git status and tool activity lines for a cleaner interface."
2. "I need to track my token consumption more closely; enable the detailed usage limit bars in the status line settings."
3. "Show me the verbose agent tracking view so I can see which sub-agents are currently editing files in the background."

Tips & Limitations

For the best experience, use the interactive configuration command /claude-hud:configure rather than manual file editing. Keep in mind that while the HUD provides valuable insights, it occupies screen real estate in your terminal window. If your terminal emulator uses a very small font or narrow width, you may want to stick to the 'Minimal' preset. Ensure you are running Node.js LTS or higher, as older versions may lack the necessary runtime support for the real-time polling required by the plugin.