Building a custom Claude Code status line

I run Claude Code across multiple projects, often with several Ghostty tabs open at once. Every session looks the same from the bottom of the terminal: a model name, a context percentage, and a cost. When you're juggling three repos, that's not enough.

Which repo am I in? What GitButler branch is active? Am I close to my 5-hour rate limit? How much have I spent today across all sessions (not that it matters on a Max plan, but it gives you a feel for what this type of workload would cost as an API deployment)? The default status line doesn't tell me.

#The fork-or-build moment

Funny timing, Daniel Mackay published a blog post about building a custom Claude Code status line at the same time I was busy writing mine. His LinkedIn post nailed it:

The cost of building has dropped below the cost of compromising.

My first thought was to fork Dan's repo and submit a PR. But then I stopped. Does he want the same things I do? I wanted GitButler virtual branch detection, multi-line layout with grouped sections, goccc integration for cost tracking in AUD, rate limit progress bars, and terminal tab title renaming. Those are my opinions about what a status line should show, and they're probably not the same as his.

It's cheap enough now to just have your own version. 15 to 30 minutes with Claude Code and I had exactly what I wanted, packaged as a repo with auto-updates.

#How the statusLine hook works

Claude Code has a built-in mechanism: add a statusLine config to your settings.json, point it at a shell script, and Claude pipes a JSON blob to stdin on every tick. Whatever your script prints to stdout becomes the status line.

The JSON blob includes everything you need:

That's it. Stdin, stdout, and a shell script.

#Building it

I went through four iterations in a single Claude Code session.

#v1: repo and branch info

The first version wrapped goccc (a CLI cost calculator that handles session costs, daily totals, and currency conversion) and prepended the repo name and branch. One line, straightforward.

The tricky part was GitButler detection. I use GitButler for branch management, which keeps you on a gitbutler/workspace branch while your actual virtual branches live inside GitButler's system. A normal git branch --show-current would just say "gitbutler/workspace", which isn't helpful.

So I check if we're on gitbutler/workspace, and if so, query GitButler's CLI for the actual active branches:

The --no-check --no-ahead flags keep it fast (~30ms). The 🌿 icon means GitButler, 🔀 means regular git. You can tell at a glance which mode you're in.

#v2: rate limits and tokens

Turns out Claude Code exposes rate limit data in the JSON: rate_limits.five_hour.used_percentage and resets_at. Much better than trying to calculate from duration. I added a color-coded progress bar (green → yellow → red) with time remaining until reset.

I also added token counts, input and output totals, since the context percentage alone doesn't tell you how chatty the session has been.

#v3: multi-line grouped layout

Everything on one line was getting cramped. I split it into three lines, each grouped by type of information:

Line 1 (Identity): where am I? Repo name, active branch, model. Line 2 (Spend & limits): session cost, daily cost, rate limit bar with countdown. Line 3 (Technical): context window usage, token counts.

Each line answers a different question. Line 1: where am I? Line 2: should I be worried about costs or rate limits? Line 3: why does the model feel slow right now?

#v4: hiding empty state

A new session starts with everything zeroed out. Showing ⏱️ 0h0m and 💭 0% ctx before you've even sent a message just adds noise. So the script hides those sections until there's actual data. A fresh session shows just two lines:

Once the session is active, the full three-line display appears.

#Packaging it

I wanted this installable on any machine, so I created a repo with:

• statusline.sh, the script itself
• install.sh, which installs goccc via Homebrew, copies the script to ~/.claude/scripts/, and prints the settings.json config
• Built-in daily auto-update: the script checks once per day if there's a newer version on main and pulls it in the background

One-liner install:

#The bigger picture

This status line took one Claude Code session, maybe two hours of back-and-forth including the iterations, GitButler integration research, and packaging. About 250 lines of bash.

I keep finding myself in this same situation lately. I'm building SSMSX, a cross-platform SQL Server Management Studio replacement, because SSMS is Windows-only, Azure Data Studio is nearing end-of-life, and neither feels fast. It's Tauri v2 (Rust) + React + a C# Native AOT sidecar for SQL Server connectivity. A year ago, building your own SSMS would have been absurd. Now it's a project I'm making real progress on in evenings and weekends.

Dan put it well: the old debate was buy vs build. Build meant weeks of work, so you bought something close enough. That's changed. When you can describe what you want and iterate to a working tool in an afternoon, "close enough" stops being the obvious choice.

#Try it

The repo is at github.com/GordonBeeming/claude-statusline. You can install it, or read the Claude Code statusline docs and build your own. The JSON schema has more fields than I'm using, so there's plenty to work with.