ccline

A richer status line for Claude Code — model, project path, rate-limit burn-down, and a live context-window budget bar, all in one line.

Segments run nearest-term to farthest: this conversation → 5-hour window → 7-day window.

Features

• Zero dependencies, single file. Just Node.js and statusline.js.
• Context budget at a glance — tokens used vs. the window limit, with a color-tiered bar and percentage.
• Rate-limit burn-down — time until the 5-hour window resets, plus 5-hour and 7-day usage.
• Color-tiered — every bar goes green → yellow → red as it fills (60% / 85% thresholds).
• Fully themeable — colors, bar widths, and path length via a small JSON config; no rebuild.
• Optional add-ons — caveman and rtk token-savings segments light up only if you have those tools, and cost nothing if you don't.
• Fast — per-session caches keep each render cheap; heavy work is memoized.

What each segment means

Segment	Example	Meaning
◆ model	◆ Opus 4.8	Active model display name
path	dewiz/sub/dir	Current dir, relative to project root (truncated past pathMaxLen)
⬢ context	⬢ 84k/200k ▓▓▓▓▓░░░ 42%	This conversation's context tokens vs the window limit, with %
⏳ 5-hour	⏳ 3h20m ▓▓░░░ 42%	Time until the 5-hour rate window resets, burn bar, and % used
📅 7-day	📅 18%	7-day rate window used
⛏ caveman (opt)	⛏12k	Tokens saved this session by the caveman plugin (pink)
↓ rtk (opt)	↓8k	Tokens saved this session by the rtk CLI (cyan)

All token figures are for this conversation / this session — no lifetime totals. The ⛏ and ↓ segments extend the context bar beyond the real limit, visualizing how much longer the bar would be without those savings.

Requirements

• Node.js ≥ 14 on your PATH.
• A terminal with 256-color support and a font that renders emoji + geometric glyphs (◆ ⏳ 📅 ⬢ ⛏ ↓ and the ▓ ░ block characters). Most modern terminals and Nerd Fonts qualify.

Install

Clone, then run the installer for your OS — it copies the script into your Claude config dir and merges the statusLine block into settings.json (existing keys preserved):

git clone https://github.com/Alyssum-Information/ccline.git
cd ccline

# macOS / Linux
bash install.sh

# Windows (PowerShell)
powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File install.ps1

Restart Claude Code to see the new status line.

Manual install

Copy statusline.js anywhere, then add to ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "statusLine": {
    "type": "command",
    "command": "node /path/to/statusline.js"
  }
}

On Windows, use the full paths to node.exe and the script:

{
  "statusLine": {
    "type": "command",
    "command": "\"C:\\Program Files\\nodejs\\node.exe\" \"C:\\Users\\you\\.claude\\ccline.js\""
  }
}

Configure

Everything works with zero config. To customize, drop a JSON file at ~/.claude/ccline.config.json (or point $CCLINE_CONFIG at any path). Every key is optional — you only specify what you want to change. See examples/ccline.config.json.

Key	Default	Purpose
contextBarWidth	12	Width of the ⬢ context bar
rateBarWidth	5	Width of the ⏳ 5-hour bar
pathMaxLen	48	Truncate the project path past this many chars
colors	(256-color xterm indices)	Per-element color (accent, text, dim, faint, green, yellow, red, caveman, rtk)
segments.caveman	"auto"	auto / on / off for the ⛏ segment
segments.rtk	"auto"	auto / on / off for the ↓ segment

auto shows a segment only if its tool is detected (and skips cleanly, at zero cost, if not). off never runs the tool.

Optional add-ons

• ⛏ caveman — if you use the caveman plugin, ccline reads its .caveman-active flag and estimates tokens saved from your transcript. Tune caveman.flagFile and caveman.ratios in config.
• ↓ rtk — if you use the rtk CLI, ccline calls rtk gain --format json and shows this session's delta. Tune rtk.command / rtk.args / rtk.totalPath in config.

If you don't have these tools, leave the defaults — the segments simply never appear.

How it works

Claude Code pipes a JSON blob to the status-line command on stdin (model, workspace, context_window, rate_limits, transcript_path, …). statusline.js reads it, formats the segments with ANSI 256-color codes, and writes one line to stdout. Small per-session cache files in the temp dir keep it fast (the transcript parse is memoized by file size; rtk gain is snapshotted per session).

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Fix
Glyphs show as boxes (□ / tofu)	Use a font with emoji + symbol coverage (e.g. a Nerd Font).
No colors, just text	Your terminal isn't in 256-color mode. Enable it or set TERM=xterm-256color.
Status line is blank	Confirm node is on PATH, and that the command in settings.json points at the installed script.
Nothing after a fresh start	The rate-limit numbers appear after the first API response; ccline shows the last-seen values (dimmed) until then.
rtk segment adds lag	You don't have rtk — set "segments": { "rtk": "off" } in your config so it's never invoked.

Uninstall

Remove the statusLine block from ~/.claude/settings.json, then delete the installed script (~/.claude/ccline.js) and, if present, ~/.claude/ccline.config.json.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md. Keep it dependency-free and single-file.

License

MIT © 2026 Alyssum