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

1 day ago (github.com)

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://x.com/richhickson

58 comments

RichHickson

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dewey  1 day ago

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

  • iLemming  3 hours 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.

  • RichHickson  1 day 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  1 day ago

    Is it safe ? It needs to reads Keychain. Like the OP app

    • RichHickson  1 day 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.

8mobile  14 hours 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!

ebbi  17 hours 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...

seriocomic  14 hours 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?

JLO64  17 hours 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!

brtkwr  21 hours 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

It lets you search and resume past Claude code conversations from anywhere.

kingkongjaffa  1 day 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  1 day 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  1 day 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  1 day 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

  • qaz_plm  19 hours ago

    No template needed IMO.

    I used CC just yesterday to build a native MacOS menu bar app by using plan mode (opus) until there was alignment then to edit mode for the build (I use Zed for the prompting).

    CC walked me through the needed Xcode project setup and handled all of the code there after.

    I’m sure something more complex would be more challenging but I was happy with a two-shot result for this native menu bar app.

rootlocus  21 hours ago

"Follow me on X"

Why... just why? Why do people keep insisting on using it?