Show HN: macOS menu bar app to track Claude usage in real time (opens in new tab)

Good shout. CodexBar covers a lot more ground. This one is intentionally minimal and Claude focused because that is all I personally needed.

Or just vibe code your own. Seems fitting.

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.

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

Thanks, appreciate it. Honestly, I am only really on X at the moment.

Hmmm. What version are you running?

Use Hammerspoon [0][1], it comes with a lot of macOS integrations out of the box and you write Lua, which takes zero effort to pick up and use. For me a big benefit is that you don't need to touch Xcode at all.

[0] https://www.hammerspoon.org

[1] https://www.hammerspoon.org/docs/hs.menubar.html

That is exactly what I did. Claude scaffolded it from scratch based on behaviour, then I iterated and had Codex review it for safety.

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.

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.

Have you seen aichat[0]?

Doesn't support the "from anywhere" part, but the resume strategies are pretty cool.

[0] https://github.com/pchalasani/claude-code-tools#aichat-sessi...

Thanks, Glad you like it!

The charitable explanation is "because that is where most people are." Network effect is real.

I certainly won't.

I wonder if it's because they don't see other relevant low-cost/overhead solutions. "Follow me on facebook" certainly isn't going to be a win. "Follow me on Bluesky or Mastadon" is going to be ignored. "You can see my comments on insta" won't be relevant. "My TikTok is where it's at" might get you some young followers.

Other solutions (your own blog, medium, substack, etc), all come with more overhead and setup.

Because that's what he uses. Instead of shaming about using X and going off-topic, don't comment at all or comment something about the project.

Because people like using social media?

Form over followers over function, the 21st century design ethos.

"Remember to like, share and subscribe."