Customize your status line

What is the status line?

The status line is a customizable bar that appears at the bottom of Claude Code. It runs any shell script you configure, receives JSON session data on stdin, and displays whatever your script prints — giving you a persistent, at-a-glance view of context usage, costs, git status, or anything else you want to track.

It’s useful when you want to:

Monitor context window usage as you work
Track session costs in real time
Keep the current git branch and status always visible
Distinguish between multiple open sessions

For the full reference — including all available JSON fields, multi-line output, colors, and Windows configuration — see the official status line documentation.

Pretty status line

This is a ready-made status line that shows everything useful in one compact bar:

Status line showing git branch, model name, context bar, token count, session usage, cost, and lines changed

🌿 main ✔ │ 🤖 Sonnet 4.6 │ ctx ██░░░░░░ 14% │ 28.0k │ ⏱️ 3% ↺3h7m │ 💰$5.0789 │ +423 -55

What each segment shows:

Segment	Description
`🌿 main ✔`	Git branch + clean/dirty indicator
`🤖 Sonnet 4.6`	Current model
`ctx ██░░░░░░ 14%`	Context window usage bar
`28.0k`	Current input token count
`⏱️ 3% ↺3h7m`	5-hour rate limit used + time until reset
`💰$5.0789`	Total session cost
`+423 -55`	Lines added/removed this session

Requirements: jq and git must be installed. Colors require a terminal with ANSI 256-color support (most modern terminals qualify).

The easiest way is to let Claude Code set it up for you. Open Claude Code and run:

/statusline show git branch with clean/dirty indicator, model name, context usage bar with percentage, input tokens, 5-hour rate limit with reset timer, total session cost, and lines added/removed. Use ANSI 256 colors.

Claude Code will generate the script, write it to ~/.claude/, and update your settings.json automatically. Restart Claude Code for it to appear.

Write the script

Save the following to ~/.claude/statusline-command.sh:

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Claude Code status line: git info + context + cost
# Uses ANSI 256-color codes. Sections separated by unicode dividers.
input=$(cat)

# ── ANSI helpers ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
reset='\033[0m'
bold='\033[1m'
dim='\033[2m'

# Foreground 256-color
fg() { printf '\033[38;5;%sm' "$1"; }

# Palette
COLOR_GIT_CLEAN=82        # bright green
COLOR_GIT_DIRTY=214       # orange
COLOR_MODEL_FG=153        # light blue
COLOR_CTX_LOW=82          # green  (< 60 %)
COLOR_CTX_MID=214         # orange (60-85 %)
COLOR_CTX_HIGH=196        # red    (> 85 %)
COLOR_COST=221            # gold
COLOR_SESSION_LOW=82      # green  (< 60 %)
COLOR_SESSION_MID=214     # orange (60-85 %)
COLOR_SESSION_HIGH=196    # red    (> 85 %)
COLOR_DIV=240             # mid-grey for dividers

DIV=' │ '   # unicode vertical bar divider with padding

# ── JSON fields ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
cwd=$(echo "$input"          | jq -r '.workspace.current_dir // .cwd // ""')
used_pct=$(echo "$input"     | jq -r '.context_window.used_percentage // empty')
input_tokens=$(echo "$input" | jq -r '
  .context_window.current_usage |
  ((.input_tokens // 0) + (.output_tokens // 0) + (.cache_creation_input_tokens // 0) + (.cache_read_input_tokens // 0)) |
  if . == 0 then empty else . end
')
model_name=$(echo "$input"   | jq -r '.model.display_name // ""')
total_cost=$(echo "$input"   | jq -r '.cost.total_cost_usd // empty')
lines_added=$(echo "$input"  | jq -r '.cost.total_lines_added // empty')
lines_removed=$(echo "$input"| jq -r '.cost.total_lines_removed // empty')
sess_pct=$(echo "$input"     | jq -r '.rate_limits.five_hour.used_percentage // empty')
sess_reset=$(echo "$input"   | jq -r '.rate_limits.five_hour.resets_at // empty')

# ── Git info ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
git_section=""
if [ -n "$cwd" ] && [ -d "$cwd" ]; then
  branch=$(git -C "$cwd" --no-optional-locks branch --show-current 2>/dev/null)
  if [ -n "$branch" ]; then
    if git -C "$cwd" --no-optional-locks diff --quiet 2>/dev/null && \
       git -C "$cwd" --no-optional-locks diff --cached --quiet 2>/dev/null && \
       [ -z "$(git -C "$cwd" --no-optional-locks ls-files --others --exclude-standard 2>/dev/null)" ]; then
      git_icon='✔'
      git_color=$(fg $COLOR_GIT_CLEAN)
    else
      git_icon='✘'
      git_color=$(fg $COLOR_GIT_DIRTY)
    fi
    git_section="${git_color}${bold}🌿 ${branch} ${git_icon}${reset}"
  fi
fi

# ── Model section ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
model_section=""
if [ -n "$model_name" ]; then
  model_section="$(fg $COLOR_MODEL_FG)🤖 ${model_name}${reset}"
fi

# ── Context usage bar + percentage ──────────────────────────────────────────
ctx_section=""
if [ -n "$used_pct" ]; then
  pct_int=$(printf "%.0f" "$used_pct")
  if [ "$pct_int" -ge 85 ]; then
    ctx_color=$(fg $COLOR_CTX_HIGH)
  elif [ "$pct_int" -ge 60 ]; then
    ctx_color=$(fg $COLOR_CTX_MID)
  else
    ctx_color=$(fg $COLOR_CTX_LOW)
  fi
  filled=$(LC_ALL=C awk -v p="$used_pct" 'BEGIN { printf "%d", int(p/12.5 + 0.5) }')
  bar=""
  for i in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8; do
    if [ "$i" -le "$filled" ]; then bar="${bar}█"; else bar="${bar}░"; fi
  done
  ctx_section="${ctx_color}ctx ${bar} ${pct_int}%${reset}"
fi

# ── Current context input tokens ────────────────────────────────────────────
tokens_section=""
if [ -n "$input_tokens" ] && [ "$input_tokens" -gt 0 ] 2>/dev/null; then
  ctx_k=$(LC_ALL=C awk -v t="$input_tokens" 'BEGIN { printf "%.1fk", t/1000 }')
  tokens_section="$(dim)${ctx_k}${reset}"
fi

# ── Session usage (5-hour rate limit window) ────────────────────────────────
session_section=""
if [ -n "$sess_pct" ] && [ -n "$sess_reset" ]; then
  sess_pct_int=$(printf "%.0f" "$sess_pct")
  if [ "$sess_pct_int" -ge 85 ]; then
    sess_color=$(fg $COLOR_SESSION_HIGH)
  elif [ "$sess_pct_int" -ge 60 ]; then
    sess_color=$(fg $COLOR_SESSION_MID)
  else
    sess_color=$(fg $COLOR_SESSION_LOW)
  fi
  now=$(date +%s)
  diff=$(( sess_reset - now ))
  if [ "$diff" -gt 0 ]; then
    hrs=$(( diff / 3600 ))
    mins=$(( (diff % 3600) / 60 ))
    if [ "$hrs" -gt 0 ]; then
      reset_label="${hrs}h${mins}m"
    else
      reset_label="${mins}m"
    fi
    session_section="${sess_color}⏱️ ${sess_pct_int}% ↺${reset_label}${reset}"
  else
    session_section="${sess_color}⏱️ ${sess_pct_int}%${reset}"
  fi
fi

# ── Session cost ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
cost_section=""
if [ -n "$total_cost" ]; then
  cost=$(LC_ALL=C awk -v c="$total_cost" 'BEGIN { printf "%.4f", c }')
  cost_section="$(fg $COLOR_COST)💰 \$${cost}${reset}"
fi

# ── Lines changed ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
lines_section=""
if [ -n "$lines_added" ] || [ -n "$lines_removed" ]; then
  added=${lines_added:-0}
  removed=${lines_removed:-0}
  lines_section="$(fg $COLOR_GIT_CLEAN)+${added}${reset} $(fg $COLOR_GIT_DIRTY)-${removed}${reset}"
fi

# ── Assemble output ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
divider="$(fg $COLOR_DIV)${DIV}${reset}"
output=""
for section in "$git_section" "$model_section" "$ctx_section" "$tokens_section" "$session_section" "$cost_section" "$lines_section"; do
  [ -z "$section" ] && continue
  if [ -z "$output" ]; then
    output="$section"
  else
    output="${output}${divider}${section}"
  fi
done

[ -n "$output" ] && printf '%b' "$output"

Make it executable

chmod +x ~/.claude/statusline-command.sh

Add to settings

Open ~/.claude/settings.json and add the statusLine key (replace USERNAME with your actual username):
```
{
  "statusLine": {
    "type": "command",
    "command": "bash /home/USERNAME/.claude/statusline-command.sh"
  }
}
```
On macOS your home directory is /Users/username, on Linux it’s /home/username. You can run echo $HOME in your terminal to confirm.
Restart Claude Code

Settings reload automatically, but the status line won’t appear until you restart Claude Code.

Customize or remove the status line

The easiest way to modify or remove your status line is to ask Claude Code directly using the /statusline command:

/statusline remove it

/statusline add the current date and time

/statusline show only model name and cost, no git info

Claude Code will update your script and settings.json accordingly. For manual edits, the /statusline official docs cover all available JSON fields and configuration options including multi-line output, colors, clickable links, and Windows support.