Claude HUD Open source

What it does

Claude HUD is a plugin that replaces Claude Code's default statusline with a live heads-up display of what a session is actually doing. Instead of a static prompt, you get a running readout of context-window usage, active tools and MCP servers, subagent status, and todo-list progress, updated as the session runs.

What is inside

• A visual context-window usage bar with percentage remaining
• Token usage rate-limit and subscriber-quota display
• Active tool, skill, and MCP server tracking in the statusline
• Subagent status monitoring for multi-agent sessions
• Todo-list progress visualization
• Git/Jujutsu branch status
• Session duration, output-token speed, and optional cost tracking
• Customizable multi-line or compact layouts

Works with

Claude Code v1.0.80 or later, installed as a native Claude Code plugin. Runs on macOS, Linux and Windows (Node.js 18+ required).

How to install or connect

Run inside Claude Code:

/plugin marketplace add jarrodwatts/claude-hud
/plugin install claude-hud
/reload-plugins
/claude-hud:setup

Maintenance and safety

MIT licensed and actively developed, with 28k+ stars, 1.3k forks and 771 commits, plus ongoing open issues and pull requests. It's a display-only statusline plugin that reads session state rather than a tool with file or shell access, keeping its risk surface small.

Who should use it

Claude Code users who want visibility into context consumption and running tools without switching panes, especially anyone managing long sessions, multiple subagents, or rate-limited quotas where knowing how much context and budget is left in real time actually changes what you do next. It particularly suits people running several subagents in parallel and needing an at-a-glance signal for which ones are active, and anyone on a metered or rate-limited plan who wants to see token burn and remaining quota before a long task rather than finding out mid-session. Because it only reads and renders session state rather than acting on the codebase, adding it carries little of the review overhead that comes with tools that execute commands or edit files, making it an easy low-risk addition to an existing Claude Code setup. The customizable multi-line and compact layouts also mean it can be tuned to fit a small terminal pane just as well as a full-width one, so it doesn't force a particular window layout on you.