Second Brain
articleJanuary 3, 2026

How to Customize Your Claude Code Status Line

by alexander-opalic
claude-codeclideveloper-experience Open Link

Configure Claude Code to display model info and context usage in your terminal through a custom status line script that processes JSON data via stdin.

Claude Code pipes JSON data to a custom script, letting you display whatever information matters most in your terminal status line.

Setup

Create ~/.claude/statusline.sh:

#!/bin/bash
input=$(cat)

MODEL=$(echo "$input" | jq -r '.model.display_name')
INPUT_TOKENS=$(echo "$input" | jq -r '.context_window.total_input_tokens')
OUTPUT_TOKENS=$(echo "$input" | jq -r '.context_window.total_output_tokens')
CONTEXT_SIZE=$(echo "$input" | jq -r '.context_window.context_window_size')

TOTAL_TOKENS=$((INPUT_TOKENS + OUTPUT_TOKENS))
PERCENT_USED=$((TOTAL_TOKENS * 100 / CONTEXT_SIZE))

echo "[$MODEL] Context: ${PERCENT_USED}%"

Make it executable and configure Claude Code:

chmod +x ~/.claude/statusline.sh

Add to ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "statusLine": {
    "type": "command",
    "command": "~/.claude/statusline.sh"
  }
}

Available Variables

The JSON input includes:

  • model.id and model.display_name
  • context_window.total_input_tokens and context_window.total_output_tokens
  • context_window.context_window_size
  • cost.total_cost_usd and cost.total_duration_ms
  • workspace.current_dir

Code Snippets

Cost Tracking Status Line

Add cost tracking alongside context usage:

#!/bin/bash
input=$(cat)

MODEL=$(echo "$input" | jq -r '.model.display_name')
TOTAL_TOKENS=$(($(echo "$input" | jq -r '.context_window.total_input_tokens') +
                 $(echo "$input" | jq -r '.context_window.total_output_tokens')))
CONTEXT_SIZE=$(echo "$input" | jq -r '.context_window.context_window_size')
COST=$(echo "$input" | jq -r '.cost.total_cost_usd')

PERCENT_USED=$((TOTAL_TOKENS * 100 / CONTEXT_SIZE))

printf "[%s] Context: %d%% | $%.2f" "$MODEL" "$PERCENT_USED" "$COST"

Output: [Opus] Context: 12% | $0.45

Troubleshooting

Requires jq (brew install jq on macOS). Test manually:

echo '{"model":{"display_name":"Opus"},"context_window":{"total_input_tokens":1000,"total_output_tokens":500,"context_window_size":200000}}' | ~/.claude/statusline.sh

The /statusline slash command provides guided setup without manual configuration.

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