Claude Code finally gets a heads-up display

What it does Claude HUD is a Claude Code plugin that renders a persistent statusline below your prompt. It displays real-time context window usage, active tool calls, running subagents, todo progress, git state, and rate-limit counters using data piped straight from Claude Code’s native APIs. Everything updates roughly every 300 ms without spawning extra windows or requiring tmux.

The interesting bit Instead of guessing how full the context window is, you get native token counts scaled to the session’s actual limit—including those newer 1M-context windows—plus a live transcript parser that turns raw JSONL into human-readable lines like Edit: auth.ts or explore [haiku]: Finding auth code.

Key highlights

• Native token data from Claude Code, not hand-wavy estimates
• Context bar shifts from green to yellow to red as the window fills up
• Optional lines for live tool activity, agent tracking, and todo completion
• Supports Full, Essential, and Minimal presets plus per-element toggles
• Chinese (Simplified) labels available via opt-in configuration

Caveats

• On Linux, plugin installation fails with an EXDEV cross-device link error if /tmp lives on a separate filesystem; the README notes this is a Claude Code platform limitation
• Windows users need a local Node.js LTS runtime available for the initial setup flow, followed by a full Claude Code restart

Verdict Worth installing if you spend hours in Claude Code and want visibility into context pressure, subagent chatter, and tool calls without breaking flow. Skip it if you already pipe Claude Code through a custom tmux dashboard or prefer your terminal absolutely minimalist.