Claude Context Meter
A minimal VS Code extension that shows your Claude Code token usage as an ASCII progress bar directly in the status bar — updates instantly via file watcher, zero polling.
Status bar
🤖 my-project ███░░ 156k/200k (78%) in:140k out:16k
The bar fills as your context fills. Color changes automatically:
- Default — under warning threshold
- Yellow — above warning (default 50%)
- Red — above danger threshold (default 75%)
my-project
`claude-sonnet-4-6` · 🟡 warn · 78%
████████████████░░░░ 78%
156,121 / 200,000 tokens
───────────────────────────────────
in: 140,000 · out: 16,000 · cr: 0 · cw: 121
Updated 9:42:15 PM
How it works
Claude Code writes session logs as .jsonl files under ~/.claude/projects/. This extension watches that directory with VS Code's file system watcher — no polling interval, no delay. The moment Claude writes a response, the meter updates.
Token limit is auto-detected from the model name:
| Model |
Context |
| Opus 4.6/4.7/4.8, Sonnet 4.5/4.6/4.7, and any future Opus/Sonnet |
1M tokens |
| All Haiku models (4.5, 3.5, 3) |
200k tokens |
| Legacy Claude 3 / 3.5 Sonnet & Opus |
200k tokens |
New Claude releases default to 1M unless they are Haiku — no extension update required.
Unrecognized non-Claude models fall back to the contextLimit setting.
Install
From VSIX
- Download the latest
.vsix from Releases
- In VS Code:
Extensions → ··· → Install from VSIX
Or via terminal:
code --install-extension claude-context-meter-1.2.0.vsix
Build from source
git clone https://github.com/kexgev/claude-context-meter.git
cd claude-context-meter
npm install
npx vsce package --allow-missing-repository
code --install-extension claude-context-meter-1.2.0.vsix
Requirements
Settings
| Setting |
Default |
Description |
claudeContextMeter.contextLimit |
200000 |
Fallback token limit when model is not auto-detected |
claudeContextMeter.idleTimeout |
180 |
Seconds of inactivity before hiding a session |
claudeContextMeter.warningThreshold |
50 |
% at which the bar turns yellow |
claudeContextMeter.dangerThreshold |
75 |
% at which the bar turns red |
claudeContextMeter.compactMode |
false |
Abbreviate long project names (e.g. my-cool-project → MCP) |
claudeContextMeter.showEmoji |
true |
Show project emoji prefix |
claudeContextMeter.autoColor |
true |
Auto-assign a unique pastel color per project |
claudeContextMeter.shortNames |
{} |
Custom name overrides e.g. { "my-project": "MP" } |
License
MIT
