Claude Code Cockpit

The local-first HUD for Claude Code. Every session, every token, every dollar — in your VSCode sidebar. Read-only. 100% local.

Surfaces the state Claude Code already writes to disk. Plus your Mac. Plus your Obsidian. Plus claude.ai. Customizable: a header strip with logo + actions sits above a tab bar you control — pick which tabs are visible, build a Custom tab from any of 30+ widgets, and switch between auto / dark / light theme.

Available tabs: Custom · Now · Mac · Watchtower · Agents · Routines · Discover · Roadmap · Changelog · Manage · Chat · Search · Obsidian · Memory · Prompts · Skills · Projects · Files · Config · Help. The Custom, Now, and Help tabs are pinned; the rest can be hidden via the Customize panel.

Global search (in the header): type any string to search across tabs, widgets, memory, skills, prompts, agents, routines, projects, plans, tunnels, and settings — with type-filter chips to narrow results. Click any hit to jump to the right tab.

Landing page: claude-code-cockpit.pages.dev · Sibling: claude-overlay (macOS menubar, cross-surface).

What it does

Read-only. Watches ~/.claude/projects/<your-cwd>/ and renders:

• Header strip: brand mark + tagline + Customize gear (⚙) + Help (?). Always visible; the gear opens an in-panel editor for tabs, widgets, and theme.
• Status bar: workspace name, total tokens this session, files touched
• Sidebar webview (Activity Bar) — tabbed:
  • Custom (default): you pick which widgets appear here. Composable from any of 30+ registered components — greeting, inbox, tokens, cost, heatmap, routines, watchtower, sub-agents, etc. Defaults: greeting, inbox, stats grid, quick actions, tokens, cost, routines.
  • Now: greeting (time-aware), notifications, Inbox (aggregated needs-you items: idle sessions, errored tools, stale memories, pending plan items), at-a-glance stats grid (streak, active days, peak hour, favorite model, week cost), PILOT card, plans, tokens + sparkline, activity heatmap, cost (with $/hr + cache hit rate), context fill, cost-by-tool, budget caps, session metadata, CLAUDE.md stack, tool histogram, sub-agents, tool decisions, activity feed, files touched, today
  • Mac: macOS system health — disk, memory pressure, battery, CPU load, Wi-Fi throughput, external drives, Bluetooth peripheral battery rings, plus Application time today (per-app focus tracker with hourly bar chart, sampled while VSCode is running)
  • Watchtower: every Claude session touched in the last hour, color-coded
  • Agents: your specialist council — agent definitions from ~/.claude/agents/ (global) and .claude/agents/ (workspace) with description, model, tools
  • Routines: scheduled Claude Code runs. Local section reads ~/.claude/scheduled-tasks/<name>/SKILL.md (name, description, cadence hint inferred from description, last edit, size, click to open or reveal). Each routine gets a ▶ Run now button that opens a terminal piping the SKILL.md into a fresh claude session for on-demand execution. The header + New routine button prompts for a name + description and writes a starter SKILL.md. Cloud section is opt-in (claudeCockpit.cloudRoutines.enabled) and surfaces a deep-link to manage scheduled remote agents on claude.ai — Cockpit doesn't read cloud-routine state because Anthropic doesn't expose a routines API to extensions yet.
  • Discover (opt-in): top trending GitHub projects (filterable by today / this week / this month) and recent RSS notes pulled from your Obsidian vault's rss/ folder. GitHub fetches api.github.com only when you click Refresh; RSS is purely local. Disabled by default — toggle claudeCockpit.discover.enabled or click "Enable Discover (opt-in)" inside the tab.
  • Roadmap: mirrors roadmap.dashable.dev inside Cockpit. Lists every project (HAQQ, AI Frameworks, AI Visualization, AI Simulation, Developer Tools, Knowledge Management, Fintech, Meta, etc.) with category filter, stage filter, and live search across name + description + tech stack. Each project card shows emoji, stage badge, description, top tech, next steps, and Open / GitHub buttons. Auto-fetches from roadmap.dashable.dev (or localhost:3777 if you run the roadmap server locally), with a 10-minute disk cache at ~/.claude/.cache/cockpit-roadmap.json. On by default; opt-out via claudeCockpit.roadmap.enabled = false for fully local operation.
  • Changelog: renders CHANGELOG.md bundled with the extension (per-version dates, notes, deep-link to the matching GitHub release) plus an in-tab update banner if a newer release exists. The header also shows a green Update available pill when one is detected.
  • Manage: surfaces every key in ~/.claude/settings.json and ~/.claude/settings.local.json — hooks, MCP servers, plugins, and any other top-level keys — with edit buttons that open the JSON file directly in VSCode. Cockpit never writes settings programmatically; every change goes through the editor so you can review before saving.
  • Chat: conversations + memory from claude.ai (parsed from claude-data-export/)
  • Search: global grep across every session JSONL
  • Obsidian: auto-detects vaults, lists recent notes, save-session-as-markdown
  • Memory / Prompts / Skills / Projects / Files: pinnable memory, prompt library, skill palette, project browser, ~/.claude/ filesystem
  • Config: budget caps, RTK token-killer stats, Cloudflare tunnels, MCP servers, hooks, plugins, disk usage, dashboard launchers
  • ? Help: plain-language explanations of every tab, every metric, where each data point comes from, and the privacy model

Updates live as Claude works (filesystem watcher + 400ms debounce).

Privacy

Local-first. No telemetry, no analytics, no third-party services. The webview itself runs under a strict CSP that blocks connect-src and form-action. The extension host makes only three bounded outbound calls, all disclosed and configurable:

1. api.github.com/repos/sboghossian/claude-code-cockpit/releases/latest — update check, on by default (claudeCockpit.updateCheck.enabled).
2. api.github.com/search/repositories — Discover tab's GitHub trending fetch, off by default (claudeCockpit.discover.enabled), only on Refresh.
3. roadmap.dashable.dev/api/projects (or localhost:3777 locally) — Roadmap tab's project metadata, on by default (claudeCockpit.roadmap.enabled).

Set any flag to false for fully local operation with zero outbound traffic. Zero runtime dependencies. See PRIVACY.md for the full audit trail.

Why

Claude Code stores rich session state on disk. The CLI doesn't surface most of it. Cockpit reads the JSONL session log + memory directory and gives you a passive HUD instead of tail -f-ing files yourself.

Install

Marketplace (recommended)

code --install-extension dashable.claude-code-cockpit

Or in VSCode: Extensions sidebar → search "Claude Code Cockpit" → click Install.

View on the VSCode Marketplace →

Quick start (90 seconds)

1. Install via the marketplace command above (or grab the .vsix from Releases).
2. Open the Cockpit: click the Cockpit icon in the Activity Bar (left rail). On first launch you'll see a Welcome tab with a system-check checklist and "Next steps" buttons (Customize widgets · Open settings · Go to Now · Read the docs).
3. Bootstrap data: open any folder in VSCode and run claude in its terminal. The moment Claude Code writes its first JSONL turn, the Cockpit lights up.

Sideload (offline / air-gapped)

# Download claude-code-cockpit-<latest>.vsix from the GitHub Releases page, then:
code --install-extension claude-code-cockpit-<latest>.vsix

That's it. Cockpit is read-only and runs entirely on your machine — no telemetry, no network calls without an explicit opt-in (Discover and Cloud routines are both off by default).

Optional setup (only if you want them)

• Budget caps & rollups. claudeCockpit.budget.dailyCapUsd / weeklyCapUsd / monthlyCapUsd / yearlyCapUsd / sessionCapUsd — set any of these in VSCode settings to get progress bars on the Usage rollups widget. All zeroed by default (no cap).
• Custom layout. Click the gear (⚙) in the header (or any tab's Customize button) to pick widgets per tab, hide tabs you don't use, and lock theme to dark/light/auto. Empty = empty: if you uncheck every widget on a tab, the tab is empty.
• Discover (network opt-in). Top GitHub repos + Hacker News + Product Hunt + your Obsidian RSS, fetched only when you click Refresh. Toggle in Settings → claudeCockpit.discover.enabled.
• Cloud routines (link only). Surfaces a deep-link to claude.ai's scheduled-agents page. No API state is read. Toggle in Settings → claudeCockpit.cloudRoutines.enabled.

Update later

When a new release lands, the header shows a green Update available pill — click it to jump to the GitHub release page and download the new .vsix.

From source (dev)

git clone https://github.com/sboghossian/claude-code-cockpit.git
cd claude-cockpit
npm install
npm run compile

Then open the folder in VSCode and press F5 to launch an Extension Development Host.

Marketplace (for maintainers)

Listing →

To publish a new version:

1. Generate a Personal Access Token (PAT) for the dashable publisher in Azure DevOps (Marketplace → Manage scope). See the Microsoft publish guide.
2. Export it: export VSCE_PAT="<your-pat>".
3. Bump version in package.json and update CHANGELOG.md.
4. Run: bash scripts/publish-marketplace.sh. The script compiles, verifies the PAT, packages the .vsix, and pushes to the marketplace.

Architecture

• src/extension.ts — activation, command registration
• src/claudeData.ts — reads ~/.claude/projects/<encoded-cwd>/*.jsonl, parses tokens + tool calls
• src/sidebarProvider.ts — webview view provider, fs watcher, message router, snapshot composer
• src/integrations.ts — agents, plans, RTK, tunnels, usage dashboard, chat export, activity heatmap
• src/macHealth.ts + src/appUsage.ts — Mac tab data sources
• src/obsidian.ts — vault detection + URI builders
• src/routines.ts — ~/.claude/scheduled-tasks/* reader for the Routines tab
• src/discover.ts — opt-in GitHub trending fetch + Obsidian RSS reader
• src/roadmap.ts — Roadmap tab fetcher (remote / local fallback / disk cache)
• src/changelog.ts — bundled CHANGELOG.md parser
• src/updateCheck.ts — api.github.com/releases/latest poller for the update pill
• src/manage.ts — ~/.claude/settings*.json reader for the Manage tab
• src/jarvis.ts — boo-mesh approval queue / chat reader (in-progress)
• src/statusBar.ts — three status bar items
• src/logger.ts — OutputChannel-backed logger (no console.log)
• media/ — webview HTML/CSS/JS (vanilla, no build step)

No runtime dependencies. Just @types/vscode and typescript.

Commands

• Claude Cockpit: Refresh
• Claude Cockpit: Open MEMORY.md
• Claude Cockpit: Open Active Session JSONL
• Claude Cockpit: Save Session to Obsidian
• Claude Cockpit: Open Obsidian Vault
• Claude Cockpit: Search All Sessions
• Claude Cockpit: Watchtower (cross-project sessions)
• Claude Cockpit: Set Daily Budget Cap

Settings

• claudeCockpit.budget.enabled — turn budget alerts on/off
• claudeCockpit.budget.dailyCapUsd — daily spend cap, 0 disables
• claudeCockpit.budget.sessionCapUsd — per-session cap, 0 disables
• claudeCockpit.cloudRoutines.enabled — show a deep-link to manage cloud routines on claude.ai (off by default; doesn't make network calls)
• claudeCockpit.theme — initial theme: auto (default; follows VSCode), dark, or light. Can also be changed at runtime in the Customize panel.
• claudeCockpit.discover.enabled — enable the Discover tab (off by default; allows opt-in api.github.com fetches when you click Refresh).
• claudeCockpit.updateCheck.enabled — periodically check api.github.com for new Cockpit releases (on by default). Set to false for fully local operation.
• claudeCockpit.roadmap.enabled — let the Roadmap tab fetch roadmap.dashable.dev/api/projects (on by default). Set to false to render the tab from the disk cache only with no outbound traffic.

User preferences (which widgets appear in the Custom tab, which tabs are visible, runtime theme override) are stored per-machine in VSCode globalState (key claudeCockpit.userPrefs). They never leave the machine.

Roadmap

See tasks/todo.md. Highlights:

• Hook log viewer (event stream)
• Mode/model swap with human gate (per LeCun world-model rule)
• Embedded claude-office pixel-art visualizer iframe
• Diff drawer for files touched (link to git history)

License

MIT