Claude Octopus

Unofficial. A context meter for Claude Code: a pixel mascot that lives in the VS Code Activity Bar and grows as the context of your running Claude Code session fills up. When the context is full, click it to run /compact.

How it works

• Reads the transcript ~/.claude/projects/<project>/<session>.jsonl of the most recent session in the workspace and takes the usage of the latest assistant message: input + cache_creation + cache_read + output, divided by the context window (200k by default, switching to 1M automatically when exceeded).
• /compact is sent to the terminal running claude (matched by terminal name, or you pick one). If no terminal is chosen, you can copy /compact with one click and paste it into Claude yourself.

Interactions

Moods and animations

• idle: breathes, blinks, looks around, wanders, waves, hops, peeks, flexes, taps its foot, stretches, dances, chatters, a butterfly lands on its head, sits in "loaf mode", hums (♪ notes), sneezes, winks ✧, gets shy (heart eyes), does backflips
• working (Claude is writing to the transcript): fast tapping feet, a "•••" thinking bubble
• vibe (Claude has been coding non-stop for ≥ 60 seconds while you just wait): sunglasses drop onto its eyes, headphones go on, and it holds an iced Vietnamese coffee (daytime) or a glass of Hanoi draft beer (from 17:00); it nods to lo-fi beats, taps along, sips "slurp ☕" or raises a glass "1, 2, 3… cheers! 🍺", music notes float up; "vibing ~ 🎧", "auto-accept mode 😎"
• bored (nothing has happened for ≥ 90 seconds, before it falls asleep): droopy eyes, flat mouth, "sigh"; it lies flat and melts, blows bubblegum until it pops, plays a handheld game, rolls its eyes, taps impatiently; "type something 🥱"
• eating: whatever Claude just loaded into the context flies into its mouth as little "knowledge" chips, then it munches and grows: 📄 file read · ✏️ file edited · ›_ Bash command · 🔍 grep/glob · 🌐 web · 🤖 subagent · 💬 your prompt · 💡 thinking · 🖼️ image · 🔧 other tool. Only newly written transcript lines are used (history is never replayed).
• stressed (≥ threshold): turns red, sweats, trembles, lets off steam
• panic (≥ 90%): shakes, flails its arms, gasps, glows red, "click me" bubble
• stuffed (100%), about to burst: sits down, puffed up, >< eyes, pats its belly, burps bubbles; a red vignette pulses around the view, the context bar turns into moving yellow-red hazard stripes, the percentage trembles, glowing cracks appear on its body. The longer it stays full, the higher the tension (3 levels: 0–8s, 8–20s, >20s): more cracks, stronger shaking, faster breathing. Every so often it swells up, flashes white faster and faster and the whole view shakes, throws off debris… then barely holds it in: "phew…". On /compact from 100%: 💥 POP: white flash, shockwave, pixel debris flying everywhere, then it springs back tiny: "…I'm okay!"
• compacting: squeezes with its eyes shut; when done it burps, puffs up and shrinks, throws sparkles, backflips, smiles
• sleep (no activity for 5 minutes): eyes closed, slow breathing, "Zzz"
• hibernate: Claude's prompt cache has expired (1 hour after the last API call by default; the 5m/1h TTL is read from the transcript). It puts on a nightcap, curls up, blows a snot bubble, and the view turns into a night sky with a moon and stars; the HUD shows 💤 cache cold. Poking it only makes it talk in its sleep ("5 more minutes…"); it wakes with a start only when a new message is sent to Claude. While the cache is still warm, the HUD counts down ⚡ 42m.

Try it

• Development: open this folder in VS Code and press F5.
• Install for real (no build or npm needed): symlink it into the extensions folder, then Reload Window: ln -s "$PWD" ~/.vscode/extensions/local.claude-octopus-0.1.0
• Preview the animations without VS Code: python3 -m http.server 8765, then open http://localhost:8765/test/harness.html.

Seasonal themes (claudeOctopus.theme, default auto)

The HUD also shows a themed banner. Short events beat long seasons (18 Dec is Messi even during the Christmas season). Set theme to none to turn themes off, or pick one directly. Add your own dates with claudeOctopus.themeDates: [{ "theme": "messi", "from": "2026-10-03", "to": "2026-10-07" }] (dates as YYYY-MM-DD, or MM-DD to repeat every year).

Stay out of the way while coding

The Claude Octopus: Cycle Motion Level command switches quickly between lively → calm → minimal. When the operating system has Reduce motion turned on, all looping animations are disabled.

Privacy & security

• Local only. The extension makes no network requests; the view's Content Security Policy blocks every connection, image and form.
• Reads, never writes, your transcripts. Only token counts, timestamps and short labels leave the transcript reader; message text and tool results are never passed on.
• Labels are redacted. Raw Bash command lines are never shown (only Claude's description of the command), and anything that looks like a key, token or password is masked as •••. Set claudeOctopus.knowledgeLabels to false to show icons only, e.g. while screen sharing.
• No API for other extensions. Nothing is exported and no command returns data.
• Typing into terminals. /compact is only typed into the terminal you picked, or the single terminal whose name matches terminalNamePattern; otherwise you are asked. That setting and sessionSource can only be set in user settings, never by a workspace, and are restricted in untrusted workspaces.
• Clipboard. Only written when you click Copy /compact.

Settings

claudeOctopus.contextWindow, compactThreshold, sessionSource (workspace/latest), terminalNamePattern, confirmBelowThreshold, sleepAfterMinutes, cacheTtl (auto/5m/1h), theme, themeDates, vibeAfterSeconds, boredAfterSeconds, knowledgeLabels, plus the settings in the section above.

Not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic. Claude and Claude Code are trademarks of Anthropic, PBC.