Claude Status Chip
Unofficial community extension — not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic. It locally
patches the installed Claude Code extension's webview (a backup is kept; see caveats below).
Adds an always-visible, colored status chip to the Claude Code panel's input toolbar (next to the
/ button):
[Fable 5] [(main)] [487k/1M (49%)] [e:xhigh] [think] [$12.35] ⚙
- Model actually running (blue)
- Git branch, live — updates within seconds of a checkout (purple)
- Context usage as
used/window (%) — the pill fills like a progress bar and turns
green → yellow (≥50%) → red (≥80%)
- Reasoning effort, colored by level
- think indicator when extended thinking is on (orange)
- Session cost when the API reports one (yellow)
- ⚙ gear menu: show/hide any item + zoom the conversation transcript only (80%–160%) —
the panel header and input box stay at normal size. Preferences persist.
Why this exists
Claude Code's statusLine setting only works in the terminal TUI — the VSCode panel never runs it,
and the panel's built-in context indicator stays hidden until less than 50% of context remains.
This extension patches the Claude Code extension's webview bundle to add the chip, and re-applies
the patch automatically after every Claude extension auto-update (checks at startup and every 60s,
then offers a one-click window reload).
Install
Marketplace: Open VSX Registry
VSCodium, Cursor, Windsurf, Gitpod, Eclipse Theia
These editors read Open VSX directly. Extensions view → search Claude Status Chip → Install.
Stock VS Code
Stock VS Code reads Microsoft's marketplace, where this extension is not published. Grab the .vsix
from Open VSX and install it manually:
curl -LO https://open-vsx.org/api/omarkara/claude-status-chip/1.0.1/file/omarkara.claude-status-chip-1.0.1.vsix
code --install-extension omarkara.claude-status-chip-1.0.1.vsix
Or: Extensions view → ⋯ → Install from VSIX… and pick the downloaded file.
Restart VSCode once. When the notification appears, click Reload Window.
Notes / caveats
- This modifies the installed Claude Code extension's
webview/index.js locally (a backup is kept
as index.js.cc-status.bak next to it). Unofficial — use at your own risk.
- If a future Claude version restructures its bundle, you'll get a warning ("patch anchor not found")
instead of a broken panel; the patch logic then needs an update.
- Power users: drop an edited copy of the patcher at
~/.claude/patch-claude-vscode-status.js — it
takes precedence over the bundled one, so you can customize the chip without reinstalling.
- To uninstall cleanly: uninstall this extension, then restore the
.cc-status.bak backup (or simply
reinstall/update the Claude Code extension).
Author
Omar Kara Mohammed — full-stack and mobile developer, AI-native product builder. I build
software with AI, ship it, and run the infrastructure under it.
Found it useful? A ⭐ on the repo or a rating on
Open VSX helps other Claude Code users
find it. Issues and PRs welcome.
License
MIT — see LICENSE.
