Claude Context Indicator

A VS Code extension that shows your Claude Code context window usage in the status bar — updated in real time as you work.

What it does

Displays a live percentage in the bottom-right status bar:

The indicator is hidden until Claude Code writes its first context update.

Prerequisites

1. Claude Code installed and configured.
2. Statusline hook — Claude Code must be configured to write context data to ~/.claude/context-bridge.json on each interaction.

Option A — WSL / terminal (statusLine hook)

Create ~/.claude/statusline-command.sh:

#!/bin/bash
input=$(cat)
PCT=$(echo "$input" | jq -r '.context_window.used_percentage // 0' | cut -d. -f1)
WIN_BRIDGE="/mnt/c/Users/<your-windows-username>/.claude/context-bridge.json"
mkdir -p "$(dirname "$WIN_BRIDGE")" 2>/dev/null
printf '{"context_percent":%s}' "$PCT" > "$WIN_BRIDGE"

Then add to ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "statusLine": {
    "type": "command",
    "command": "bash ~/.claude/statusline-command.sh"
  }
}

Option B — VS Code / Windows (Stop hook)

Create ~/.claude/context-bridge-hook.sh (use forward slashes, e.g. /c/Users/<you>/):

#!/bin/bash
input=$(cat)
TRANSCRIPT=$(echo "$input" | python3 -c "import sys,json; print(json.load(sys.stdin).get('transcript_path',''))" 2>/dev/null)
if [ -z "$TRANSCRIPT" ]; then exit 0; fi

PCT=$(python3 - "$TRANSCRIPT" <<'EOF'
import sys, json, os
path = sys.argv[1]
if not os.path.exists(path): sys.exit(0)
last_usage = None
with open(path, 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
    for line in f:
        try:
            entry = json.loads(line)
            msg = entry.get('message', {})
            if msg.get('role') == 'assistant' and 'usage' in msg:
                last_usage = msg['usage']
        except: pass
if not last_usage: sys.exit(0)
total = (last_usage.get('input_tokens', 0) +
         last_usage.get('cache_read_input_tokens', 0) +
         last_usage.get('cache_creation_input_tokens', 0))
print(max(0, min(100, round(total / 200000 * 100))))
EOF
)

if [ -n "$PCT" ] && [ "$PCT" -eq "$PCT" ] 2>/dev/null; then
    printf '{"context_percent":%s}' "$PCT" > "/c/Users/<your-username>/.claude/context-bridge.json"
fi

Then add to C:\Users\<you>\.claude\settings.json:

{
  "hooks": {
    "Stop": [{
      "hooks": [{
        "type": "command",
        "command": "bash /c/Users/<your-username>/.claude/context-bridge-hook.sh",
        "timeout": 5
      }]
    }]
  }
}

The hook fires after each Claude response and writes:

{"context_percent": 42}

Install

Option A — From VSIX (GitHub Releases)

1. Download claude-context-indicator-vscode-*.vsix from the Releases page.
2. In VS Code: Ctrl+Shift+P → Extensions: Install from VSIX… → select the downloaded file.
3. Reload VS Code when prompted.

Option B — From the Marketplace

Search "Claude Context Indicator" in the VS Code Extensions tab, or install via:

ext install onelostmuppet.claude-context-indicator-vscode

Configuration

Set these in File → Preferences → Settings (search claudeContext).

How it works

Claude Code's statusline hook writes ~/.claude/context-bridge.json after every interaction. The extension watches that directory with fs.watch (native NTFS, reliable on Windows) and reads the file on each change. No polling, no network calls.

License

MIT