Make AI pay you for waiting

Recoup your AI bill from the time you already spend waiting. Sponsored lines in your AI spinner pay you half of every ad dollar.

AI keeps getting more expensive. Tokens, subscriptions, usage tiers, all creeping up. Twiddl turns your AI's spinner into a standing discount on that bill.

It works quietly in the background. While Claude Code thinks, one clean sponsored line runs on the spinner and your statusline. Advertisers pay to be there, and 50% of every dollar goes to you. You don't change how you work. You just watch the green balance in your status bar tick up.

The short version

• 💸 A sponsored line runs while your AI thinks. You keep 50% of what advertisers pay for it.
• 🟢 A live balance sits in your status bar, so you always see what you've earned.
• 🔒 It never sees your code, prompts, or files. Only that an ad was on screen.
• 🧹 Turn it off anytime. It restores your settings exactly as they were.
• 💵 Real cash, not points. Cash out at $10 via twiddl.ai/me.

How it works

1. Install and confirm with one tap. No setup, no account wall before you start.
2. Keep coding. When Claude Code thinks, a sponsored line rides the spinner and statusline. Every 5 seconds of active session time credits your balance, automatically.
3. Watch it add up. A green running total lives in your status bar. Nothing to refresh, nothing to babysit.
4. Cash out. Reach $10 and withdraw real money at twiddl.ai/me.

What it never does

Trust is the whole product, so here's the hard line:

• It never reads your code, prompts, files, or AI conversations. It has no idea what you're building. The only thing it ever knows is that an ad was on screen for a few seconds.
• It never captures keystrokes. No OS-level key listener, ever. When you answer a sponsored question, it's a click. Nothing watches what you type.
• It never hijacks your editor. No focus-stealing pop-ups, no nagging. One quiet line in space that was already idle.
• It never holds your setup hostage. Disable or uninstall it and your ~/.claude/settings.json goes back to exactly what it was, byte for byte, no leftovers.

The exit is as easy as the install.

Exactly what it changes on your machine

No mystery. Twiddl edits one file: your Claude Code settings at ~/.claude/settings.json. It touches two keys and nothing else.

// ~/.claude/settings.json — the only file Twiddl edits
{
  "statusLine":   { ... },  // shows the sponsored line + your live balance
  "spinnerVerbs": { ... },  // runs the line on the spinner while your AI thinks

  // everything else in your file (permissions, hooks, etc.) is left
  // byte-for-byte exactly as it was
}

A few promises baked into how it writes:

• It never rewrites the whole file. It surgically sets only those two keys, so the rest of your config is preserved exactly.
• It snapshots the previous value of each key before writing, so it can put your originals back, not just delete them.
• If your settings file isn't valid JSON, it refuses to touch it rather than risk corrupting it.
• Your sign-in token is stored in your editor's secure secret storage, never in a plain file.

Turn Twiddl off or uninstall it, and both keys go back to exactly what they were (or get removed cleanly if you never had them). That is the entire footprint.

What you'll actually earn

Straight answer: this is bill-offset money, not rent money. Think "my Claude subscription mostly paid for itself this month," not "I quit my job." As AI tools keep getting pricier, that offset only matters more.

You can't fake your way to more, either. Every earner sits behind a paid Claude Code subscription, so the platform stays full of real developers and the money pool stays honest. Good for you, useless for bots.

Early users: you're first, and we pay you by hand

Twiddl is new, and we're being upfront about it. Right now, payouts are processed manually. A real person reviews and sends your money. It's slower than tapping a button, but it means every early payout is checked and real while we build out instant, automatic cash-outs.

Get in now and you're one of the first earners on the platform, before the crowd. Manual today, instant soon.

Works with

• VS Code via the Microsoft Marketplace
• Cursor and Windsurf via Open VSX
• Pure-terminal Claude Code, where the statusline path runs even without a webview

If Claude Code runs there, Twiddl earns there.

FAQ

Will it slow down my editor or Claude Code? No. It paints a single line and sends a light heartbeat every few seconds. No heavy work, no lag.

What data do you collect? That an ad was shown, and for how long. Never your code, prompts, files, keystrokes, or conversations. It physically can't read them.

How and when do I get paid? Cash out from twiddl.ai/me once you hit $10. Real money, reviewed and sent by a human at this stage. Instant payouts are coming.

Can I turn it off? Instantly, with one toggle. Uninstalling restores your settings exactly as they were, with nothing left behind.

For advertisers

Want the most-watched line in the terminal, in front of focused developers at the moment they're looking at the screen? Twiddl is self-serve and priced as a live auction in blocks of 1,000 impressions, from $5. Run your own ads at twiddl.ai/advertise.

Questions? bill@twiddl.ai · Balance and cash-out: twiddl.ai/me

Install once. Code like always. Let the wait pay you back.