Keep an Eye on Your AI Coding Assistant, Right from the Menu Bar
If you're like a lot of developers these days, you probably spend a decent chunk of your day working with an AI coding assistant. Tools like Claude, ChatGPT, or GitHub Copilot are becoming core parts of the workflow. But have you ever wondered, at the end of the week, just how much you're actually using it? Or wanted a quick, non-intrusive way to track that usage without opening another dashboard?
That's the itch that ClaudeBar scratches. It's a neat, open-source macOS menu bar app that quietly keeps track of your interactions with Claude Code (specifically through the official desktop app), giving you a real-time glance at your usage stats without ever leaving your coding environment.
What It Does
ClaudeBar is a lightweight, native macOS application that lives in your menu bar. It connects to the local Claude desktop app, monitors your activity, and displays key metrics in a simple dropdown. At a glance, you can see your total conversation count, total tokens used (both sent and received), and your estimated cost based on Claude's pricing model. It runs silently in the background, collecting data only when the Claude app is active.
Why It's Cool
The beauty of ClaudeBar is in its simplicity and focus. It's not another bloated analytics platform; it's a single-purpose tool that does one thing well. For developers who are mindful of their AI usage—whether for budgeting, productivity reflection, or just plain curiosity—it provides immediate feedback without any friction.
From a technical standpoint, it's a great example of a practical SwiftUI macOS menu bar app. The project is clean and open source, so if you've ever wanted to see how to build a modern, minimal menu bar utility for Apple's ecosystem, the code is right there to explore. It's also privacy-focused: all the monitoring happens locally on your machine. Your data isn't being sent to any external servers; it's just you and your menu bar.
How to Try It
Getting started is straightforward for a Mac user:
- Head over to the ClaudeBar GitHub repository.
- You'll find the latest release on the right-hand side. Download the
ClaudeBar.zipfile. - Unzip it and drag the
ClaudeBar.appto your Applications folder. - Run the app. You'll see its icon appear in your menu bar (it looks like the Claude logo).
That's it. It will start monitoring automatically when you use the Claude desktop app. You can click the menu bar icon anytime to see your current session and all-time stats.
Final Thoughts
As AI assistants become more embedded in our daily work, tools like ClaudeBar represent a useful shift towards making that interaction more transparent. It's not about