ClaudeBar

Open source, with a signed DMG for sale — auto-updates via Sparkle. You can build it from source for free.

What it does

ClaudeBar runs a small loopback HTTP server and registers itself as a hook in ~/.claude/settings.json. As Claude Code fires each hook event (SessionStart, PreToolUse, Stop, …) the events are forwarded to the menu-bar app, which renders:

• Live activity — Thinking…, Reading <file>, Editing <file>, Running <cmd>, Searching, Fetching, Delegating <agent>, …
• Task list — the current TodoWrite plan with per-item progress
• Session info — active model and rolling context-token total, parsed from the transcript file
• Per-event opt-in — pick which hook events ClaudeBar listens for during onboarding

All traffic is local (127.0.0.1); the app makes no outbound network calls except Sparkle update checks.

Requirements

• macOS 26 or later
• Claude Code installed locally

Build from source

brew install xcodegen
xcodegen generate
open ClaudeBar.xcodeproj
# ⌘R in Xcode

Headless Debug build + SwiftLint check:

./tests/check.sh

Tech stack

Swift 6, SwiftUI + AppKit, Network.framework, Sparkle 2

License

GPL-3.0