ClaudeBar: a macOS menu bar monitor for Claude, Codex and Gemini quotas
A macOS menu bar application that monitors AI coding assistant usage quotas. Keep track of your Claude, Codex, Antigravity ,and Gemini usage at a glance.
At a glance
- What is it?
- ClaudeBar is a Swift menu bar app that reads the quota windows of twenty-odd AI coding assistants and renders them as colour-coded gauges. It installs through a Homebrew cask, and its most unusual feature is native Touch Bar support on MacBook Pro models.
- Who is it for?
- Adopt ClaudeBar if you run two or more AI coding assistants on a MacBook and keep hitting session or weekly caps you did not see coming. Skip it if your work happens on Windows or Linux, since the project is macOS-only, or if you only ever use one provider whose own dashboard is enough.
- Can I use it commercially?
- Not without permission. GitHub finds no licence file in the repository, and without a licence all rights are reserved by default: you may read the code but not reuse it. Check the README, or ask the authors, before using it.
- Is it still maintained?
- Yes. The repository last received commits 1 day ago.
- What is it written in?
- Mainly Swift, according to GitHub's language statistics.
Answers come from the project's GitHub data, last synced on September 15, 2026, and from our analysis. They are not legal advice.
DEEP OPEN-SOURCE ANALYSIS
The quota problem ClaudeBar was built around
Most AI coding assistants bill on windows rather than a single monthly number. Claude Code, for instance, exposes a five-hour session quota alongside a seven-day weekly quota, and the README describes ClaudeBar rendering separate progress bars for each, with countdown timers next to them. That is the problem the project targets: you cannot see how close you are to a cap until a request fails or a CLI refuses to continue. ClaudeBar puts those percentages in the macOS menu bar, so the number is visible while you type rather than after you are blocked.
The intended user is someone paying for more than one assistant at once. The README lists Claude, OpenAI Codex, Google Gemini, GitHub Copilot, Google Antigravity, Cursor, AWS Bedrock, AWS Kiro, Kimi, DeepSeek, Mistral, MiniMax, Alibaba Coding Plan, Z.ai, Amp Code, OpenCode Go, Oh My Pi, Grok Build, Command Code, and Vercel. That list is the product's whole argument. If you only use one provider, the provider's own dashboard does the same job and this app is overhead.
How the menu bar, thresholds and refresh cycle fit together
ClaudeBar is a Swift application built with Tuist, judging by the presence of Project.swift, Tuist.swift and a Tuist directory at the repository root alongside Sources and Tests. The README states the platform requirement as macOS 15 and the toolchain as Swift 6.2, so the app is not a wrapper around a web view or an Electron shell.
Quota state is colour-coded on fixed thresholds. Above 50 percent remaining the bar is blue or green and labelled Healthy. Between 20 and 50 percent it turns yellow or amber and is labelled Warning. Below 20 percent it goes red and alerts fire. At zero it is grey and Depleted. There is a second alert path the README calls Burn Rate Warnings, enabled in Settings > General, which triggers on consumption velocity against remaining time instead of a fixed percentage. That distinction matters: a fixed threshold tells you where you are, and a burn rate tells you where you will be, which is the more useful signal if you have four hours of work left and a five-hour window.
Updates arrive on a configurable auto-refresh interval. Providers can be toggled on and off individually from Settings, which is the practical way to keep the menu bar from becoming a wall of gauges. Two keyboard shortcuts are documented: Command-D opens the Dashboard and Command-R triggers a Refresh.
Installing ClaudeBar with Homebrew and reading your first quota
The README links a Homebrew badge to the cask page at formulae.brew.sh/cask/claudebar, which is the installation path the project points at. The README itself does not print an install command, so the cask page is where the exact command lives; check it before running anything.
After installation, launch the app and open its Settings. The README describes provider configuration under Settings > Providers, where you can enable the assistants you actually use and disable the rest.
Once a provider is enabled and authenticated, the menu bar item shows a percentage for each quota window. With multiple accounts configured for the same provider, the README describes a dedicated account selector dropdown for switching between them. Press Command-D to open the Dashboard, which is where the per-window progress bars and countdown timers live.
If you want quota state on your phone, the README describes an optional Notify! integration that publishes to three surfaces: a Lock Screen Live Activity showing up to six quota windows, a Home Screen widget with the same content, and a Lock Screen widget gauge for one chosen quota that is off by default.
Where ClaudeBar stops being the right tool
The first constraint is the platform. ClaudeBar is a macOS menu bar application, and the README states the requirement as macOS 15. There is no Windows or Linux build described anywhere in the README, so anyone searching for a Windows equivalent will not find one here. The Touch Bar integration narrows this further: it applies to MacBook Pro models with an Apple Touch Bar, including the M1 and M2 generations and Intel machines. On a MacBook Air, or on any Mac without the hardware, that feature is simply absent.
The second constraint is dependency on provider APIs. Every number in the app comes from somewhere outside it, and the README does not document what happens when a provider changes its quota endpoint or returns an error. There is no described fallback, no cached-value policy, and no stated behaviour for a stale reading. If a gauge looks wrong, the README gives no troubleshooting path for distinguishing a genuine quota change from a failed fetch.
The third is the licence. The repository metadata does not identify a licence, and the README does not state one either. For a personal menu bar utility that is usually tolerable. For anything approaching redistribution or bundling into a corporate image, it is an unresolved question, and the README does not settle it.
ClaudeBar compared with per-provider dashboards and terminal status lines
The obvious alternative is not another app; it is the status output each assistant already ships. Claude Code and similar CLIs expose usage information in their own interfaces, and every provider has a web account page. The difference in approach is aggregation and persistence. A provider dashboard shows one provider, one window, and only when you open it. ClaudeBar holds several providers in a single menu bar item and refreshes them on a timer, so the comparison is really about whether you want the number always on screen.
A second alternative is a terminal status line configured inside your shell prompt. That keeps quota readouts inside the terminal where you are already working and avoids a background process. The trade-off runs the other way: a prompt segment is only visible when a terminal is focused, it does not survive into your editor or browser, and it cannot drive system notifications. ClaudeBar's notification behaviour, including the warning and critical alerts, is the part a prompt cannot replicate. If you live entirely in one terminal and never switch windows, the prompt approach is lighter and does not need macOS 15.
Release cadence, upgrade cost and licence status
The release history is dense. v0.4.90 was published on 2026-09-05, v0.4.91 on 2026-09-09, and v0.4.92 on 2026-09-12. The last push to the default branch was on 2026-09-14. Three patch releases inside eight days, all still on the 0.4 line, tells you two things: the project is moving quickly, and it has not declared a 1.0. Fast iteration on a tool that reads third-party quota endpoints is expected, because provider changes force updates. The practical cost is that you should expect to upgrade often, and a Homebrew cask makes that a single command.
Because the app sits in the menu bar and refreshes on an interval, an upgrade means a restart of the background process. The README does not document a migration path for stored settings between versions, so treat configuration as something you may need to re-enter after a major bump.
On licensing, the position is unresolved rather than permissive. No licence identifier appears in the repository metadata shown, and the README does not name one. That does not make the project unusable, but it does mean you cannot reason about redistribution rights from the documentation. If your organisation requires a known licence before internal deployment, this is the first thing to confirm with the maintainer rather than assume.
Editorial conclusion
Adopt ClaudeBar if you run two or more AI coding assistants on a MacBook and keep hitting session or weekly caps you did not see coming. Skip it if your work happens on Windows or Linux, since the project is macOS-only, or if you only ever use one provider whose own dashboard is enough. Before installing, check the Homebrew cask page for the current version and confirm your machine meets macOS 15 and, for Touch Bar gauges, that it is a MacBook Pro with an Apple Touch Bar.
Frequently asked questions
What is ClaudeBar and which providers does it support?
ClaudeBar is a macOS menu bar application that monitors AI coding assistant usage quotas in real time. The README lists Claude, OpenAI Codex, Google Gemini, GitHub Copilot, Google Antigravity, Cursor, AWS Bedrock, AWS Kiro, Kimi, DeepSeek, Mistral, MiniMax, Alibaba Coding Plan, Z.ai, Amp Code, OpenCode Go, Oh My Pi, Grok Build, Command Code, and Vercel.
How do I install ClaudeBar with Homebrew?
The README links its Homebrew badge to the cask page at formulae.brew.sh/cask/claudebar, so the cask is the documented installation path. The app requires macOS 15 and is built with Swift 6.2.
Does ClaudeBar run on Windows?
No. ClaudeBar is described as a macOS menu bar application, and the README states the platform requirement as macOS 15. The Touch Bar integration is limited further to MacBook Pro models with an Apple Touch Bar.
What are the quota thresholds and colour codes in ClaudeBar?
Above 50 percent remaining is Healthy and shown in blue or green, 20 to 50 percent is Warning in yellow or amber, below 20 percent is Critical in red with alerts, and zero is Depleted in grey. The README also documents Burn Rate Warnings in Settings > General, which alert on consumption velocity rather than a fixed percentage.
Can ClaudeBar track multiple accounts for the same provider?
Yes. The README describes Multi-Account Switching for providers that support multiple logins, configured under Settings > Providers, with a dedicated account selector dropdown for switching between them.
What are the alternatives to ClaudeBar for checking AI quota usage?
Each provider's own dashboard or CLI status output shows the same quota for a single assistant, and a shell prompt status line can display usage inside the terminal. ClaudeBar differs by aggregating many providers into one menu bar item with timed refreshes and system notifications.
Community notes