Statusline Generator

Overview

This skill provides tools and guidance for creating and customizing Claude Code statuslines. It generates multi-line statuslines optimized for portrait screens, integrates with ccusage for session/daily cost tracking, displays git branch status, and supports color customization.

When to Use This Skill

This skill activates for:

• Statusline configuration requests for Claude Code
• Cost information display (session/daily costs)
• Multi-line layouts for portrait or narrow screens
• Statusline color or format customization
• Statusline display or cost tracking issues
• Git status or path shortening features

Dependencies

The statusline script needs to parse JSON from stdin. It auto-detects the available parser:

Priority	Tool	Availability
1 (preferred)	jq	macOS/Linux: brew install jq / apt install jq; Windows: choco install jq or scoop install jq
2 (fallback)	python3	Pre-installed on macOS and most Linux distros; Windows: winget install python3 or python.org

If neither is available, context window and cost display will be skipped — git branch and path still work.

Other requirements:

• git — for branch status (optional; gracefully skips outside repos)
• awk — for number formatting (installed on macOS/Linux by default; Git Bash on Windows includes it)
• ccusage — for session/daily cost tracking (optional; gracefully skips if missing)

Quick Start

Basic Installation

Install the default multi-line statusline:

1. Run the installation script:

   bash scripts/install_statusline.sh
   

2. Restart Claude Code to see the statusline

The default statusline displays:

• Line 1: username (model) [session_cost/daily_cost] ctx: 89.5K/1.0M (9%)
• Line 2: current_path
• Line 3: [git:branch*+]

Manual Installation

Alternatively, manually install by:

1. Copy scripts/generate_statusline.sh to ~/.claude/statusline.sh
2. Make it executable: chmod +x ~/.claude/statusline.sh
3. Update ~/.claude/settings.json:

   {
     "statusLine": {
       "type": "command",
       "command": "bash /home/username/.claude/statusline.sh",
       "padding": 0
     }
   }
   

Statusline Features

Multi-Line Layout

The statusline uses a 3-line layout optimized for portrait screens:

username (Sonnet 4.5 [1M]) [$0.26/$25.93]  ctx: 89.5K/1.0M (9%)
~/workspace/java/ready-together-svc
[git:feature/branch-name*+]

Benefits:

• Shorter lines fit narrow screens
• Clear visual separation of information types
• No horizontal scrolling needed

Cost Tracking Integration

Cost tracking via ccusage:

• Session Cost: Current conversation cost
• Daily Cost: Total cost for today
• Format: [$session/$daily] in magenta
• Caching: 2-minute cache to avoid performance impact
• Background Fetch: First run loads costs asynchronously

Requirements: ccusage must be installed and in PATH. See references/ccusage_integration.md for installation and troubleshooting.

Model Name Shortening

Model names are automatically shortened:

• "Sonnet 4.5 (with 1M token context)" → "Sonnet 4.5 [1M]"
• "Opus 4.1 (with 500K token context)" → "Opus 4.1 [500K]"

This saves horizontal space while preserving key information.

Context Window Display

The statusline can show actual context window usage with human-readable token counts — not just a percentage. This is the most important statusline feature for long sessions.

Format:

ctx: 88.9K/1.0M (9%)

Components:

• Used tokens: current_usage.input_tokens + cache_read_input_tokens + cache_creation_input_tokens
• Total capacity: context_window_size from the input JSON
• Percentage: Shown in parentheses as secondary info
• Human-readable: <1000 → raw, ≥1000 → X.XK, ≥1M → X.XM
• Color-coded: Green (≤50%), Yellow (51–80%), Red (>80%)

Important: Use current_usage.* fields to compute actual context usage. total_input_tokens is the session-cumulative count and can exceed the context window size.

Full statusline input JSON schema (all available fields): references/context-window-schema.md.

Git Status Indicators

Git branch status shows:

• Yellow: Clean branch (no changes)
• Red: Dirty branch (uncommitted changes)
• Indicators:
  • * - Modified or staged files
  • + - Untracked files
  • Example: [git:main*+] - Modified files and untracked files

Path Shortening

Paths are shortened:

• Home directory replaced with ~
• Example: /home/username/workspace/project → ~/workspace/project

Color Scheme

Default colors optimized for visibility:

• Username: Bright Green (\033[01;32m)
• Model: Bright Cyan (\033[01;36m)
• Costs: Bright Magenta (\033[01;35m)
• Path: Bright White (\033[01;37m)
• Git (clean): Bright Yellow (\033[01;33m)
• Git (dirty): Bright Red (\033[01;31m)

Customization

Changing Colors

Customize colors by editing ~/.claude/statusline.sh and modifying the ANSI color codes in the final printf statement. See references/color_codes.md for available colors.

Example: Change username to blue

# Find this line:
printf '\033[01;32m%s\033[00m \033[01;36m(%s)\033[00m%s\n\033[01;37m%s\033[00m\n%s' \

# Change \033[01;32m (green) to \033[01;34m (blue):
printf '\033[01;34m%s\033[00m \033[01;36m(%s)\033[00m%s\n\033[01;37m%s\033[00m\n%s' \

Single-Line Layout

Convert to single-line layout by modifying the final printf:

# Replace:
printf '\033[01;32m%s\033[00m \033[01;36m(%s)\033[00m%s\n\033[01;37m%s\033[00m\n%s' \
    "$username" "$model" "$cost_info" "$short_path" "$git_info"

# With single-line + context:
printf '\033[01;36m[%s]\033[00m \033[01;35m%s\033[00m%s | %bctx: %s/%s (%s%%)\033[00m | \033[01;32m$%s\033[00m' \
    "$model" "$short_dir" "$git_info" "$ctx_color" "$ctx_used_h" "$ctx_size_h" "$ctx_used_pct" "$cost"
# Output: [Sonnet 4.5 [1M]] project (main*) | ctx: 89.5K/1M (9%) | $0.42

Disabling Cost Tracking

If ccusage is unavailable or not desired:

1. Comment out the cost section in the script (lines ~47-73)
2. Remove %s for $cost_info from the final printf

See references/ccusage_integration.md for details.

Adding Custom Elements

Add custom information (e.g., hostname, time):

# Add variable before final printf:
hostname=$(hostname -s)
current_time=$(date +%H:%M)

# Update printf to include new elements:
printf '\033[01;32m%s@%s\033[00m \033[01;36m(%s)\033[00m%s [%s]\n...' \
    "$username" "$hostname" "$model" "$cost_info" "$current_time" ...

Troubleshooting

Costs Not Showing

Check:

1. Is ccusage installed? Run which ccusage
2. Test ccusage manually: ccusage session --json --offline -o desc
3. Wait 5-10 seconds after first display (background fetch)
4. Check cache: ls -lh /tmp/claude_cost_cache_*.txt

Solution: See references/ccusage_integration.md for detailed troubleshooting.

Colors Hard to Read

Solution: Adjust colors for your terminal background using references/color_codes.md. Bright colors (01;3X) are generally more visible than regular (00;3X).

Statusline Not Updating

Check:

1. Verify settings.json points to correct script path
2. Ensure script is executable: chmod +x ~/.claude/statusline.sh
3. Restart Claude Code

Git Status Not Showing

Check:

1. Are you in a git repository?
2. Test git commands: git branch --show-current
3. Check git permissions in the directory

Resources

scripts/generate_statusline.sh

Main statusline script with all features (context window, multi-line, ccusage, git, colors). Copy to ~/.claude/statusline.sh for use.

scripts/install_statusline.sh

Automated installation script that copies the statusline script and updates settings.json.

references/context-window-schema.md

Complete statusline input JSON schema. Documents all fields under context_window, cost, model, workspace. Load for context window display implementation or debugging.

references/color_codes.md

Complete ANSI color code reference for customizing statusline colors. Load when users request color customization.

references/ccusage_integration.md

Detailed explanation of ccusage integration, caching strategy, JSON structure, and troubleshooting. Load when users experience cost tracking issues or want to understand how it works.