Claude Pace

A lightweight status line for Claude Code that tracks your 5-hour and 7-day rate limit usage in real time. Pure Bash + jq, single file, zero npm.

Most statuslines show "you used 60%." That number means nothing without context. 60% with 30 minutes left? Fine, the window resets soon. 60% with 4 hours left? You're about to hit the wall. claude-pace compares your burn rate to the time remaining and shows the delta: are you ahead of pace or behind?

• ⇣15% green = you've used 15% less than expected. Headroom. Keep going.
• ⇡15% red = you're burning 15% faster than sustainable. Slow down.
• 15% / 20% = used in the 5h and 7d windows. 3h = resets in 3 hours.
• Top line: model, effort, project (branch), 3f +24 -7 = git diff stats

Install

Requires jq.

Plugin (recommended):

Inside Claude Code:

/plugin marketplace add Astro-Han/claude-pace
/plugin install claude-pace
/reload-plugins
/claude-pace:setup

npx:

npx claude-pace

Restart Claude Code. Done.

Manual:

curl -o ~/.claude/statusline.sh \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Astro-Han/claude-pace/main/claude-pace.sh
chmod +x ~/.claude/statusline.sh

Add to ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "statusLine": {
    "type": "command",
    "command": "~/.claude/statusline.sh"
  }
}

Restart Claude Code. Done.

To remove: delete the statusLine block from ~/.claude/settings.json.

Upgrade

• Plugin: /claude-pace:setup (pulls the latest from GitHub)
• npx: npx claude-pace@latest
• Manual: Re-run the curl command above.

Release notifications: Watch this repo → Custom → Releases.

How It Compares

	claude-pace	claude-hud	CCometixLine	ccstatusline
Runtime	jq	Node.js 18+ / npm	Compiled (Rust)	Node.js / npm
Codebase	Single Bash file	1000+ lines + node_modules	Compiled binary	1000+ lines + node_modules
Rate limit tracking	5h + 7d usage %, pace delta, reset countdown	Usage %	Usage % (planned)	None (formatting only)
Execution	~10ms	~90ms	~5ms	~90ms
Memory	~2 MB	~57 MB	~3 MB	~57 MB

Execution and memory measured on Apple Silicon, 300 runs, same stdin JSON.

Need themes, powerline aesthetics, or TUI config? Try ccstatusline. The entire source of claude-pace is one file. Read it.

Under the Hood

Claude Code polls the statusline every ~300ms:

Data	Source	Cache
Model, context, cost	stdin JSON (single jq call)	None needed
Quota (5h, 7d, pace)	stdin rate_limits (CC >= 2.1.80)	None needed (real-time)
Quota fallback	Anthropic Usage API (CC < 2.1.80)	Private cache dir, 300s TTL, async background refresh
Git branch + diff	git commands	Private cache dir, 5s TTL

On Claude Code >= 2.1.80, usage data comes directly from stdin. No network calls. On older versions, it falls back to the Usage API in a background subshell so the statusline never blocks.

Cache files live in a private per-user directory ($XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/claude-pace or ~/.cache/claude-pace, mode 700). All cache reads are validated before use. No files are ever written to shared /tmp.

FAQ

Does it need Node.js? No. Only jq (available via brew install jq or your package manager). No npm, no node_modules, no lock files.

How does pace tracking work? claude-pace compares your current usage percentage to the fraction of time elapsed in each window (5-hour and 7-day). If you've used 40% of your quota but only 30% of the time has passed, the pace delta shows ⇡10% (red, burning too fast). If you've used 30% with 40% of time elapsed, it shows ⇣10% (green, headroom).

Does it make network calls? On Claude Code >= 2.1.80, no. All data comes from stdin. On older versions, it falls back to the Anthropic Usage API in a background subshell (opt-out via CLAUDE_PACE_API_FALLBACK=0).

Can I inspect the source? The entire tool is one Bash file. Read it before you install it.

Also by the Author

diffpane - Real-time TUI diff viewer for AI coding agents. See what Claude Code changes as it happens.

License

MIT

Last updated: 2026-04-05 · v0.7.3