Wire The Status Line

How to wire a plugin's status line into Claude Code

Note

Goal: Point Claude Code's status line at the tokens plugin's script — a one-time, one-line settings change every status-line plugin needs, since only one command can own the status line at a time. Prereqs: tokens installed (Install crickets plugins) — the cost and floor-share badges ship in the same plugin, no separate install needed.

Claude Code's status line is a single, exclusive slot: .claude/settings.json names exactly one command to run after every response, and its stdout becomes the status bar. Because two plugins can't both own that slot automatically, installing tokens puts the script in place but does not — and structurally cannot — wire itself in for you. This is the one manual step.

Steps

1. Find the plugin's installed path. After installing tokens@crickets, its script lives at <plugin-root>/scripts/status_line_meter.py — Claude Code resolves ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT} to that path for you, so you don't need to hunt for an absolute path.

2. Add a statusLine entry to .claude/settings.json (project-level .claude/settings.json, or your user-level ~/.claude/settings.json if you want it everywhere):

   {
     "statusLine": {
       "type": "command",
       "command": "python3 ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/status_line_meter.py"
     }
   }

   If you already have a statusLine entry from another tool, only one can be active — replace it, or wrap both commands in a shell script that prints whichever line you want.

3. Start a new session (or restart the current one). The status line updates after your next response.

4. Optional: turn on the budget-readout badge. The used-%, cost, and floor-share badges work with no further setup. To also see a rolling 5-hour/weekly spend readout against a ceiling, set CRICKETS_BUDGET_5H and/or CRICKETS_BUDGET_WEEKLY (USD) in your shell environment before starting Claude Code. See Status Line Meter for the full badge/config breakdown.

Verifying it worked

Send one message. The status bar should show ▌NN% (context window used) at minimum. Once the transcript has at least one assistant response with usage data, you'll also see ⌊NN%⌋ (floor-share) and $N.NN (session cost).

If nothing appears: check python3 <path-to>/status_line_meter.py <<< '{}' runs without error from a shell, and that .claude/settings.json is valid JSON (a malformed statusLine block is silently ignored by some hosts rather than erroring).

See also

• Status Line Meter — what each badge means and how it degrades.
• Token-Audit — the pricing source the cost badges reuse.
• Compatibility — which hosts support the status-line surface this wiring step targets.