CodexIsland

Your AI usage limits, living in your notch.

CodexIsland is a native macOS overlay that turns the MacBook notch into a Dynamic-Island-style live activity for Claude Code and Codex usage limits. It sits quietly over the notch, peeks on hover with the 5-hour headline, and expands on click to show both providers' 5-hour and weekly windows with reset timing, chart controls, and a small settings surface.

export-1777631358512.mp4

The app is free, open source, unsigned, and local-first. It reads credentials already written by Claude Code / Claude Desktop and Codex, then calls only the providers' own usage endpoints.

What it does

• Two providers, four windows. Claude 5h + 7d and Codex 5h + 7d live in one panel.
• Notch-native overlay. The compact state is a black pill aligned to the physical notch. On non-notched Macs it falls back to a 200 x 28 menu-bar pill.
• Hover to peek. The silhouette widens just enough to show each visible provider's 5-hour percentage and reset headline.
• Click to expand. Click the island to open the full Usage / Cost panel, provider columns, and chart controls.
• Click-through outside the island. The window ignores mouse events outside the visible silhouette so the menu bar and apps underneath still work.
• Five chart styles. Ring, Bar, Stepped, Numeric, and Sparkline. Pick the default in Settings or Cmd-click the expanded panel to cycle.
• Settings without a Dock icon. A quiet gear in the expanded panel opens a custom settings window for launch-at-login, refresh interval, provider visibility, chart style, links, and Quit.
• Configurable safe polling. Choose 5m, 15m, or 30m. The app does not offer sub-5-minute polling because Anthropic rate-limits the usage endpoint aggressively.
• Universal binary. build.sh compiles arm64 and x86_64 slices and merges them with lipo, targeting macOS 13+.
• Auto-updates via Sparkle. The app checks the appcast attached to the latest GitHub Release on launch and once a day thereafter, then prompts before installing. Updates are signed with an EdDSA key — verifiable without involving Apple's signing infrastructure. Toggle off in Settings if you'd rather pin a version.
• Native app privacy. No app telemetry, no crash reporting, no third-party app analytics, and no proxy service.

Install

Homebrew

brew install --cask ericjypark/tap/codexisland

The first invocation auto-taps ericjypark/homebrew-tap. The cask strips the Gatekeeper quarantine attribute automatically (CodexIsland is unsigned by Apple — Sparkle handles update verification independently).

Direct download

Download CodexIsland-X.Y.Z.dmg from Releases, drag the app to /Applications, then run:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/CodexIsland.app

Why is the dequarantine command necessary?

CodexIsland is unsigned because Apple charges $99/year for a Developer ID certificate, and this is a free open-source project. The command removes the macOS Gatekeeper quarantine attribute that triggers the "cannot be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software" warning. The source code is in this repository for audit.

If a sponsored Apple Developer ID becomes available via GitHub Sponsors, signed builds can follow.

I do not want to use Terminal. What do I do?

1. Drag CodexIsland.app to /Applications.
2. Try to open it. macOS will block it because the build is unsigned.
3. Open System Settings -> Privacy & Security.
4. Scroll to the bottom and find the blocked CodexIsland message.
5. Click Open Anyway, then re-launch the app.

First run

CodexIsland does not ask for passwords or API keys. It reads the auth state already created by the command-line tools or desktop apps you use.

For Codex:

• Sign in to Codex / ChatGPT CLI first.
• CodexIsland reads ~/.codex/auth.json.
• If the file or access token is missing, the panel shows no codex auth.

For Claude:

• Run claude once, or open Claude Desktop, so Claude credentials are populated.
• CodexIsland tries CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN, then the macOS Keychain item named Claude Code-credentials, then a refresh against Anthropic's OAuth token endpoint.
• If none work, the panel shows auth required — run claude.

The first fetch starts at app launch so the panel usually has values ready by the first peek. Opening Settings also triggers a fresh fetch.

Using the app

• Hover the notch to peek at the current 5-hour usage.
• Click the island to expand the full panel.
• Move away to collapse it.
• Cmd-click the expanded panel to cycle chart styles.
• Click the gear in the lower-left corner of the expanded panel to open Settings.
• Use Settings to enable Launch at Login, pick a refresh interval, hide/show Claude or Codex, choose the default chart style, open GitHub / License, or quit the app.

Provider visibility is display-only. Hiding a provider removes that provider's logo and column from the island, but the app keeps the latest usage values in memory so showing it again does not require a reset.

Settings

Settings is a custom NSWindow, not the system Settings scene. The app still runs as an accessory app with no Dock icon and no menu bar.

Stored preferences:

Setting	Store	UserDefaults key	Values
Chart style	StylePref	MacIsland.chartStyle	ring, bar, stepped, numeric, spark
Style hint seen	StylePref	MacIsland.hasCycledStyle	Boolean
Refresh interval	RefreshIntervalStore	MacIsland.refreshInterval	300, 900, 1800
Claude visible	ProviderVisibilityStore	MacIsland.claudeVisible	Boolean, default true
Codex visible	ProviderVisibilityStore	MacIsland.codexVisible	Boolean, default true
Launch at login	LaunchAtLoginStore	managed by SMAppService.mainApp	System login item status

The refresh interval applies live. UsageStore invalidates the current timer and re-arms it with the selected cadence.

Build from source

Requires macOS 13+ and a Swift toolchain from Xcode / Command Line Tools.

git clone https://github.com/ericjypark/codex-island
cd codex-island
./build.sh
open build/CodexIsland.app

There is no Xcode project and no SwiftPM package. build.sh runs swiftc over Sources/**/*.swift, compiles arm64 and x86_64 slices, merges them with lipo, copies bundled resources, and writes Info.plist.

Smoke test the native app:

./scripts/verify.sh

The script builds the app, launches the binary for one second, then kills it if it is still alive.

Release

Package a DMG:

npm install --global create-dmg
./release.sh

release.sh runs the native build, copies the .app to dist/, applies ad-hoc codesigning, creates dist/CodexIsland-X.Y.Z.dmg, and prints the file size and SHA-256.

Pushing a v* tag triggers .github/workflows/release.yml on macos-15, builds the DMG, computes the checksum, publishes a GitHub Release, and mirrors the cask to ericjypark/homebrew-tap when HOMEBREW_TAP_TOKEN is configured.

Casks/codexisland.rb is the Homebrew Cask template. Do not manually bump its version or SHA for normal releases; CI copies it to the tap and rewrites those fields from the tag and freshly built DMG.

Repository layout

.
├── Sources/
│   ├── App.swift
│   ├── Model/
│   ├── Theme/
│   ├── Usage/
│   ├── Views/
│   └── Window/
├── Resources/              # App-bundled logo PNGs and .icns
├── Assets/                 # README logo asset
├── landing/                # Next.js marketing site
├── docs/superpowers/specs/ # Design specs for recent UI work
├── Casks/                  # Homebrew Cask template
├── scripts/verify.sh       # Native smoke test
├── build.sh                # Universal .app build
├── release.sh              # DMG packaging
└── VERSION

Privacy

Native app behavior:

• No app telemetry.
• No app analytics.
• No crash reporting.
• No proxy server.
• No credentials are stored by CodexIsland.
• Codex tokens are read locally from ~/.codex/auth.json.
• Claude tokens are read from CLAUDE_CODE_OAUTH_TOKEN, the macOS Keychain, or Anthropic's refresh endpoint.
• Tokens leave the machine only as Authorization headers to chatgpt.com and api.anthropic.com.

The network surface is concentrated in Sources/Usage/UsageFetcher.swift.

Troubleshooting

Claude shows auth required — run claude. Run claude once in Terminal or open Claude Desktop so the credentials exist.

Codex shows no codex auth. Sign in to Codex / ChatGPT CLI and confirm ~/.codex/auth.json exists.

The app shows stale values after an error. That is intentional. UsageStore keeps the previous good values when a refresh returns only errors, so a temporary 429 does not turn the panel into 0%.

Why can I not choose 30-second polling? Anthropic rate-limits /api/oauth/usage per token. The app exposes 5m, 15m, and 30m only.

Does it work without a notch? Yes. It falls back to a 200 x 28 pill in the menu-bar area.

Does it support multiple monitors? Partially. The app prefers the first display whose safe-area inset indicates a notch, then falls back to NSScreen.main. Multi-monitor setups still get one island, not one island per display.

Will the usage endpoints break? Probably at some point. Both provider endpoints are undocumented. If the panel starts showing parse errors or HTTP errors, open an issue with the response shape and redact tokens.

Why is there no Dock icon? CodexIsland is an accessory app. Use the gear in the expanded island to open Settings, and use Settings -> Quit to exit.

Known limits

• Unsigned builds require dequarantine / Open Anyway.
• Claude and Codex usage endpoints are undocumented.
• Sparkline history is synthesized, not provider-sourced history.
• Multi-monitor placement uses a single island.
• Accessibility is partial: VoiceOver labels exist, but a high-contrast variant is not implemented yet.

Acknowledgements

• codexbar by Peter Steinberger - auth-source archaeology for the Claude env-var -> keychain -> refresh ladder.
• claudecodeusage by Rich Hickson
  • the claude-code/2.1.121 User-Agent requirement on /api/oauth/usage.
• LaunchAtLogin-Modern by Sindre Sorhus - reference shape for SMAppService.mainApp.
• Emil Kowalski - animation timing and interaction discipline.

License

MIT - see LICENSE.