Seeing how much context is left before a session runs out.

The problem

Context runs out silently. The Claude desktop Code tab ignores the status-line setting, so there was nowhere to put a gauge, and chat apps keep no token counts at all.

What I did

• v0.1: a status-line gauge with a 10-cell fuel bar, turns left, a 12-turn chart, and a "Refueled" notice after /compact.
• v0.2: a floating pill on the Claude window, because the desktop Code tab ignores status lines.
• Fixed the window size. Opus 5 sessions have a 1M window, so assuming 200k made the gauge wrong by 5x.
• Tore it all down and ran a feasibility review with one rule: exact sources only. Claude Code and Codex log real token counts, chat apps don't, so chat apps are out.
• v1.1: rebuilt as a native Swift menu-bar app with a floating window. Live every 2 seconds, across Claude Code and Codex, launched at login, restarted after a crash.

Results

Checked against the logs themselves: the numbers match what each tool records.

What I'd do differently

Write the acceptance checks before the build. One rebuild looked done but wasn't. The menu-bar icon hid behind the MacBook notch, the window never updated, and it counted output tokens as context. A checklist drawn from the milestones would have caught all of it on day one.

Artifacts

Source on GitHub ↗

A native Swift app with a README that records every milestone: what changed, why, and the tradeoff.