Free macOS Menu Bar Monitor for Claude AI Usage Limits
Claude Menu Bar Monitor for macOS
A developer built a free macOS menu bar monitor for Claude AI after repeatedly hitting rate limits without warning. The tool provides real-time visibility into Claude's usage restrictions directly from your menu bar.
Key Features
- Session usage percentage with progress bar (5-hour rolling window)
- Weekly usage tracking for all models plus Sonnet-only usage
- Live reset countdowns
- Rate limit logger - when Claude locks you out, log the time and track the countdown
Installation
One-command Homebrew installation:
brew tap jeremykenedy/claude-monitor && brew install claude-monitor && claude-monitor installTechnical Details
- No API key required
- Free and open source
- Piggybacks on your existing Chrome session - nothing is stored
- GitHub repository: https://github.com/jeremykenedy/claude-swiftbar-monitor
This type of monitoring tool is particularly useful for developers who rely heavily on Claude AI for coding assistance and need to manage their usage within the platform's rate limits. By providing real-time visibility into session and weekly usage, it helps prevent unexpected interruptions during development work.
📖 Read the full source: r/ClaudeAI
👀 See Also
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DecisionNode: CLI and MCP Server for Semantic Decision Storage
DecisionNode is a local-only CLI and MCP server that stores structured decisions as JSON, embeds them as vectors for semantic search, and makes them accessible across AI tools via MCP. It's MIT licensed and designed to work with Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Antigravity, and other MCP clients.