Configurable context window status bar color thresholds per model
Resolved 💬 3 comments Opened Mar 18, 2026 by bozoparlay Closed Mar 22, 2026
Feature Request
Allow users to configure the context window status bar color/gradient thresholds, ideally per model or context window size.
Problem
The status bar color thresholds (yellow/red warnings) are hardcoded and tuned for smaller context windows (~200K). With 1M context window models (e.g., Opus 4.6 with context-1m-2025-08-07), the default thresholds don't provide useful early warnings — by the time the bar turns yellow or red, a significant amount of context has already been consumed.
Desired Behavior
Allow configuration of status bar color thresholds, e.g. in settings.json:
{
"contextWindowThresholds": {
"yellow": 0.20,
"red": 0.30
}
}
Or ideally, per context window size:
{
"contextWindowThresholds": {
"default": { "yellow": 0.60, "red": 0.80 },
"1000000": { "yellow": 0.20, "red": 0.30 }
}
}
Why This Matters
- On a 1M context window, 20% usage is already 200K tokens — a substantial amount worth flagging
- Users working with large context models want earlier visual warnings to manage sessions proactively
- The current one-size-fits-all thresholds don't scale across different context window sizes
Environment
- Claude Code CLI
- Model: Opus 4.6 (1M context)
- OS: macOS
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