Feature request: surface prompt cache expiry status in CLI status bar
Summary
Add cache freshness visibility to the Claude Code CLI so users can make informed decisions about keep-alive messages vs. letting the cache lapse.
Proposed UX (three tiers, pick any)
- Live countdown: "cache warm (4:23 until expiry)"
- Simple state indicator: green dot "cache warm" / yellow "expiring soon" / red "cache cold"
- Timestamp: last cache-touching API call shown in status line
Why this matters
For users running expensive models (Opus) or long sessions with subagents, knowing when to send a keep-alive message vs. letting the cache lapse is currently a guessing game. The 5-minute TTL is documented but not surfaced anywhere in the interface.
Concrete workflow impact: when orchestrating multi-agent pipelines with background tasks, I routinely lose cache state between agent calls because I have no signal that expiry is imminent. A simple indicator would let me time a lightweight keep-alive message before the window closes — meaningful cost-control for sessions that run $10–50+ in cached tokens.
Environment
Claude Code CLI, all platforms.
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