Desktop: render the configured statusLine in the Code tab, or allow pinning the usage ring

Problem

In the Code tab of Claude Code Desktop there is no way to keep context-window usage and plan usage (5-hour / 7-day windows) permanently visible. The usage ring next to the model picker has the data, but it only shows it while the popover is open, so checking it is a deliberate click that interrupts what I'm doing. /context and /usage have the same problem: they answer once, into the transcript, and then scroll away.

The terminal CLI solves this with a custom statusLine, which is persistent and can show exactly these numbers. That configuration does not take effect in Desktop.

Current behavior

Desktop does not invoke the statusLine command at all. Verified by adding a side-effect to the script itself:

# top of ~/.claude/statusline.ps1
Add-Content -LiteralPath "$env:TEMP\cc-statusline-probe.log" `
    -Value ("{0} invoked" -f (Get-Date -Format 'HH:mm:ss'))

The log file was never created during an active Desktop session (25 s of an in-progress turn, with several refresh ticks expected). The same script produces correct output when fed the documented stdin JSON by hand, and it is configured normally in ~/.claude/settings.json:

"statusLine": {
  "type": "command",
  "command": "pwsh -NoProfile -File \"C:\\Users\\<user>\\.claude\\statusline.ps1\""
}

Other shell-executing settings from the same file do run in Desktop — my SessionStart hook fires normally — so this is not workspace trust, not disableAllHooks, and not a broken command path.

The docs suggest the opposite of what happens:

• statusline.md says "The status line is a customizable bar at the bottom of Claude Code" and "renders in its own row above the built-in footer badges", with no mention of it being CLI-only.
• desktop.md → Shared configuration says settings in ~/.claude/settings.json are shared and "apply to Desktop sessions", and hooks "apply to both".
• desktop.md → What's not available in Desktop does not list the status line.

So either the behavior or the documentation is wrong. Right now a user has no way to find out except by instrumenting their own script.

Requested behavior

Preferably: the Code tab renders the configured statusLine in a row above the footer badges, the same way the CLI does, using the same stdin JSON contract. That reuses a configuration people already have and needs no new UI surface.

If running a shell command per refresh tick is undesirable in the Electron app, a native equivalent would also solve it: let the usage ring's contents stay visible — a pin/expand toggle, or a setting such as desktop.showUsageInFooter, that renders context used/remaining and the 5-hour and 7-day windows (with reset times) inline in the footer instead of behind a click.

Why this matters

• Context pressure is something you want to notice, not go looking for. Seeing 85 % before starting a big refactor is the difference between finishing the task and getting compacted mid-way.
• Same for the 5-hour window: knowing 12 % is left changes whether I start a long task now or wait for the reset. Plan usage is shared across surfaces, so this is arguably more useful in Desktop than in one terminal.
• It closes a real gap between CLI and Desktop that isn't listed as a known gap.

Workaround, and why it isn't enough

Reading the numbers out of the session transcript works for context (each assistant message carries usage with input_tokens, cache_read_input_tokens, cache_creation_input_tokens), so an always-on-top helper window could show a context bar. But the 5-hour and 7-day figures are not available anywhere locally — not in the transcript, not in ~/.claude/*.json. They only exist in the status line's stdin payload and inside the Desktop UI. So no third-party workaround can show the thing I most want to see, which is why this needs to come from the app.

Related

• #77829 — the same request for the VS Code extension panel. Desktop has the identical gap.
• #20041 — earlier request for a context usage indicator in Desktop, closed as not planned by a bot with the reason "this doesn't appear to be about Claude Code". It was about Claude Code; this issue restates the need with the missing evidence and a concrete implementation ask.

Environment

| | |
|---|---|
| Claude Desktop (Windows, MSIX) | 1.24012.9.0 |
| Embedded Claude Code | 2.1.220 |
| OS | Windows 11 Pro 26100 |
| Surface | Code tab, local session |
| Shell for statusLine | PowerShell 7 (pwsh), on PATH |