Claude Code

UsageNow gets Claude Code information from two separate sources:

1. Local activity — always available when Claude Code is enabled. Tokens, requests, most recent model, and plan, read from files on your Mac.
2. Usage limits — experimental and off by default. Your 5-hour and weekly limits, fetched from Anthropic with your existing Claude Code sign-in.

Requirements#

• Claude Code installed on your Mac
• Signed in to Claude Code, and used at least once on this Mac

Local activity#

UsageNow reads safe, structured metadata from Claude Code’s local session data in ~/.claude/projects to show:

• tokens today — tokens recorded since midnight, including cached input
• requests — model responses recorded today
• most recent model

It extracts only timestamps, identifiers, model names, and token counts. UsageNow ignores:

• prompt contents
• assistant responses
• source code
• file contents

Plan#

Your plan — Pro, Max, Max 5x, Max 20x, Team, or Enterprise — comes from the account profile Claude Code caches in ~/.claude.json. UsageNow reads only the fields that state the plan. If the plan isn’t stated there, no badge is shown; the plan is never inferred from the models you use.

Experimental usage limits#

Claude Code does not currently expose subscription limits through a supported local API. UsageNow can optionally read the existing Claude Code access token from macOS Keychain and query Anthropic’s usage endpoint — the same information Claude Code itself shows with its /usage command.

Turn it on#

1. Make sure Claude Code is enabled in Settings › Providers.
2. Go to Settings › General and turn on Fetch Claude usage limits.
3. When macOS asks whether UsageNow may use the “Claude Code-credentials” item in your keychain, choose Allow.

Limits then appear in the Claude Code section: usually a 5-hour window and a weekly window, and sometimes a weekly window for a single model family such as Opus.

What UsageNow does with your sign-in#

When the setting is on, UsageNow:

• reads the keychain item Claude Code created, only after you turn the setting on
• extracts only the access token and its expiry time from it
• keeps the token in memory only
• sends it only to api.anthropic.com, to request your usage
• asks for limits at most once every five minutes during automatic refreshes, one request at a time

UsageNow never:

• refreshes your Claude Code sign-in
• modifies or deletes the keychain item
• stores the token or any other Claude Code credential
• logs the token
• uses the refresh token

When you turn the setting off, UsageNow forgets the token and any cached limits.

Keeping your session fresh#

Claude Code’s access token expires after a while. Claude Code renews it when it runs; UsageNow never does. If you mostly use the Claude desktop app, note that it keeps its own sign-in and doesn’t renew the one in your keychain.

When the token has expired, launch claude in Terminal to refresh your Claude Code session, then return to UsageNow and choose Try Again:

claude

To avoid repeated keychain prompts, UsageNow doesn’t read the keychain again during automatic refreshes after a failed attempt. A manual refresh, Try Again, or turning the setting off and on tries again.

States#

When usage limits aren’t available, UsageNow says why in one line — in the Claude Code section and under the setting in Settings › General:

In every case, local token, request, model, and plan information stays visible when it’s available. Usage limits are the only part that depends on the experimental source.

Where UsageNow looks#

UsageNow looks for Claude Code data in ~/.claude and ~/.claude.json, or in the folder set by CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR. It also recognizes the claude executable in ~/.local/bin, ~/.claude/local, /opt/homebrew/bin, and /usr/local/bin.