Claude Notch

A Windows companion app for Claude Code CLI that displays real-time AI activity in your system tray and floating overlay. Built entirely with [Claude Code]

Features

System Tray Integration – Always-visible status indicator with color-coded activity and dirty-check caching
Floating Overlay Window – Animated activity display with session cards, fade-in/out transitions, and draggable positioning with bounds-checking
Real-time Activity Tracking – See what Claude is doing (Reading, Writing, Executing, etc.)
“Thinking” State – Shows fun verbs (Pondering, Noodling, Percolating…) between tool calls instead of flashing idle
Timeline Strip – Recent tool history shown as colored blocks on each session card
Attention Levels – Configurable opacity ranges (peripheral/ambient/focal/urgent) per activity category
Duration Evolution – Animations gradually slow down for long-running tools (normal -> extended -> long -> stuck)
Context Progress Bar – Threshold-colored bar (green/amber/red) showing context window usage with cached token support
Permission Mode Badge – Shows current permission mode (plan, acceptEdits, etc.) in overlay status
Notification Balloons – Tray balloon notifications for Claude Code notification events
Webhook Notifications – Discord/Slack webhook support for errors, attention requests, and session end events
Sound Cues – Optional audio alerts for ambient event awareness
Session Management – Pin/unpin sessions for persistent display
Click-to-Focus – Click a session card to bring its terminal window to the foreground
Mini Mode – Compact single-line session cards for minimal screen footprint
Multi-Monitor Support – Choose which monitor to display the overlay on
Per-Project Accent Colors – Assign distinct colors to different projects
Theme Presets – Dark and Light theme modes
Global Hotkey – Configurable keyboard shortcut to toggle the overlay
Session Statistics – Track tool counts and category time per session
Settings Dialog – Dark-themed settings with 7 tabs and live preview
Semantic Design System – Color-coded activities with glow, particles, and smooth animations
Status API – `/status` endpoint returning real-time session data as JSON
Test Suite – Unit tests covering state management, settings, notifications, and more

Installation

Requirements

Windows 10/11 or Windows Server 2019+
Python 3.8 or higher
Claude Code CLI installed

Setup

1. Install Python dependencies:

    pip install -r requirements.txtCode language: CSS (css)

2. Run the application:

python src/main.pyCode language: Bash (bash)

3. Install Claude Code hooks:

– Right-click the system tray icon

– Select “Setup Hooks” (or open Settings > Hooks tab)

– This will configure Claude Code to send events to the Windows app

Usage

System Tray:

The app runs in your system tray and shows:

Icon Color – Current activity type (orange=thinking, cyan=reading, green=writing, etc.)
Category Letter – First letter of the activity category on the icon (configurable)
Tooltip – Current tool and project info
Context Menu – Access settings, overlay toggle, and setup

Overlay Window:

The floating overlay shows detailed activity:

Session Cards – One card per active Claude session
Activity Indicator – 3×2 grid animation showing current pattern
Project Info – Current project name and working directory
Tool Status – What Claude is currently doing

Controls:

Double-click tray icon – Show/hide overlay
Drag overlay – Reposition the window (stays in place across updates, clamped to screen edges)
Right-click tray – Access menu
Reset Position – Right-click tray menu option to snap overlay back to configured corner

Activity Colors

The app uses a semantic color system:

Cyan (Observe) – Reading, searching (Read, Glob, Grep)
Orange (Think) – Processing, reasoning (also used for “Thinking” grace period between tools)
Green (Create) – Writing new files (Write)
Amber (Transform) – Editing existing files (Edit)
Red (Execute) – Running commands (Bash)
Violet (Connect) – External APIs, web (WebFetch, WebSearch)
Blue (Interact) – Needs attention (AskUserQuestion)
Gray (Idle) – No current activity