I Kept Forgetting Claude Code Was Working. so I Gave It a Traffic Light

Blog, Claude Code ·

How do you know when Claude Code has finished a task? Out of the box, you go and look. With Attention Bar, a small free mod I built, you don’t have to. The bar above the prompt turns red while Claude works, amber when it needs an answer and green when it’s done. A chime tells you when a longer task finishes.

So you can walk away from the terminal, do something useful, and come back at the right moment rather than ten minutes late.

Why did I build it?

Because I kept losing track. I’d set Claude off on a task, switch to something else, and forget it was waiting for me. Or I’d sit and watch it work, which is worse.

On a busy day I have three, four, sometimes five terminals open, each running its own Claude session on a different job. I’m fairly sure that isn’t healthy. It does get a lot done, though, as long as I know which session needs me.

The moment that tipped it: five terminals, all writing code for me, all on fairly short runs. I spent ages going from one to the next to see which had finished, then round again. The real fix is probably sharper skills and better oversight of my agents, and I’m working on that too. What I needed straight away was to see, at a glance, which one wanted me.

What does Attention Bar actually do?

It draws a coloured band directly above the Claude Code prompt, with a plain label so it doesn’t rely on colour alone:

  • Red: working. A bright sweep moves across the bar, with a running timer.
  • Amber: needs your answer. It pulses when Claude asks a question or waits for permission.
  • Green: ready for you. The task is finished and Claude is waiting.

If a turn runs for 30 seconds or more, you also get a desktop notification and a chime when it finishes (two notes) or asks you something (three quick taps). Short turns stay quiet, so it isn’t pinging you every few seconds.

Glance across five terminals and you know straight away which one to deal with next.

What’s the difference between a skill and a mod?

A skill makes Claude better at a job. A mod makes Claude Code better to work in.

  • A skill changes what Claude does. It’s a set of written instructions in a SKILL.md file. In Anthropic’s own words (opens in a new tab), “Claude uses skills when relevant, or you can invoke one directly with /skill-name.” We run a lot of our client work (opens in a new tab) on shared skills, from Google Ads audits to first drafts. This post started as one.
  • A mod changes Claude Code itself. It’s a plugin with a hooks module: code that, according to the Claude Code plugin docs (opens in a new tab), “can also draw panes and add commands”. It doesn’t teach Claude anything. It changes the tool around it.

Attention Bar is the second kind. Claude never knows it’s there.

Is it safe to install?

Checking security is my first move with anything I install, and it should be yours. Anthropic’s docs are blunt about plugins: “what the plugin runs, it runs as you.” I security-tested this one before publishing it, and it’s deliberately small, so you can read the code yourself in a few minutes. I’ve published it open source under the MIT licence, so help yourself.

How do you install it?

At a Claude Code prompt, run:

/plugin install attention-bar --marketplace The-Digital-Stride/claude-attention-bar

Answer y to add the marketplace, then press Enter. The code, the setup notes and the sounds (which you can swap for your own) are all in the public repo on GitHub (opens in a new tab).

It won’t make Claude any faster. It just stops you being the slow part.

Ian

Want help building AI into how your team works, without the hype? Get in touch (opens in a new tab) and we’ll take a look.

FAQ

Does Attention Bar work on Windows?

The coloured bar works in any Claude Code terminal session. The chimes use a built-in macOS tool, so sound is Mac only for now. Or fork the repo and let me know if you get sounds going in Windows.

Can I hide it?

Yes. Press ctrl+x then ctrl+a, or click [-] at the right-hand end of the bar, to collapse it. To switch it off completely, disable the plugin from /plugin.

Sources