Meet Clyde

Know what Claude is doing — without alt-tabbing.

A friendly menu bar companion for Claude Code on macOS. Real-time session tracking, attention alerts, multi-session view.

↓ Download for macOS See how it works

Free · Open source · macOS 13+ · Universal binary

A quick tour

Three views. Same source of truth.

Clyde lives in three places at once — pick the level of detail you want, switch on the fly.

See every Claude session in one place.

Hero header tells you the dominant state at a glance — 1 attention, 2 working, 2 ready. The list shows each session with its directory and live activity. Click to focus the right terminal, drag to reorder, name them whatever makes sense to you.

  • Real‑time, hook‑driven — never polled
  • Per‑session names, sounds, and ordering
  • Activity timeline of every prompt & permission
Clyde expanded view showing four Claude Code sessions with status pills

One floating capsule. Zero alt‑tabbing.

The widget lives wherever you drop it. The big number is the dominant state count; the two ticks on the right keep score of the others. It pulses gently when Claude is working, flashes blue when something needs you, and goes dark when nothing is up.

  • Drag anywhere, snaps to screen edges
  • Click to expand · global hotkey ⌃⌘C
  • Hide entirely if you only want the menu bar
Clyde collapsed widget floating on a colourful desktop wallpaper

Lives in your menu bar. Quiet until it isn't.

Pixel‑accurate Clyde silhouette plus a colour‑coded capsule for the dominant state — purple = working, green = ready, blue = needs attention. When nothing is happening, the icon goes monochrome and stays out of your way.

  • Template icon — adapts to light & dark menu bars
  • Click for a full session dropdown
  • Snooze with one click for deep‑work sessions
Clyde's menu bar item showing the Clyde silhouette next to a purple-and-green status capsule

What it does

Stop tab-switching just to check on Claude.

Real-time tracking

See exactly when Claude is working, idle, or waiting for permission. Powered by Claude Code's native hooks — instant, not polled.

Attention alerts

Sound and banner the moment Claude needs your input. Never miss a permission request again, no matter which window has focus.

Multi-session view

Track every Claude session across every terminal in one place. Drag to reorder, name them, jump back to the right window with a click.

Quiet by default

Lives in your menu bar. Press ⌃⌘C to expand, click to focus a session, snooze when you need quiet time.

Privacy-first

Everything stays on your Mac. No accounts, no telemetry, no analytics. Clyde never talks to a server — Claude or otherwise.

Open source

Audit the code, file issues, send PRs. Built in SwiftUI as a single self-contained Swift Package — no Xcode project required.

How it works

Three states, one menu bar item.

Clyde reads from Claude Code's hook events and shows the dominant state of all your sessions in a single capsule.

3

Ready

All your sessions finished what they were doing. Take a sip of coffee.

2

Working

Claude is processing a prompt or running a tool. The little dot orbits.

1

Needs you

Claude wants permission to do something. Clyde waves and rings.

Install

Two clicks. No accounts.

  1. Download the latest .dmg from GitHub Releases.
  2. Drag Clyde into your Applications folder.
  3. Launch. Clyde will offer to install its Claude Code hook automatically — accept and you're done.

Requires macOS 13 Ventura or later. Universal binary (Apple Silicon & Intel).

Support

If Clyde saves you time, consider supporting its development.

Clyde is free and MIT-licensed. There's no paid tier and no telemetry — it stays fully featured for everyone. If you'd like to chip in anyway, here are two ways:

Sponsor on GitHub Buy me a coffee

Both options are entirely optional — Clyde works the same whether you sponsor or not.