CCT (claude-codex-taskbar): Claude Code & Codex usage limits on the Windows 11 / 10 taskbar

A Windows 11 and Windows 10 taskbar widget that shows your Claude Code and OpenAI Codex subscription usage (5-hour and weekly limits) next to a CPU, RAM, GPU and disk monitor. One native .exe under 1 MB, written in Rust. No runtime, no telemetry, no login screen: it reuses your existing claude / codex CLI login.

A tiny, always-visible strip pinned over the left corner of the Windows taskbar that shows, at a glance:

1. Hardware usage, like the Performance tab of Task Manager: CPU, RAM, GPU, and the active time of each physical disk.
2. Claude Code and Codex subscription limits: the percentage used of the 5-hour window and of the weekly window.

No panel to open, no window to switch to. Just glance at the taskbar.

Status

Early development (v0.2). The strip, the hardware and limit readings, the tooltip, the menu, and the settings window work on Windows 11 and Windows 10. Expect rough edges; bug reports are very welcome.

Why

Know, without interrupting your work, whether your PC is under load and how much of your AI coding quota is left before you start a big task.

Goals

• Truly lightweight: a single .exe under 1 MB, no runtime to install, about 15 MB of RAM and near-zero CPU while running (see the Task Manager screenshot).
• Standalone: download and run. The app itself offers "Start with Windows".
• Native: written in Rust using raw Win32 via the windows crate, drawn with Direct2D/DirectWrite.
• Honest numbers: an expired token or a broken endpoint shows a clear error state, never a fake 0% or silently stale data.

Features

• Hardware items: CPU, RAM, GPU (busiest engine, like Task Manager), and per-disk active time (one item per physical disk, labeled with its drive letters).
• Subscription limits:
  • Claude Code: 5-hour and weekly usage, using your existing claude CLI login.
  • Codex: 5-hour and weekly usage, using your existing codex CLI login.
• Toggles: every item and every provider can be turned on or off independently. Disabled items disappear and the strip shrinks.
• Color cues: progress bars turn yellow near the limit and red when close to it.
• Hover for a tooltip with reset times, last update time, and error details.
• Right-click for a menu: Settings, Refresh now, Start with Windows, Exit.
• Plays nice with the taskbar (see below).

Stays out of your way

• Full screen: the strip hides while a full-screen app (a YouTube video, a game, a presentation) is on the taskbar's monitor and comes back as soon as you leave full screen. Full screen on another monitor leaves it alone.
• Display scaling: it follows Windows display scaling (100%, 125%, 150%, …) per monitor, and stays sharp after a change.
• Light and dark theme: text and bar colors follow the Windows theme, switching live.
• Taskbar icons: it never covers the taskbar icons. When apps open and the centered icons shift, the strip shrinks (compact mode, then …).
• Auto-hide and Explorer restarts: it hides together with an auto-hidden taskbar and comes back on its own after Explorer restarts.
• Sleep: after resume it fetches fresh limits right away and never shows old numbers as current.

Not planned (for v1)

• macOS or Linux support.
• A Windows Widgets board (Win+W) widget.
• Its own login screen or OAuth flow.
• Usage history or charts over time.

Requirements

• Windows 11 or Windows 10 (x64). ARM64 is desirable but not guaranteed yet.
• No administrator privileges required.
• For the limits items: a logged-in Claude Code and/or Codex CLI on the same Windows user account.

Installation

Upgrading from v0.1.x (widget-usage-windows.exe)? Just run the new claude-codex-taskbar.exe: it closes the old version, keeps your settings and moves Start with Windows to the new executable. You can then delete the old .exe.

1. Download claude-codex-taskbar-<version>-x64.zip from the latest release and extract it (or grab the bare claude-codex-taskbar.exe). It is a single file (under 1 MB): no installer, no runtime dependencies.
2. Put it somewhere permanent (for example %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\claude-codex-taskbar\) and run it.
3. Right-click the strip → Start with Windows to launch it at sign-in (stored under HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run).

A winget package will follow after the first stable releases.

"Windows protected your PC" (SmartScreen)

Release builds are not code-signed yet, so SmartScreen may warn about an unrecognized app. Click More info → Run anyway. To make sure the file is the one published here, compare its hash with SHA256SUMS.txt attached to the release:

Get-FileHash .\claude-codex-taskbar.exe -Algorithm SHA256

Building from source

cargo build --release   # target\release\claude-codex-taskbar.exe

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the toolchain setup.

Usage

• Free the left corner. The strip lives where the Windows Widgets (weather) button sits. Turn that button off in Settings → Personalization → Taskbar → Widgets. Keep the taskbar icons centered (Taskbar behaviors → Taskbar alignment); with left-aligned icons there is no room and the strip stays hidden.
• Not enough room? The strip first drops the labels (compact mode), then hides items from the end and shows …. Hover to see what was cut, or turn items off in Settings.
• Toggle providers and items in Settings (right-click → Settings). On first run, Claude and Codex are enabled automatically if their CLI login is found.
• Claude shows — after a few hours? Claude Code's login token lasts about 8 hours and is renewed only by Claude Code itself. The app never refreshes it (so it can never log the CLI out); open Claude Code and the numbers come back on the next refresh.
• Keep login active (experimental, off by default), for Claude Code and Codex. If you opt in (the app asks once on first run; also in Settings, one switch per provider), when a token has expired the app runs the CLI's own status command hidden (claude auth status or codex login status), at most every 15 minutes per provider, so the official CLI renews its own login. It sends no prompt and uses no quota. The tooltip tells you whether the renewal worked. Feedback wanted: please open an issue saying whether it renewed your login.
• Codex offline? If the endpoint fails, the strip falls back to the last limits the Codex CLI wrote to its session logs, dimmed, as long as that window has not reset yet.

Privacy

• No telemetry. The app does not phone home, collect analytics, or check for updates in the background.
• Network access is limited to the providers' own usage endpoints, and only for the providers you enable.
• Credentials are read-only. The app reads ~/.claude/.credentials.json and ~/.codex/auth.json (respecting CODEX_HOME) but never writes to them, never refreshes tokens, and never competes with the official CLIs.
• Credentials are never logged, copied, or sent anywhere except to the corresponding provider's own endpoint.
• No other programs are run, unless you turn on Keep login active, which runs only claude auth status and/or codex login status (hidden, output discarded).
• Settings are stored locally in %APPDATA%.

Disclaimer

• This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Anthropic or OpenAI. "Claude", "Claude Code", "Codex", and related names are trademarks of their respective owners.
• The subscription-limit data comes from unofficial, undocumented endpoints (the same ones the official CLIs use for their own usage/status commands). They may change or break at any time without notice. When that happens, the app shows an error state rather than wrong numbers.
• Use at your own risk, and make sure your usage complies with the terms of service of each provider.

FAQ

How do I see my Claude Code usage limits on Windows without opening a terminal?

Install this app: the taskbar shows the percentage used of your Claude Code 5-hour session window and weekly limit (the same numbers as /usage in Claude Code), updated every 2 minutes. Hover for the reset times.

How do I check my Codex (ChatGPT plan) rate limits on Windows?

Same app: with the Codex CLI logged in (codex login), the strip shows the 5-hour and weekly percentages that /status reports in Codex.

Does it need an API key or my password?

No. It reads the login that the official claude and codex CLIs already saved on your PC, read-only, and talks only to the providers' own endpoints.

Does it work on Windows 10?

Yes. It runs on Windows 11 and Windows 10 (x64).

Does it work on macOS or Linux?

No. It targets the Windows taskbar. On macOS, menu-bar apps cover the same need (see below).

How much memory and CPU does it use?

Less than 16 MB of memory and near-zero CPU, with no disk or network activity between limit refreshes. Hardware is sampled once per second through the same performance counters Task Manager uses.

Task Manager while running: CPU 0%, memory 14.5 MB, disk 0 MB/s, network 0 Mbps.

Alternatives and related tools

Contributing

Contributions of all kinds are welcome: bug reports, design feedback, docs, and code. Please read CONTRIBUTING.md and our Code of Conduct first. For security issues, see SECURITY.md and do not open a public issue.

License

MIT © Pablo Chiaro Rosa