Bentley Systems

Bentley Systems AI

Bentley Systems AI

Bentley Systems AI

Bentley Systems AI

Bentley Systems AI

Bentley Systems AI

Bentley Systems AI

Bentley Systems AI

Bentley Systems AI

Bentley Systems AI

I built a pixel-art crab that lives in your system tray and reacts to Claude Code in real time (macOS, Windows, Linux)

I spend most of my day in Claude Code, and I kept finding myself swapping between windows and work while Claude works in the background waiting for it to finish. I often think "is it still working on that?" or missing approval prompts while I am working in another window. So I built CrabCodeBar: a tiny pixel crab that sits in your system tray and visually reacts to what Claude Code is doing. It works on macOS (confirmed), Windows, and Linux (I think 😂). What it does The crab has 5 animated states driven by Claude Code hooks: Working -- claws typing, eyes darting while Claude runs tools Waiting -- pacing side to side when Claude is idle but the session is recent Jumping (approval needed) -- bouncing when Claude needs your input (so you don't miss it) Jumping (finished) -- bouncing when a task completes Asleep -- curled up with rising sleep bubbles after a configurable idle period It's a glanceable status indicator that happens to be a small crab. How it works Claude Code hooks fire on session events (tool use, prompts, notifications, stop) and write state to a JSON file. CrabCodeBar runs as a lightweight background process using pystray, reads that state file, and renders the matching animated sprite frame in your system tray. No Electron, no browser, no network calls. Sprites are procedurally generated with Pillow (15x13 logical pixels, upscaled 3x for retina/HiDPI). You can swap in your own PNGs if you want a different look. Features 11 body colors (orange, yellow, green, teal, blue, purple, pink, red, brown, grey, black) selectable from the tray menu Optional sound notifications for approval requests and task completions (macOS system sounds, Windows system alerts, or Linux freedesktop sounds) Configurable idle timeout from the menu (30s to 1hr, or never) Auto-start on login (LaunchAgent on macOS, Startup folder on Windows, XDG autostart on Linux) Built-in updater: python3 install.py --update Clean uninstall: python3 install.py --uninstall Works from both terminal and the VS Code extension (hooks fire from the native extension as of April 2026, possibly with the exception of approval requests) Install Requires Python 3.8+. The installer handles pip dependencies and hook registration. git clone https://github.com/MatthewBentleyPhD/CrabCodeBar-Universal.git cd CrabCodeBar-Universal python3 install.py python3 crabcodebar.py Linux users will need a couple of system packages for tray support (the installer tells you which ones for your distro). I have no experience here, so I'm fully reliant on Claude Code on Linux capability. CrabCodeBar is MIT licensed, free, has no tracking, and no network calls. I built this for myself but figured other Claude Code users might get a kick out of it. I'd love feedback on whether the states are readable at a glance, if the install works cleanly on your setup, and whether there are features or states you'd want added. Issues and PRs welcome on GitHub. If CrabCodeBar makes your day slightly better, you can buy me a coffee to fuel more mildly useful ideas. GitHub: https://github.com/MatthewBentleyPhD/CrabCodeBar-Universal submitted by /u/Random_dude_2727 [link] [comments]