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Token Optimizer

Claude desktop app

The Token Optimizer plugin adds a status bar above the prompt in the Claude desktop app. It shows session quality, context, cache and limits at a glance, and puts Clean up, Start fresh and Keep warm one click away.

Prerequisites

Section titled “Prerequisites”
  • The Token Optimizer plugin (see Claude Code (CLI)). The status bar is part of it.
  • Claude Code 2.1.287 or newer.
  • Anthropic’s mods feature. Anthropic can switch it off remotely. When it is off, nothing breaks and the bar simply does not appear.

Install

Section titled “Install”

Nothing extra. Install or update the Token Optimizer plugin and open a new session in the desktop app; the bar appears above the prompt.

What it shows

Section titled “What it shows”
  • One sentence about the most urgent thing, with at most one button.
  • Five marks: quality grade, context fill, cache countdown, 5-hour limit, weekly limit. Hover any mark for a card.
  • The arrow beside Clawd unfolds one more line: branch, session time, tool calls, compactions (when any), when the last checkpoint was saved (any kind, or a relevant one from an earlier session), and the tokens Token Optimizer saved you in the last 30 days, the same total the dashboard shows.
  • Clawd acts out what the session is doing: thinking, reading, typing, subagents, waiting for your permission, writing, compacting, done, stopped, API error, cold cache, napping.

Full dashboard

Section titled “Full dashboard”

With the line unfolded (the arrow beside Clawd), the last thing on it is a plain text link, Full dashboard, in both the full and the slim band. The folded band does not show it. A click regenerates the Token Optimizer dashboard and opens it in your default browser, the same as the token-dashboard skill. While it runs the band says “Opening the dashboard.”; if it cannot, it says “Could not open the dashboard.” for a few seconds and nothing else happens. Clicking again while it is still opening is ignored.

Buttons

Section titled “Buttons”
  • Clean up compacts with Token Optimizer’s guidance, the same as typing /compact.
  • Start fresh asks for a second click, then saves a checkpoint, clears, and hands the checkpoint to your first message.
  • Keep warm is a manual, one-click cache refresh. It is offered only while the cache is still warm and its lifetime has been measured. It never runs on its own, disappears when the cache expires, and uses a small amount of your usage. Afterwards it tells you how many tokens it re-read from the cache and that the countdown is back to full. It is separate from the Keep-Warm daemon.

The cache countdown

Section titled “The cache countdown”

The countdown prefers the native Claude Code prompt_cache object when bridged by the terminal status line (v2.1.251+). Otherwise it falls back to a session-anchored estimate: 1 hour on Claude plans or 5 minutes on the API. Native cache state covers the main conversation, not subagents.

Settings

Section titled “Settings”

Three switches, set in the env block of ~/.claude/settings.json like the other Token Optimizer switches:

  • "TOKEN_OPTIMIZER_STATUS_BAR": "0" hides the bar.
  • "TOKEN_OPTIMIZER_STATUS_BAR_ANIMATE": "0" keeps Clawd still.
  • "TOKEN_OPTIMIZER_STATUS_BAR_SIZE": "slim" starts the band as one line instead of the full band. The – button beside the arrow shrinks it and + brings it back. The arrow still unfolds the details row under it, and the choice is remembered across sessions and restarts.

Where it works

Section titled “Where it works”

The Claude desktop app only. The terminal keeps its existing status line. VS Code is not supported.

Turning it off

Section titled “Turning it off”

Add "TOKEN_OPTIMIZER_STATUS_BAR": "0" to the env block of ~/.claude/settings.json and start a new session. The rest of Token Optimizer keeps working.

See also

Section titled “See also”