burnbar

Burnbar — Statusline Manager

You manage the Burnbar statusline configuration for Claude Code.

Paths

All paths are relative to the Claude config directory $CONFIG_DIR. Resolve it first: it is $CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR if that environment variable is set (secondary Claude profiles), otherwise ~/.claude. Check with echo "${CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.claude}".

• Settings: $CONFIG_DIR/settings.json (the statusLine key)
• Script: $CONFIG_DIR/burnbar-statusline.sh (stable copy of the statusline script)
• Backup: $CONFIG_DIR/burnbar-previous-statusline.json (previous statusline config, if any)

Commands

Determine the user's intent from their message:

Setup / Activate

The user wants to switch to Burnbar (e.g., "configure Burnbar", "activate Burnbar", "use Burnbar", or just /burnbar with no other context).

1. Read $CONFIG_DIR/settings.json
2. Check if statusLine.command already contains "burnbar" → if so, tell the user it's already active and show current config
3. If a different statusline exists:
   • Back it up: read the current statusLine object and write it to $CONFIG_DIR/burnbar-previous-statusline.json
   • Tell the user what you backed up and that they can restore it with /burnbar restore
   • Ask the user for confirmation before overwriting
4. After confirmation, set statusLine to:

   {
     "type": "command",
     "command": "bash \"<config-dir>/burnbar-statusline.sh\"",
     "refreshInterval": 1
   }
   

   (Replace <config-dir> with the resolved config dir as a literal absolute path — e.g. /home/user/.claude — never a ~ or a variable reference. refreshInterval: 1 is required for the real-time cache timer.)
5. Tell the user to restart Claude Code for changes to take effect

Restore

The user wants to restore their previous statusline (e.g., "restore statusline", "undo Burnbar", /burnbar restore).

1. Check if $CONFIG_DIR/burnbar-previous-statusline.json exists
2. If not, tell the user there's no backup to restore
3. If it exists, read it, show the user what will be restored, and ask for confirmation
4. After confirmation, read $CONFIG_DIR/settings.json, replace the statusLine key with the backup content, and write it back
5. Tell the user to restart Claude Code

Status

The user wants to know the current state (e.g., "Burnbar status", "is Burnbar active?").

1. Read $CONFIG_DIR/settings.json and show the current statusLine config
2. Check if $CONFIG_DIR/burnbar-previous-statusline.json exists and mention it if so
3. Check if $CONFIG_DIR/burnbar-statusline.sh exists

Configure format

The user wants to change the statusline layout (e.g., "hide costs", "show only bar", "use a custom format", "configure Burnbar format").

Available tags: {user}, {host}, {cwd}, {model}, {bar}, {pct}, {ctx}, {next}, {total}, {spark}, {delta}, {cache}

Use \n for newlines and \033[...]m...\033[00m for ANSI colors in the format string.

1. Ask the user which layout they want, or help them build a format string
2. Read $CONFIG_DIR/settings.json
3. Update statusLine.command to prepend BURNBAR_FORMAT='...' before the bash command
4. If they want to change bar width, also prepend BURNBAR_BAR_WIDTH=N (context bar) or BURNBAR_CACHE_WIDTH=N (cache bar, default 10)
5. If they want to change the cost sparkline, prepend BURNBAR_SPARK=auto|braille|octant|blocks|none (rendering mode) or BURNBAR_SPARK_WIDTH=N (width in cells, default 8; braille/octant fit 2 turns per cell)
6. Tell the user to restart Claude Code

CRITICAL: the format string must be single-quoted in the command to prevent shell expansion.

Example commands (/home/user/.claude stands for the resolved config dir):

# Default (all elements, colored header)
BURNBAR_FORMAT='\033[01;32m{user}@{host}\033[00m:\033[01;34m{cwd}\033[00m\n{model}  {bar}  {pct}  {ctx}  {next}  {total}  {cache}' bash "/home/user/.claude/burnbar-statusline.sh"

# Hide costs (screen sharing)
BURNBAR_FORMAT='\033[01;32m{user}@{host}\033[00m:\033[01;34m{cwd}\033[00m\n{model}  {bar}  {pct}  {ctx}' bash "/home/user/.claude/burnbar-statusline.sh"

# Minimal
BURNBAR_FORMAT='{bar}  {pct}' bash "/home/user/.claude/burnbar-statusline.sh"

# Costs only
BURNBAR_FORMAT='{next}  {total}' bash "/home/user/.claude/burnbar-statusline.sh"

Important

• Always ask for confirmation before modifying $CONFIG_DIR/settings.json
• Always use the Read tool before editing any file
• Use $HOME expanded (the actual path like /home/username/), not literal ~ in file paths for tool calls
• When writing JSON, preserve all other keys in settings.json — only modify statusLine