Standby sits in your menu bar and tracks every Claude Code session on your machine. When Claude finishes, gets stuck, or errors out, you know immediately.
How it works
Drag the DMG to Applications. Standby appears in your menu bar and installs Claude Code hooks automatically.
Give Claude a task and switch to Slack, your browser, or another project. The menu bar icon shows how many sessions are active.
When Claude needs your input, a chime plays and a notification tells you exactly what's waiting. Click to jump straight to the right terminal.
Session dashboard
Click the ⚡ icon to see every Claude Code session on your machine. Project name, status, what Claude is doing right now, how long it's been running, and any background agents.
Features
Configurable sounds for every event type. Permission prompts, errors, completions: each with its own alert, or silence.
Not just "using tool." See the actual shell command, the file being edited, the grep pattern, the web search query.
Click any session row to jump straight to it. CLI sessions focus the right terminal tab. Desktop sessions bring the app forward.
When Claude spawns background agents (Explore, Plan), they appear nested under the parent session. No hidden work.
See how long the current response has been running. Know if Claude is working or stuck without switching windows.
On first launch, hooks install automatically into Claude Code. No JSON editing, no terminal commands. Drag to Applications and go.
Why Standby
| Feature | Claude built-in | Standby |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-session overview | One at a time | All sessions, one dropdown |
| Custom sounds per event | One notification sound | Per-event configurable |
| Subagent visibility | Not shown | Nested under parent |
| Turn timer | Not available | Real-time counter |
| Tool-level detail | Generic | Exact file, command, query |
| Click to focus right window | Manual | Terminal tab or Desktop app |
| CLI + Desktop unified | Separate | Single view |
Privacy
Standby never reads your code, prompts, or Claude's responses. It only sees event metadata: which tool fired, which project, what status.
The Unix socket is permission-locked to your user. Nothing leaves your machine.
No sign-up, no API key, no email. Install and use.
No analytics, no crash reporting, no usage tracking. Pure Swift, Apple frameworks only.
The hook binary is under 100KB and exits in under 50ms. Zero impact on Claude Code performance.
Pricing
FAQ
After downloading, drag Standby to your Applications folder. Then open Terminal and run:
xattr -cr /Applications/Standby.app
Then open Standby from Applications. This step is only needed once on first install — it clears the macOS quarantine flag since the app isn't distributed through the App Store.
No. Standby only sees event metadata: which tool fired, which project directory, and what status. It never reads your source code, your prompts, or Claude's output.
Download and install Standby for free. All features work for 7 days. After the trial ends, purchase a license for $9 (one-time) to keep using it.
Yes. Standby tracks both Claude Code CLI sessions and Claude Desktop app sessions (Code mode). Both appear in the same dashboard.
No. The hook binary is under 100KB and exits in under 50ms. Claude Code doesn't wait for it. There's zero performance impact.
Yes. Launch at login is enabled by default. You can turn it off in Standby's settings.
Blog
We built Standby because we got tired of checking. Three sessions, three terminals, and the constant question: is Claude done yet?
The gap between "Claude is working" and "Claude needs you" is where productivity dies. Here's how we closed it.
A practical guide to multi-session Claude Code workflows, from project layout to notification strategy.