linesmith

A Rust status line for Claude Code and other AI coding CLIs. Fast cold start, real plugin API, role-based themes, and correctness-first handling of context, rate limits, and worktrees.

Status: pre-1.0. Minor version bumps (0.x.y → 0.x+1.0) may include breaking changes; patch bumps are bug fixes only (per semver posture).

Why

Existing Claude Code status line tools have real gaps:

• Trust and resources. npx -y @latest auto-executes unreviewed code and can spawn 30+ Node processes at 3GB RAM under rapid use.
• Correctness. Context %, rate limits, and worktree state all break in common edge cases (1M context, /compact, /resume, 429s, parallel worktrees).
• No plugin API. Every existing tool hardcodes its widgets. Custom segments require forking.
• No curated onboarding. Users repeatedly ask for "copy a preset and go."

linesmith is built to close those gaps.

Design in one paragraph

A single static Rust binary (~3-5MB, <20ms cold start) reads Claude Code's status line JSON on stdin and renders a composable line with a rich segment system: priority, width hints, conditional visibility, caching, async, and sub-composition. A rhai-based extension API for user-authored segments is on the roadmap (see lsm-ewa). Themes are role-based (Catppuccin-compatible). The input schema is tool-agnostic; it works with Claude Code and Qwen Code today, with Codex CLI and GitHub Copilot CLI ready to slot in when they ship compatible APIs.

See docs/adrs/ for the decision rationale behind each piece and docs/research/ for the research that drove those decisions.

Install

Pick whichever fits your setup:

# macOS / Linux shell installer (no Rust toolchain needed)
curl -LsSf https://github.com/oakoss/linesmith/releases/latest/download/linesmith-installer.sh | sh

# Windows PowerShell installer
powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://github.com/oakoss/linesmith/releases/latest/download/linesmith-installer.ps1 | iex"

# Homebrew (macOS, Linux)
brew install oakoss/tap/linesmith

# Rust toolchain users
cargo install linesmith

Prebuilt binaries also live on the GitHub Releases page for direct download. Supported target triples: aarch64-apple-darwin, x86_64-apple-darwin, aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu, x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, x86_64-unknown-linux-musl, aarch64-pc-windows-msvc, x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.

macOS first-run: unsigned binaries hit Gatekeeper on first launch. Clear the quarantine flag with:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine "$(command -v linesmith)"

Verify release provenance (SLSA attestations ship with prebuilt artifacts — binaries downloaded from the GitHub Release, installed via the shell/PowerShell installer, or poured by Homebrew. Does not apply to cargo install linesmith output since that's compiled locally):

# Works for binaries from the shell installer, PowerShell installer,
# or Homebrew. For a direct download, verify the archive itself.
gh attestation verify "$(command -v linesmith)" --owner oakoss

Distribution is handled by cargo-dist; see docs/specs/release-process.md for the pipeline contract.

Configure

Wire linesmith into Claude Code's ~/.claude/settings.json:

{
  "statusLine": {
    "type": "command",
    "command": "linesmith",
    "padding": 0
  }
}

linesmith reads its own config from ~/.config/linesmith/config.toml:

theme = "catppuccin-mocha"

[line]
segments = [
  "model",
  "workspace",
  "context_window",
  "cost",
  "rate_limit",
]

Built-in segments available in v0.1.0: model, workspace, context_window, cost, effort, rate_limit, rate_limit_5h, rate_limit_7d. The git-segment family (git_branch, dirty, ahead/behind) and the visual context_bar widget are tracked for v0.2+.

Custom segments via rhai scripts dropped in ~/.config/linesmith/segments/ are on the roadmap (see lsm-ewa); v0.1 ships the runtime scaffolding without the loader wired up.

Documentation

See docs/README.md for the full pipeline: how research flows to ideas to ADRs to specs to tasks.

Development

Managed by mise:

mise install              # install all tools (rust, node, prettier, markdownlint, lefthook, cog)
lefthook install          # install git hooks (pre-commit fmt/lint, commit-msg conventional)
mise run check            # run all checks (fmt + lint + Rust)
mise run test             # run all tests

Commit style: Conventional Commits enforced by cog. Full contribution workflow — bead tracker conventions, commit scope list, spec pipeline — lives in AGENTS.md. Cutting a release? See docs/ops/release-runbook.md.

License

MIT. The core stays open source; any future plugin ecosystem can ship under any license.