The companion mod

Optional, Claude Code-only, early access

The companion mod is built on Claude Code's mods API (function-hook plugins), which is in early access and may change between Claude Code releases without notice. It is off by default, and it only exists inside Claude Code: none of mait-code's other surfaces depend on it.

mait-companion brings two mait-code conveniences into the Claude Code prompt itself:

• /capture <text> files a thought to the quick-capture inbox immediately, with no model turn. It's the same as mc-tool-inbox add, but you don't have to leave the prompt. /capture with no text prints its usage.
• A status bar above the prompt: up to three rows on your theme's panel colour. The top row is the work in hand and what's waiting on you; the second is where the session is and what it's using; the third appears only while subagents are running.

 #162  Ship the mait-companion mod     jira  PLAT-4821  PLAT-4830   in review  #158   inbox  3
 ▣ mait-code  ⎇ feat/two-rows ±3 ↑1      ✦ opus 5.5   142k/1M  ▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱ 14%   5h·7d  63·41%
 ⋔ ▸ 3 agents  Explore ×2 · pre-pr-reviewer · 1m12s

In the default style each segment is a badge: its label on the surface colour, joined to its value on the segment's own colour, with a cell of panel between badges so each label reads with its own value.

The top row:

Segment	Shows	Hidden when
Cards (left)	Each card bound to this session: #id on the primary colour, then the title. The title is cut first when the row is short.	No card is bound to the session
jira	The Jira keys referenced by the bound cards, after a jira label on the primary colour the cards use. Click one to open it in your browser (see Jira links).	No bound card has a JIRA reference
in review	The #id if one card is In Review for this project, or the count if there are several	Nothing is In Review
inbox	How many captures are waiting for /triage	The inbox is empty

The second row:

Segment	Shows	Hidden when
▣ project	The folder name of the session's project root	Never, in a session with a project
⎇ branch	The branch checked out, or the short commit on a detached HEAD. After it, ±3 counts uncommitted changes, and ↑1↓2 the commits ahead of and behind the upstream; each is left out at zero	Not in a git repository
✦ model	The model in use, shortened (opus 5.5), in coloured text rather than a block	Claude Code doesn't say
Context	Tokens used over the window's size (142k/1M), then an eight-cell gauge and the percentage	Claude Code hasn't measured it yet
5h·7d	How much of the five-hour and seven-day rate-limit windows you've used, in that order, coloured by the fuller. At 80% or more it counts down to the reset (↻41m)	You're not on a subscription, or there's no reading yet

Context and the windows are green below 50%, amber below 80% and red above that. Project and branch are always drawn in the quieter slim style, because they're there to orient you rather than to warn.

The third row is the subagents this session has started and that haven't reported back yet. Collapsed, it's one line: how many, their types, and how long the oldest has been running. Click ▸ 3 agents (or focus the bar with ctrl+x tab and press Enter on it) to open it: each agent's task, the tool it last called and its running time, grouped under their type when the types differ. Teammates, which idle and wake rather than report once, are left out.

If every segment in a row is empty, that row disappears, and the whole bar steps aside while Claude Code shows a survey.

Jira links

Add a Jira issue to a card as a reference labelled JIRA:

mc-tool-board ref add 162 JIRA PLAT-4821

A full https:// URL works too and is linked as it stands. A bare key is linked under your Jira site, which you set once:

mait-code settings set jira-base-url https://acme.atlassian.net

Until that is set, bare keys are still shown, but you can't click them.

Each key is a button rather than a terminal hyperlink. Claude Code prints a hyperlink's whole URL beside its text when it isn't sure the terminal supports links (under a multiplexer, for example), and a button avoids that. Clicking one runs xdg-open (or open on macOS). Without mouse support, press ctrl+x tab to focus the bar and select the key from there.

Switching it on

Use the home hub: open System ▸ Companion mod and press Enter. You'll be asked to confirm before it turns on. You can also use the settings editor's Companion mod group, or a shell:

mait-code settings set mods enabled

Turning it on adds the mod's folder (mods/mait-companion in your mait-code clone) to CLAUDE_CODE_PLUGIN_DIRS in the env block of ~/.claude/settings.json. Turning it off removes that entry again, and so does mait-code uninstall. Any other plugin folders already listed there are left alone. Claude Code reads the variable when a session starts, so the change takes effect in your next session. mait-code doctor reports whether the setting and settings.json agree.

Styles and colours

The bar comes in two styles, selected by the status-bar-style setting:

• blocks (the default): badges, each label joined to its value's block.
• slim: a coloured glyph and value on the panel, with no blocks.

mait-code settings set status-bar-style slim

The bar's colours come from mait-code itself, through mait-code settings get theme --palette, so it follows the same theme setting as the TUIs. Themes that only defer to the terminal's own colours (the ansi-* ones) are shown with mait-dark instead. The mod reads the theme and the style once, when a session starts.

How it behaves

The mod is a thin client: it calls the mc-tool-* and mait-code CLIs and draws what they return, and holds no data of its own. The only thing it changes is the inbox, through the inbox CLI, when you /capture. It runs nothing in the background. The bar refreshes at these points only:

• when a session starts
• after each of your turns (not after each subagent's)
• after a /capture
• whenever Claude Code reports new context or rate-limit figures (those segments only; compactions included)
• as a subagent starts, calls a tool or reports back (the third row only)

Each refresh is one call to mc-tool-board summary --json --session <id> and two or three git calls for the branch and its state. Its one timer runs only while subagents are, moving their running times on every five seconds.

It is built to fail closed. If a CLI is missing, its output can't be read, or a Claude Code API it relies on changes, the affected segments draw nothing and /capture reports that it failed. Your session is never broken. /capture registers separately from the bar, so if Claude Code refuses the command, the bar still works.