Menu-bar app watches your Claude sessions

Coucou is a small open-source app for people using Claude Code. On a Mac, it sits in the notch. On Windows, it appears from the top of the screen. Its job is simple, show what Claude Code sessions are doing without making you keep a terminal window open.

You can see what a session is reading, editing or running, then approve or deny permission requests from the app. It can also take you to the relevant terminal window on macOS. The developer has added built-in chat, file drops, window context on macOS, and optional connections for services including GitHub, Stripe, n8n, Vercel, Notion and Cal.com. The project has picked up 804 GitHub stars, a sign that plenty of Claude Code users want better visibility into work happening in the background. The project page says it has no telemetry or account requirement, and stores keys in the Mac Keychain or Windows Credential Manager.

For an owner, the interesting part isn’t the animated character. It’s the direction of travel. As AI agents take on more work, people need a quick way to see what they’re doing and where human approval is needed. A visible status layer can make that oversight less intrusive than living inside a terminal or another dashboard.

There are practical limits. The macOS build isn’t yet notarized by Apple, and the Windows installer is temporarily unavailable while a Microsoft Defender false positive is under review. Still, this is the kind of thing we build into an AI command centre, clear visibility and control around AI work without asking people to change how they work.