CC-BEEPER
Free, open-source macOS widget that shows live Claude Code status and lets you approve, dictate, or hear replies from anywhere.
If you run Claude Code on a Mac and keep losing it behind other windows, CC-BEEPER earns its place — free, open source, local-only, and it turns a blocking permission prompt into a glance at your desktop plus ⌥A. Dictation runs on-device via WhisperKit in 99 languages and Kokoro reads replies in 54 voices across 9 languages, with Apple Speech as fallback, all at $0. The catch is absolute: no Claude Code CLI or no macOS 14 Sonoma+, and the widget is inert. For that stack it beats wiring tmux notifications by hand; for everyone else, look at terminal-native notification setups or a session manager instead.
Verified 1d ago · liveness 74/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/cc-beeper
- Claude Code users on macOS who multitask and want to catch permission requests without returning to the terminal
- Developers who want hands-free voice dictation to prompt Claude or answer its questions
- Power users running long or unattended Claude Code tasks across several sessions at once
- Privacy-conscious devs who want on-device voice, local-only communication, and no accounts or telemetry
- Non-macOS users — CC-BEEPER requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later
- Anyone not running the Claude Code CLI — the widget is inert without it
- Teams wanting shared sessions or collaboration features
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Skip CC-BEEPER if you are not on macOS 14 Sonoma+ with the Claude Code CLI installed, if you do not want hooks written to ~/.claude/settings.json, or if you need shared sessions and team collaboration rather than a single-machine desktop widget.
The app itself is $0 and open source, but it depends on the Claude Code CLI — your real spend on this workflow is whatever your Anthropic plan or API usage costs.
The tool itself is free and open source — there is no paid tier to compare against. Your effective cost is the Claude Code CLI subscription or API usage you already pay for, so CC-BEEPER is best judged against other Claude Code notification and voice add-ons (tmux-based alerting, IDE-integrated plugins) rather than against paid SaaS widgets.
In short
CC-BEEPER — Free, open-source macOS widget that shows live Claude Code status and lets you approve, dictate, or hear replies from anywhere. Best for Claude Code users on macOS who multitask and want to catch permission requests without returning to the terminal, Developers who want hands-free voice dictation to prompt Claude or answer its questions, Power users running long or unattended Claude Code tasks across several sessions at once. Free to use.
What people actually say about CC-BEEPER — is it worth it?
We ran a structured research pass across product reviews, community discussions, and post-purchase forum threads to surface the patterns vendors won't publish themselves. Below: the recurring strengths, the hidden costs people mention most, and the cohort that consistently regrets adopting this tool.
19 mentions across 2 sources (Product Hunt, GitHub) · researched Jul 2, 2026.
Average across the 2 sources that answered — each source counts once, not each post.
- +Solves terminal babysitting by providing a glanceable floating status display.
- +Four auto-accept modes (Strict to YOLO) give flexible control over permissions.
- +Retro LCD interface with pixel art animations is visually engaging and nostalgic.
- +Voice input and spoken recaps enable hands-free monitoring and responses.
- +Zero dependencies, 100% local processing, and open source under MIT license.
- −Hooks stop working after closing a Claude session until rerunning setup wizard.
- −Single-widget design lacks session labels for multiple concurrent Claude sessions.
- −macOS only – no support for Windows, Linux, or other platforms.
- −Status display lacks color coding to indicate user action needed quickly.
- −YOLO mode's trust boundary is unclear – could auto-execute dangerous commands.
- • None – tool is completely free and open source. Requires only Claude Code subscription (separate cost) and macOS machine.
Viability Score
How well maintained and how widely used is CC-BEEPER? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: October 2026
How we score →Key Features
- Pixel-art LCD widget showing live Claude Code status on macOS
- Eight tracked states: SNOOZING, WORKING, DONE!, ERROR, ALLOW?, INPUT?, LISTENING, RECAP
- Priority resolution across multiple concurrent Claude Code sessions
- Global hotkeys: ⌥A approve, ⌥D deny, ⌥R record, ⌥T focus terminal, ⌥M stop read-aloud
- Four auto-accept modes: Strict, Relaxed, Trusted, YOLO
- On-device voice dictation via WhisperKit across 99 languages
- Read-aloud TTS via Kokoro with 54 voices in 9 languages
- Apple Speech fallback for dictation and read-aloud without downloads
- Double clap to start hands-free dictation
- Hotkeys remappable and layout-agnostic (AZERTY, QWERTZ, Dvorak)
- Menu bar icon reflects state, session count, YOLO, recording, and speaking
- 10 shell colors and 3 widget sizes: Large, Compact, Menu Only
- Sound and haptics on permission requests and task completion
- Everything local over 127.0.0.1 with no API keys, accounts, or telemetry
- Seven Claude Code hooks registered in ~/.claude/settings.json, inspectable and removable
About CC-BEEPER
CC-BEEPER is a free, open-source macOS desktop widget for the Claude Code CLI, published on GitHub as vecartier/cc-beeper (175 stars, 16 forks, MIT-licensed Swift/SwiftUI). It renders a small pixel-art pager on your desktop that reports what your terminal agent is doing — SNOOZING when idle, WORKING with a label like "Busy with bash" or "Tinkering with write", DONE!, ERROR, ALLOW? when a permission is pending, INPUT? when Claude asks a question, LISTENING while you dictate, and RECAP while it reads the last reply aloud. It tracks eight states, each with its own pixel-art animation, and resolves concurrent Claude Code sessions by priority, pruning sessions after two hours of inactivity. Control stays on the keyboard: global hotkeys work from any app in any layout (AZERTY, QWERTZ, Dvorak) — ⌥A approve, ⌥D deny, ⌥R toggle voice recording, ⌥T focus the active terminal, ⌥M stop or replay read-aloud, all remappable in Settings. Four auto-accept presets — Strict, Relaxed, Trusted, YOLO — control how much Claude does before it asks. Voice is the second half: dictation runs on-device through WhisperKit across 99 languages, read-aloud uses Kokoro with 54 voices over 9 languages, and Apple Speech backstops both without a download. A double clap starts hands-free dictation. Setup is streamlined by an onboarding wizard that wires hooks, permissions, voice engines, and hotkeys; the app binds a local port in the 19222–19230 range, registers seven hook scripts in ~/.claude/settings.json, and marks them with cc-beeper/port so updates and removal never touch your own hooks. Everything runs over 127.0.0.1 — no API keys, accounts, telemetry, or outbound connections, and voice never leaves the Mac. Ten shell colors, three widget sizes (Large, Compact, Menu Only), and sound or haptics on events round it out. The trade-off is narrowness by design: it requires macOS 14 Sonoma or later plus the Claude Code CLI, and it is not an IDE plugin or a terminal replacement.
Behind the Verdict
CC-BEEPER solves a specific, real problem: Claude Code is a CLI agent that frequently blocks — waiting for a permission, asking a question, or finishing — and if your terminal is buried, you either lose time or you babysit it. CC-BEEPER turns those blocking events into ambient desktop signals. The pixel-art LCD is the mechanism: eight states (SNOOZING, WORKING, DONE!, ERROR, ALLOW?, INPUT?, LISTENING, RECAP), each with its own animation, with higher-urgency events taking priority when multiple sessions run at once. That priority resolution matters if you run several Claude Code sessions in different directories; the widget surfaces the one that needs you. The keyboard story is the strongest part. Global hotkeys (⌥A approve, ⌥D deny, ⌥R record, ⌥T focus terminal, ⌥M stop/replay read-aloud) work from any app and are remappable, and they are layout-agnostic — explicitly tested with AZERTY, QWERTZ, and Dvorak. The four auto-accept presets (Strict, Relaxed, Trusted, YOLO) let you dial automation by risk class: Strict asks every time, Relaxed allows reads but asks before writes and commands, Trusted allows file operations but asks before shell commands, YOLO auto-approves everything including file writes, deletes, and shell commands. Being able to switch modes from the menu bar is the right ergonomic call for a tool that auto-approves. Voice is where the cost structure gets interesting: WhisperKit runs on-device across 99 languages with no cloud call and no API key, and Kokoro reads aloud with 54 voices in 9 languages, with Apple Speech as a built-in fallback so you are not forced to download anything. A double clap starts hands-free dictation, which is exactly the workflow you want if you are away from the keyboard and Claude asks INPUT?. None of this leaves the Mac — everything is on 127.0.0.1 with no accounts, no telemetry, and no crash reporting. The setup is deliberately honest about what it does to your environment. An onboarding wizard wires the hooks, permissions, voice engines, and hotkeys; the app binds a local port in the 19222–19230 range and registers seven hook scripts in ~/.claude/settings.json, marking each with cc-beeper/port so updates and uninstalls never touch your own hooks. That is a real design decision: hook collisions are the classic failure mode in this category, and the namespace tag avoids them. Where it falls short: macOS 14 Sonoma or later and the Claude Code CLI are hard requirements — without both, the app does nothing. It is not an IDE plugin, not a terminal multiplexer, and not a collaboration tool; there are no shared sessions, no team features, no cloud sync. The widget does hold a local TCP port and does write hooks into your Claude Code settings, which some users will not want. And its scope is one agent on one OS; if you use ChatGPT's Claude-equivalent CLI tools or a different agent runner, none of it applies. For the exact stack it targets — Claude Code on macOS — it is a rare $0 upgrade that pays for itself
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Real-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas CC-BEEPER actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
Kicks off a long refactor in iTerm2, switches to design work, and keeps an eye on the pixel-art LCD; Claude hits a write permission, the widget flips to ALLOW? and pings, and a quick ⌥A from the design app approves it.
Outcome: The refactor keeps moving without a context switch into the terminal, and no permission request stalls for twenty minutes.
Toggles voice with ⌥R (or a double clap when away from the keyboard), dictates a follow-up instruction in one of 99 WhisperKit languages, then lets Kokoro read Claude's response back aloud via ⌥M.
Outcome: Prompt-and-review loops happen hands-free, with no cloud audio and no API key.
Runs Strict mode for a production repo while leaving another session in Trusted so file operations proceed without prompts; the widget resolves which session needs attention by priority.
Outcome: One screen shows every session's state, and approval risk is tuned per project instead of globally.
Use Cases
- Monitor Claude Code progress while working in other apps
- Approve or deny permission requests without switching windows
- Dictate prompts or answers to Claude Code hands-free
- Catch errors or completions at a glance from the menu bar
- Match the widget to your desktop aesthetic with 10 shell colors and 3 sizes
- Run several Claude Code sessions and see which one needs you first
- Hear the last Claude response read aloud instead of reading it
- Start dictation with a double clap when away from the keyboard
Models Under the Hood
as of 2026-10-17
Limitations
- CC-BEEPER is a macOS desktop widget for Claude Code that shows live status and lets you approve, dictate, or hear replies without leaving your app.
- It requires both macOS and the Claude Code CLI to function.
- Everything runs locally over 127.0.0.1 with no API keys, accounts, or telemetry, and it registers seven Claude Code hooks in ~/.claude/settings.json that are inspectable and removable.
as of 2026-10-11
Verification history
We have re-verified CC-BEEPER 9 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.
- — re-checked, vendor evidence unchanged
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
Showing the 6 most recent of 9 verification passes.
Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Plans compared
For each published CC-BEEPER tier: who it actually fits, and what it adds vs. the previous tier. Cross-reference the cost calculator above for projected annual outlay.
Free (open source)
$0
Ideal for
macOS 14 Sonoma+ developers running the Claude Code CLI who want live status, hotkey approvals, on-device dictation, and read-aloud at no cost.
What this tier adds
Free entry point — the only tier. Includes the full app, eight tracked states, global hotkeys, WhisperKit dictation, Kokoro read-aloud, and four auto-accept presets.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where CC-BEEPER's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
The tool itself is free and open source — there is no paid tier to compare against. Your effective cost is the Claude Code CLI subscription or API usage you already pay for, so CC-BEEPER is best judged against other Claude Code notification and voice add-ons (tmux-based alerting, IDE-integrated plugins) rather than against paid SaaS widgets.
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of CC-BEEPER — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
Roughly 5–10 minutes for a first-time install: run the onboarding wizard, let it wire the seven Claude Code hooks into ~/.claude/settings.json and bind a local port (19222–19230), grant macOS accessibility and microphone permissions, then set hotkeys. WhisperKit and Kokoro model downloads add time the first run; Apple Speech works immediately with no download. Ongoing sessions need no setup.
Switching to or from CC-BEEPER
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From tmux-based notification scripts: disable your custom alert hooks and let the CC-BEEPER wizard register its seven cc-beeper/port-tagged hooks instead.
- →From manually watching the terminal: install via Homebrew or the release build, then run the onboarding wizard to bind a port and wire hotkeys.
- →From an IDE-integrated agent panel: keep using Claude Code in Terminal.app, iTerm2, Warp, Alacritty, Kitty, or WezTerm and add the widget on top.
- ↗To a terminal-only workflow: remove CC-BEEPER and it cleans up its cc-beeper/port-tagged hooks from ~/.claude/settings.json, leaving your own hooks untouched.
- ↗To a custom notification script: keep the same hook model and replace the seven CC-BEEPER hooks with your own handlers in settings.json.
Integrations
Resources & Guides
Tutorials & Learning
YouTube returned 6 videos for “CC-BEEPER”, and we withheld 6: 6 could not be judged, because “CC-BEEPER” is a single word that other videos use for other things. We are showing none, because we could not prove any of them are about CC-BEEPER.
Official links
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