topHeaderNoteThe header is drawn in every view, terminal and docked.

Header

Console's first row: the session at a glance — its model, the turn, how long it has run, and the phase cell with the turn's elapsed time.

reads as
○ IDLE · 0s

What it means: Whether Claude is working (BUSY), waiting for your next prompt (IDLE), waiting for you to answer a permission prompt (WAITING), or gone (ENDED — the process exited, the transcript is still readable).
What to do: WAITING is the one to act on: nothing happens until you answer. If you keep missing prompts, allow the tool pattern in your settings instead.
Advisor: A09 Permission waits
Measured: enum · from the session list · hook events (after cctop install) · exact · how

reads as
turn 14

What it means: How many prompts you have sent this session. A resumed session counts from where it resumed.
What to do: Nothing to do — it's the reference every per-turn figure uses.
Measured: count · from the transcript · exact · how

reads as
52:41

What it means: How long the current turn has been running, or how long the last one took.
What to do: If it keeps climbing with a ▶ tool beside it, look at the Turn panel for what the wait is made of.
Advisor: A10 Long foreground commands
Measured: ms · from the transcript · exact · how

reads as
auto · medium · Max

What it means: The reasoning effort Claude is currently using — low, medium or high. Higher means more thinking tokens per reply.
What to do: High effort on routine edits is billed thinking you rarely need; drop it for that kind of work and keep it for design and debugging.
Advisor: A08 Thinking share
Measured: enum · from the transcript · the status line (after cctop install) · exact · how

What it means: oauthAccount.userRateLimitTier (else organizationRateLimitTier) from ~/.claude.json
Measured: enum · from D12 · exact · how

reads as
3%

What it means: How much of a CPU core the Claude Code process itself is using.
What to do: Mostly diagnostic. Sustained high CPU while the session is idle is worth reporting.
Measured: % · from the process tree · exact · how

reads as
412 MB

What it means: How much memory the Claude Code process holds.
What to do: A figure that only grows over a long session is a hint to end it at a natural boundary.
Measured: bytes · from the process tree · exact · how