Docs · setup · Claude

Set up Claude

Dipstick reads the locally authenticated claude executable. That means the prerequisite is not an API key — it is that the tool itself is installed and already authenticated on this Mac.

Prerequisites

macOS 13 Ventura or newer, on Apple silicon or Intel.
Claude Code installed and signed in. Run claude once in a terminal and confirm it answers before enabling the provider.

What Dipstick does with Claude →

02 / 03 · Steps

Four steps to a live meter.

Step 1: Open Dipstick and enable Claude on the first-launch provider screen. Fast local checks identify what is available before any authenticated tool, credential, subprocess or network request is used.
Step 2: Setup opens Settings and checks which limits Claude currently reports. Available limits are selected for the popover; the menu bar starts empty on purpose.
Step 3: Give each limit its own Popover and Bar placement, then choose Finish after the checks settle.
Step 4: Optional: consent to status-line capture if you want session and weekly meters that update within seconds while Claude Code is in use.

Fast local checks identify which services are available before any authenticated tool, credential, subprocess or network request is used, so an unconfigured provider costs nothing.

03 / 03 · When it fails

Honest failure modes.

These are the ones you will actually hit, and what each one means.

Claude says Not Installed.

Install Claude Code, open or authenticate it, then choose Refresh in the popover.

Claude says Sign-In Required.

Choose Sign In on the Claude card. Dipstick opens Claude’s supported local login flow in Terminal; return to Dipstick and choose Refresh once authentication finishes.

A weekly model-specific limit has not appeared yet.

It arrives on the terminal workflow’s slower cadence. A limit that is not reported cannot be placed until it appears in a later provider response.

A meter is dimmed or stale.

The last valid reading is still inside its own window but the latest refresh did not produce a trustworthy replacement. Open the popover for the bounded diagnostic.

Still stuck: known issues lists the constraints that are not bugs, and support@dipstick.tools reaches a person.