macOS menu bar · Claude Code + Codex

Start your window before you sit down.

QuotaWake is a tiny native menu bar app that sends a small readiness prompt through your already-installed Claude and Codex CLIs when a usage-window reset is due and your Mac is actually in use. By the time you open the terminal, the session is warm and the run is logged.

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Signed & notarized DMG · macOS 13+ · MIT · no telemetry

A morning with QuotaWake

  1. 8:12 AM

    A reset candidate comes due — observed from local quota signals.

    Your Mac is idle, so the active-only gate holds the send.

  2. 8:41 AM

    You open your Mac to read email. The gate passes.

    claude --print "hi" and codex exec "hi" run as you, not root.

  3. 8:41 AM

    Both runs are logged locally — tool, duration, exit code, confidence.

    Nothing leaves your machine.

  4. 9:05 AM

    You open the terminal. The window has been running for 24 minutes.

    No warm-up prompt competing with the start of your workday.

How it works

It watches the window, not your account.

QuotaWake never talks to Anthropic or OpenAI servers itself. It reads local quota-window signals, decides whether a reset candidate is due, and then invokes the official CLIs you already have installed — in a QuotaWake-owned working directory, with a bounded timeout and an overlap guard.

  1. 01

    Observe

    Local quota signals only: Codex app-server rate-limit data, sanitized reset messages from CLI output, or a conservative 5-hour estimate from the last successful send.

  2. 02

    Decide

    A send happens only when a reset candidate is due and your Mac appears actively in use — with cooldown and idempotency so it never fires twice for the same window.

  3. 03

    Send

    One small readiness prompt — hi by default, editable in Settings — through claude and/or codex. Codex additionally runs in its read-only sandbox mode.

  4. 04

    Log

    Time, tool, command path, exit code, duration, decision source, and confidence — kept on your machine for 30 days, visible in the popover and Settings.

What counts as a signal

QuotaWake reports exactly how confident it is, in this order — and in strict mode, an unknown state never triggers a send.

  1. Observed local quotarate-limit data from a local provider CLI surface, like Codex app-server
  2. Exact observed reseta reset timestamp or relative reset message parsed from bounded, sanitized CLI output
  3. Estimated 5-hour candidatederived from the last successful send, when no explicit signal is available
  4. Unknownno signal — automatic sends stay off in strict mode

Readiness, not evasion.

QuotaWake is about usage-window scheduling and session readiness — never bypassing limits. It uses the official CLIs you already have installed, runs as your user, and is transparent about every single run. It even blocks ANTHROPIC_API_KEY and gateway billing environments by default, so a readiness prompt can't silently route to API billing.

Features

Small app, careful details.

Lives in the menu bar
A lightweight background utility — no Dock icon, no clutter.
Claude + Codex
Both enabled by default, each toggleable independently, with CLI auto-detection and manual path override.
Reset-aware readiness
Uses local quota-window signals before sending — never blind on a timer.
Active-only gate
Skips background sends while the Mac is idle or in suppressed power states.
Launch at login
Background scheduling via SMAppService, pause and resume any time.
Editable prompt
Defaults to hi. Make it anything you like in Settings.
Send readiness now
A manual run whenever you choose, from the popover.
Local logs, 30 days
Every run's time, tool, duration, exit code, and status — on disk, in JSONL.

Privacy

Local-first, verifiably.

The only network activity in the entire app is an optional Check for Updates that reads public GitHub release metadata. Everything else stays under ~/Library/Application Support/QuotaWake/ — and the source is MIT-licensed, so you can check.

Install

Running in under a minute.

  1. 1Download the signed & notarized QuotaWake.dmg from GitHub Releases.
  2. 2Drag QuotaWake.app into Applications and launch it.
  3. 3First-run setup detects your CLIs — /opt/homebrew/bin, /usr/local/bin and friends — and keeps readiness checks local.

Requirements

OS
macOS 13 (Ventura) or later
Tools
claude and/or codex CLI installed
Account
An active Claude and/or Codex login the CLI can use
Get QuotaWake.dmg

FAQ

Fair questions.

Is this a quota bypass tool?

No. QuotaWake never gives you more quota than your plan has. It only changes when a usage window starts, by sending one ordinary prompt through the official CLI at a moment you'd plausibly be using your Mac anyway. Every run is visible and logged.

Does it need my API keys or account credentials?

No. It stores no provider tokens and makes no provider HTTP requests. It relies on the login your CLIs already have — and actively blocks ANTHROPIC_API_KEY-style environments by default so readiness prompts can't hit API billing.

What exactly does it send?

A single small prompt — hi by default, editable in Settings — via claude --print and/or codex exec, in a QuotaWake-owned working directory with a bounded timeout. Codex additionally runs in its read-only sandbox.

How does it know when a window resets?

From local signals only, in order of confidence: observed local quota data (like Codex app-server rate limits), an exact reset message parsed from CLI output, or a 5-hour estimate from the last successful send. When it doesn't know, it says unknown — and strict mode won't send.

How do I uninstall it completely?

Quit QuotaWake, delete /Applications/QuotaWake.app and ~/Library/Application Support/QuotaWake/, and remove the login item in System Settings → General → Login Items if it's still listed. That's everything.

Is the source really open?

Yes — the whole app is a Swift package under the MIT license at github.com/jeongjin0/quotawake, including the packaging and notarization scripts. This site is open too.

Tomorrow morning, be already running.

Download for macOS Star on GitHub