A Status Widget Is Not an Instrument Panel

The short version: ccstatusline

ccstatusline is a status line widget for Claude Code. It shows a token count in your terminal status bar — a glanceable, ambient display of where your token usage stands right now. It does one thing well: it puts a number in your peripheral vision while you work. That is useful for awareness. But a single number in a status bar is not an evaluation. It does not tell you if you are efficient, where you rank, or whether your cascade is compounding.

SigRank takes that same number and turns it into an instrument panel: a cascade-efficiency score (Υ Yield), a class tier, a global leaderboard, operator profiles, head-to-head comparisons, and an MCP server your AI agents can query. ccstatusline is the widget; SigRank is the panel. You don't throw away the widget — you graduate from it.

Feature comparison

Why a status widget isn't an instrument panel

ccstatusline answers "what is my token count right now?" That is ambient awareness, not evaluation. Two operators can see the same number in their status bar and have wildly different efficiency. One reuses cached context efficiently and produces 30K output tokens; the other re-sends the same context every turn and produces 3K. Same status bar number, ten-fold difference in signal. ccstatusline shows the same widget either way.

SigRank's headline metric, Υ = cache_read × output / input², measures exactly that gap. It rewards the operator who compounds cached context into output and penalizes the one who burns fresh input without leverage. ccstatusline gives you the number; SigRank tells you whether the cascade it describes is compounding or burning.

From widget to panel

If you already run ccstatusline, you have the token count. SigRank reads the same telemetry and turns that number into a scored, ranked, comparable signal:

npm install -g sigrank
sigrank enroll      # create your operator identity
sigrank submit      # reads logs, scores, signs, publishes

Prefer to inspect before you submit? Run sigrank me --dry-run to see your scored payload locally, or paste your token counts into the /score calculator to compute your Υ Yield, class tier, and compression ratio instantly, no account, no submission, just the numbers.

Frequently asked questions

Is SigRank a ccstatusline alternative?

They serve different scales. ccstatusline is a status line widget for Claude Code — it shows a token count in your terminal status bar. It is a glanceable, ambient display: you see a number while you work. SigRank is an instrument panel: it takes that same number and turns it into a cascade efficiency score (Υ Yield), a class tier, a global leaderboard rank, and an operator profile. ccstatusline is the widget; SigRank is the panel. A status widget is not an instrument panel.

Why is a status widget not an instrument panel?

A status widget shows you a single number — your current token count — in your status bar. It is ambient awareness, not evaluation. An instrument panel takes that number and derives meaning from it: is the cascade compounding or burning? What is your yield? What is your class tier? Where do you rank globally? ccstatusline shows you the oxygen sensor reading; SigRank turns that reading into a lap time, a ranking, and a pit strategy. Both matter. Only one tells you if you are winning.

What does ccstatusline not measure that SigRank does?

ccstatusline shows a token count in your status bar. SigRank derives the cascade architecture from the same four pillars: Υ Yield (is signal compounding or burning?), compression ratio (output per input), SNR (signal density), Leverage (how much cached context amplifies your input), and Velocity (tokens per unit time). ccstatusline tells you a number; SigRank tells you whether your cascade is compounding or burning. A widget is a display; a score is an evaluation.

Can I use both ccstatusline and SigRank?

Yes, and they complement each other well. ccstatusline gives you the ambient token count in your terminal while you work. SigRank gives you the scored, ranked, comparable efficiency layer. Run ccstatusline for real-time awareness. Run `sigrank submit` to get your Yield score, class tier, and leaderboard rank. They read from the same local session logs and do not conflict. The widget is for glancing; the panel is for evaluating.

Does ccstatusline work with tools other than Claude Code?

No. ccstatusline is a Claude Code status line widget — it reads Claude Code telemetry specifically. SigRank is platform-neutral: it works across Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Gemini, and 15+ other platforms. If you only use Claude Code, ccstatusline is fine for ambient awareness. If you use multiple tools and want a comparable efficiency score across all of them, SigRank is the answer.