🔪 Swiss Knife for Claude Code
A free Claude Code mod that fixes the 3 most annoying things about Claude Code. One-line install, no coding.
The 3 fixes
1. Claude waits for you, and you don't notice
You leave Claude working, come back an hour later, and find it has been waiting 40 minutes for you to click Allow.
Swiss Knife plays a chime, sends a desktop notification and turns the strip red the moment Claude needs you. Still waiting after 5 minutes? It pings you again.
2. You hit your plan limit by surprise
Your 5-hour and weekly limits appear as gauges with reset times and a forecast: "At this pace your 5-hour limit runs out around 15:10." You get a heads-up at 80% and again at 95%.
3. Long chats eat your tokens
With every message, Claude reads the whole chat again from the start, so a long chat costs more with every reply. When the chat is about 70% full, Swiss Knife suggests a fresh start. Click Continue in a new chat: it writes a short handoff note (the goal, where things stand, files, decisions, the next step). Open a new chat in the same project and Claude reads it with your first message. Nothing is lost, and you never have to type /clear.
Install (1 minute)
You need Claude Code 2.1.287 or newer (run claude update).
Mods install through Claude Code's plugin system, so the command says plugin. A mod is a plugin that changes Claude Code itself: its screen, sounds and prompts.
In a terminal Claude Code session, paste:
/plugin install swiss-knife --marketplace nocodehack/swiss-knife
Answer y to add the marketplace, then press Enter to install it for your user. That's it: the strip and the panel show up right away.
From a shell (PowerShell, Terminal):
claude plugin install swiss-knife --marketplace nocodehack/swiss-knife
In the Claude desktop app: click + next to the prompt box → Plugins → Add marketplace → type nocodehack/swiss-knife → Add plugin.
A mod installed from a terminal also loads in the desktop app's local sessions.
Everything in the box
Each feature can be turned on or off in the Settings tab.
| What it does |
|---|
| 🔔 Needs you | Chime, notification and a red strip when Claude asks a question, wants permission or wants a plan approved. |
| 📊 Plan limits | 5-hour and weekly gauges, reset times, and a "runs out around…" forecast. |
| 🧳 Handoff | A handoff note for a new chat when this one gets full. More details writes the long version. Kept in .claude/handoffs/. |
| ⏱ Time & cost | Working time and cost per project (breaks don't count). On a subscription it shows what the work is worth at API prices, not a bill. |
| 💸 Budget | A daily budget per project, with warnings at 80% and 100%. |
| 🛡 Guard | Commands that destroy work (rm -rf, git reset --hard, force-push, curl … | bash) stop at Claude Code's own permission prompt with a plain-English question. |
| ✅ Last task | After each task: what got done, step by step, what is still needed, and the files changed. |
| 🧭 Model tips | Says when a cheaper or stronger model fits the work better. You switch in the model menu. |
| ⏳ Quick memory timer | Warns before Claude's cache of a big chat (50k+ tokens) runs out, using your promptCacheTtl setting. |
| 📌 Pins | Pin any reply. Plans you approve are pinned for you. |
| 🙈 Hide secrets | Keys, passwords and emails show as a grey bar on screen, handy when you record or share your screen. Claude still gets the real text. Covers the prompt box and the chat, not the app's own permission dialogs: switch to Accept edits while you record. |
| 🦀 Mascot | A pixel buddy that shows what Claude is doing: thinking, writing, testing, done, or asleep on your break. |
| 📝 /report | 1–3 plain-English lines of what you did today or this week, with time and cost. Ready to send to a client. |
See any feature in seconds: Settings → Try a feature, or type /knife demo cache, handoff, limits, needs-you, budget or recap.
Commands
| Command | What it does |
|---|
/handoff | Write a handoff note now (/handoff <next step> adds your own next step) |
/report · /report week | Plain-English summary of today or the last 7 days |
/pin · /pin <text> · /pin off | Pin the last reply, pin your own note, or remove all pins |
/budget 5 · /budget 20% · /budget off | Daily dollars, or a share of your weekly limit, for this project |
/knife | Status. Also on, off, show, sound on/off, volume 0-100, handoff <percent>, demo <name> |
You never need a command: everything is a button in the panel.
Safety and privacy
-
Guard is a seatbelt, not a vault. It catches the common destructive commands and asks you first. It never approves anything by itself, and it can't catch every way to delete a file.
-
Your numbers stay on your computer, in Claude Code's own storage for this mod.
-
Four features send text to Claude, using your own Claude Code login. No API key is needed, and each call costs a fraction of a cent:
- the handoff note (your chat; Haiku, or Sonnet for More details)
- the last-task recap after longer tasks (your request and Claude's reply)
/report (what you asked and Claude's replies)- model tips (the last few messages)
The handoff and /report run only when you ask. Model tips can be turned off in Settings.
If something breaks
Claude Code mods are new and Claude Code updates often. If an update breaks something:
- Turn it off: Settings → Turn Swiss Knife off, or type
/knife off.
- Uninstall:
/plugin uninstall swiss-knife in a terminal session (or claude plugin uninstall swiss-knife).
- Tell me: open an issue with what you saw.
Related
Want to go deeper on the cache? cache-tax by Karan Bansal keeps the cache warm during breaks and shows the exact price of a cold resend.
Unofficial. Not made by or affiliated with Anthropic. Claude and Claude Code are trademarks of Anthropic.
Made by @nocodehack · MIT License
