explaingit

latent-spaces/cled

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

5PythonAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5Setup · moderate

TLDR

A small macOS daemon that lights up your RGB keyboard to show which Claude Code or Codex agent sessions are busy, idle, or waiting on you.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Keyboard status panel
      Agent monitoring
      Ambient display
    Tech stack
      Python
      OpenRGB
    Use cases
      Agent status glance
      CPU/RAM monitoring
      Custom keyboard setups
    Audience
      Developers
      Claude Code users

Code map

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Glance at your keyboard's LEDs to see which Claude Code or Codex session needs your attention without alt-tabbing.

USE CASE 2

Monitor CPU and memory load ambiently through keyboard lighting while running multiple coding agents.

USE CASE 3

Fork the small codebase to add support for a different keyboard, terminal, or coding agent.

What is it built with?

PythonOpenRGBAppleScriptiTerm2

How does it compare?

latent-spaces/cled1ncendium/aibusteraaronmayeux/ha-hurricane-tracker
Stars555
LanguagePythonPythonPython
Setup difficultymoderatemoderateeasy
Complexity2/53/52/5
Audiencedeveloperops devopsgeneral

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

macOS only, requires OpenRGB installed and an OpenRGB-supported RGB keyboard.

In plain English

CLED, short for Claude slash Codex LED, is a small background program that turns an RGB keyboard into a live status display for your AI coding agents. Instead of switching windows to check whether Claude Code or Codex is still working on something, you glance down at the keyboard and read the colors: which agent session is busy, which one is waiting on you, and how hard your machine's CPU and memory are working. It runs through OpenRGB, an open source tool that controls RGB lighting on many keyboard brands. CLED lights up different areas of the keyboard for different information. The function key row fills left to right to show memory usage. Number keys one through nine each represent one agent tab in the currently focused iTerm2 window, colored red for busy, green for idle and waiting on you, amber for idle longer than 20 minutes, and blue for a tab that is not a recognized agent. The numpad shows per core CPU load shifting from green to yellow to red as load rises, and the enter key pulses through a rainbow pattern as a heartbeat to show the daemon itself is still running. It only works on macOS, because it detects which agent is running by reading the focused iTerm2 window through AppleScript. You also need OpenRGB installed, Python 3.11 or newer managed with the uv tool, and a keyboard that OpenRGB supports. It was built and tested against a Corsair K70 RGB MK.2 SE keyboard, but should work with other boards where the LED names match. The easiest way to run it is a single command through uv, which downloads and runs it without a permanent install, though a persistent command line tool and a Claude Code plugin that checks your setup and launches the daemon are also available. The whole project stays small on purpose: three short files handle talking to OpenRGB, watching terminal tabs to figure out agent status, and running the display loop at 10 frames per second, with just two external dependencies. Because it is so compact, the author encourages people to fork it and adjust it for their own keyboard layout, color choices, or a different terminal and agent setup, suggesting you can simply ask Claude to make the changes you want.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Install the cled plugin in Claude Code and set it up to monitor my iTerm2 agent tabs.
Prompt 2
Run cled with uvx and connect it to my OpenRGB-controlled keyboard.
Prompt 3
Help me modify agent_tabs.py in cled to support a different terminal app.
Prompt 4
Explain how cled maps CPU and RAM usage onto keyboard LED colors.

Frequently asked questions

What is cled?

A small macOS daemon that lights up your RGB keyboard to show which Claude Code or Codex agent sessions are busy, idle, or waiting on you.

What language is cled written in?

Mainly Python. The stack also includes Python, OpenRGB, AppleScript.

How hard is cled to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated moderate, with roughly 30min to a first successful run.

Who is cled for?

Mainly developer.

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