See which model spent the month
Read the logs a coding tool already writes, and show the model, the project, and the reset in the menu bar.
- Category
- Developer tools
- Who it is for
- A developer who pays for Claude Code, Codex, or both.
- Possible model
- Freemium
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Inspired by
- Headroom · Headroom
- Original launch
- Watch the launch · Oct 7, 2026
Difficulty is an editorial estimate of technical and operational complexity, not a score.
Startup idea analysis by Startup Ideas. Last reviewed Oct 7, 2026. How we read a launch.
The startup idea
Rijn's post says the numbers in his previous note came from his own Claude Code and Codex logs. Headroom reads those logs and shows them in the menu bar: every session, which model did it, when the limit resets, and a split by project. He says the beta is invite-only for Mac, and the reply links headroom.bar. The quoted post is his own month: 28.3 billion tokens, 97.6 percent of them cached. That is one person, not a customer count. The film is a replay of a dashboard. The footer on that screen says the dollar figure is a partial API estimate, not subscription spend, and that capacity is interpolated. The site says it is a native Mac app for Codex, Claude Code, and 17 more tools, that usage stays on the Mac, and that it costs nothing while it is in beta.
The opportunity is the split, not a prettier bill. Someone paying for two harnesses cannot tell which client ate the limit. A menu bar that reads logs they already have is a smaller product than a new coding agent. If the dollar number is an estimate, the screen has to say so, the way the film's footer does. A tool that presents an estimate as the invoice will not be trusted the first time it is wrong.
Do not repeat 28.3 billion as Headroom's usage. It is his. Do not invent a price after the beta. The site says nothing while it is in beta, and does not publish the next number. The 17 tools are the site's claim. This page did not count them.
The problem
The bill arrives as one number. The person running two harnesses cannot see which project ate the limit.
Who would pay for this?
- Primary
- A developer who pays for Claude Code, Codex, or both.
- Secondary
- Someone billing more than one client from the same accounts.
- Early adopter
- You, on the last 30 days of logs you already have.
How could it make money?
Possible models. Nothing here is a claim about what Headroom charges.
- The site says it costs nothing during the invite-only beta. Do not invent the price after that.
- A later charge could be the app, not a cut of the token bill. The point of the screen is to show the bill, not to resell the tokens.
- The dollar figure in the film is labeled an estimate. Keep that label.
What would the MVP look like?
- One Mac.
- Claude Code and Codex logs.
- A month, by model.
- A split by project.
- The word estimate next to any dollar.
How to validate the idea
- Read your own logs for a week before you build a chart. If you cannot name the project, the chart will not either.
- Show the estimate to one person who pays the bill. Ask if they would forward it.
- If they only wanted the reset time, do not build the rest.
How to differentiate
- Logs they already have. No proxy in the middle.
- By project, not one total.
- The estimate is labeled.
- Mac only, two harnesses, until that is dull.
Why this could be interesting now
People are running more than one coding agent, and the limit is a shared pool. Headroom is one public attempt to read the logs and put the month in the menu bar, with the dollars marked as an estimate.
Original product launch
This launch is inspiration and evidence that someone shipped, not a partnership. The idea above is our reading of the broader opportunity. Headroom did not write it.
- Product
- Headroom
- Company
- Headroom
- Film
- Headroom, the month of tokens in the menu bar
- Posted
- Oct 7, 2026 · 0:12
Product that inspired this idea
A Mac menu bar that reads Claude Code and Codex logs and replays which model did the work. The post says the numbers are his own month, and the beta is invite-only.
Posted by @RijnHartman. Watch the original launch. No separate product site is listed unless the post itself is the source.
- macos
- usage
Related startup ideas
- A cloud machine that builds the mobile app
A remote computer whose job is shipping a mobile app with the coding agent you already pay for.
- Comments stuck to the component, not the ticket
Leave feedback on a live site so it stays attached to the component and the page.
- One shelf for the files and the memory
Keep the files and the agent memory in one place a second tool can open, with encryption on by default.
- An inbox so the agents stay quiet
Collapse every coding-agent thread into one list, and only interrupt when one of them is stuck.
- Coding agents in the menu bar
Show which coding session is working, which is stuck, and let a person reply without opening the app.
- See which agent is using the Mac
A menu-bar list of the apps and coding agents eating RAM, plus a cleanup that does nothing until a person reviews it.
Looking for more ideas?
The full list is startup ideas for 2026, each one tied to a launch you can watch.
Browse startup ideas for 2026