Install in 30 seconds
Drop Cavemode into /Applications. 4 MB, notarised, universal binary. No installer, no agent, no extra permissions.
macOS menu bar · Claude Pro / Max / Team
A Claude usage tracker that devolves into a minigame. Made for people whose rate limit keeps interrupting their flow state.
- ✓ Not affiliated with Anthropic
- ✓ Data stays on your Mac
- ✓ One-time purchase — no subscription
- ✓ Diagnostics off by default
- 6 evolutionary stages
- 60 s per slap attack
- 0 servers touching your data
- $3.99 forever, once
Three steps to dignified despair.
Paste your session cookie
Guided walk-through grabs the session key from claude.ai. Stored in the macOS Keychain. Never touches our servers — there are no servers.
Start burning through tokens
Watch the menubar character slide from robot to grunting caveman. Die dramatically at 100%. Slap a Mac until reset. Repeat.
Always on. Never in the way.
Cavemode lives in your macOS menu bar. A quick glance shows your current character and usage percentage. Click for the full popover with stage progression, reset timer, and quests.
Claude
67% 3:14 PM
67% 3:14 PM
cavemode Lv4 820 XP
"Clod's solution: turn off. Turn on. Slap."
Clod · Barely Functional Brute
Clod 67 %
Clod
Resets in 2h 47m 12s
Week 42% Resets in 4d 2h
Stay under 80% for 2 hours
Menu bar + popover A live devolution readout without leaving your keyboard.
Six stages of grief. One Claude subscription.
As your usage climbs, your menu bar character slides back up the evolutionary tree. Each stage gets its own icon, quote, and notification tone.
0–19%
CLAUDE-9000
Omniscient robot. Slightly smug.
"All systems nominal. I have computed 47 solutions to your problem."
20–39%
Dr. Claudius
Brilliant scientist. Increasingly nervous.
"Fascinating. My calculations suggest we should... conserve resources."
40–59%
Claude the Intern
Trying his best. Failing.
"Umm... I think the answer is... let me Google that real quick?"
60–79%
Clod
Barely functional brute.
"Clod's solution: turn off. Turn on. Slap."
80–99%
Ooga
Full caveman. Afraid of the screen.
"Me try slap computer. Computer no give more token. Computer mean."
100%
UGH
Dead. Funeral included.
"(silence)"
Cavemode levels you up while it watches Claude devolve.
Daily quests → XP → ranks → flashier shareables. Five ranks × four share-card tiers × seven-day streaks. The rate-limit suffering compounds into a meta-game.
Lv 1+
Hominid Day-1 newcomer. Welcome to the cave.Lv 5+
Cave Apprentice You unlock the Retro 8-bit sound pack.Lv 10+
Certified Caveman Gold share cards drop here.Lv 15+
Ooga Veteran Streak-hardened. Ten devolutions deep.Lv 20+
Paleolithic Legend Foil share cards. Maximum bragging rights.At 100%
Every rate limit deserves a funeral.
When you burn through the last token, the caveman dies. Cue the coffin animation, the dramatic music, the eulogy. Then Cavemode generates a shareable death certificate PNG — time alive, stage reached, cost per minute — ready to post.
Because if you're going to get locked out of Claude for four hours, the least your productivity tool can do is make it cinematic.
Every Sunday
One report. Seven days of grief.
The Weekly Devolution Report drops every Sunday — top stage, tokens burned, streak status, devolution timeline. Built to screenshot. "Look how rough my week was" is a renewable virality engine.
Generates a share template you can drop on X / Threads / your group chat in two taps.
Devolution at: Caveman
- Top stage
- Ooga (Fri)
- Tokens spent
- 2.4M
- Streak
- 5d
- XP earned
- +340
Tip of the week: Friday hits the caveman wall. Block deep-work Fri-AM and you'll save ~40% of your tokens.
Playable demo
Slap the Mac. Right here.
The full Slap Attack minigame unlocks at 100% usage. Sixty seconds, crack meter, combo ladder, jackpot windows, a Mac that detonates on hit five. This preview is a taste — tap or hit Space.
Every run prints a Slap Receipt — score, combo peak, jackpots, rank. Share that too.
Because staring at a rate-limit error is not a hobby.
SCORE 0
TIME 0:30
2,840 SCORE
- Combo peak
- ×7
- Jackpots hit
- 3
- Crack stage
- 5/5
- Time
- 0:60
RANK Certified Caveman
Tune it to your menu bar.
Six menu-bar layouts, three sound packs, refresh interval from 30 to 300 seconds. Cavemode adapts to your workflow, not the other way around.
Sound packs
- System Lv 1+ macOS native sounds — Tink / Pop / Frog / Basso / Sosumi / Funk.
- Retro 8-bit Lv 5+ Chiptune flavor — Tink / Pop / Purr / Hero / Morse / Submarine.
- Silent Lv 1+ No audio. Pair with notifications-off for stealth mode.
Menu-bar display
- Percent only 47%
- Session + reset 47% · 2h
- Weekly + reset 62% · 3d
- Session / Weekly 47% / 62%
- Full stats 47% · 2h / 62% · 3d
- Icon only —
Loved by people who hit rate limits.
“I know I’m burning through Claude because my menubar is screaming. Unhinged. Indispensable.”
“Turned rate-limit anxiety into rate-limit theatre.”
“I slap the Mac instead of my co-workers now. Objectively an improvement.”
Pricing
$3.99. Once. Forever.
Unlike your Claude plan.
- ✓ Lifetime updates for v1.x
- ✓ Works with Claude Pro, Max, Team (Enterprise SSO supported)
- ✓ Universal binary — Apple Silicon + Intel
- ✓ 14-day no-questions refund
Questions you probably have.
Is this an official Anthropic product?
Absolutely not. Cavemode is an independent third-party tool. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or supported by Anthropic PBC.
Is my Claude session key safe?
Yes. Your session key is stored in the macOS Keychain on your machine and is only sent directly to claude.ai — the same API your browser uses. No third party ever sees it. Data never leaves your device.
Does this actually track real usage?
Yes. Cavemode reads the same usage endpoint claude.ai uses internally. The comedy is free; the data is real. You'll see your session %, weekly %, and reset countdown.
Will this fix my rate limits?
No. But you'll feel better about them. And when you hit 100%, there's a minigame so you have something to do besides refresh the settings page.
Does it work with Claude Pro / Max / Team / Enterprise?
Pro, Max, and Team plans work out of the box. Enterprise SSO logins work if your session cookie is retrievable from claude.ai in a regular browser tab.
Intel or Apple Silicon?
Universal binary — runs natively on both. Requires macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later.
Refund policy?
14-day no-questions refund. cavemode.app build → request via the Polar customer portal (link is in your purchase email). Mac App Store build → standard Apple refund flow at reportaproblem.apple.com. Either way, email support@cavemode.app if you get stuck.
macOS only?
For now. Windows users: you have bigger problems.
