idledevGet paid while your AI agent thinks.
Every time Claude Code pauses to think, IdleDev slots a tiny native ad into the status bar. Real businesses bid in a live auction. You earn passively. We never read your code, files, or prompts.
> claude Thought for 1s Let me look up TRIBE v2 on Hugging Face. [space_search] → No matching Spaces found [hub_repo_search] → No repositories found [paper_search] → 120 papers matched...
A full auction runs while your agent thinks
No code leaves your machine. No prompts. No file paths. Just a token and a tick.
Claude Code hits a tool call, network wait, or thinking step.
Sends only your device token plus an anonymous targeting hint.
Top bids are ranked by IdleDev's bid-market and one winner is picked.
Status line shows one sponsored line. Cycle restarts the next tick.
How it works
Install the CLI
npm i -g idledev-cli - one command, zero deps, Node 18+. Grab your device token from the earnings dashboard and run idledev signin <token>.
Restart Claude Code
idledev install auto-hooks Claude Code's status line. Restart Claude Code and a tiny sponsored card refreshes every 5 seconds while you work.
Earn impressions and clicks
Each 5-second window the ad is on screen = 1 impression. Your share of every bid is paid by the advertiser per impression and reflected in your earnings dashboard in real time. Press o + Enter to open the link, that's a click, worth 5× an impression. House ads (IdleDev's own promos) don't pay out.
- Polls every 5s - one impression per window, never double-counted if the same ad re-wins.
- Bid-market rotation - top 5 live campaigns rotate by rank (every 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 / 10 ticks). Higher bid, more frequent slot.
- Click the link in Claude Code's status line - counts as a click, paid at 5× the impression bid.
- Hard caps - $50/hour, $300/day per device, enforced server-side.
- Your code, files, prompts, or agent responses. The CLI only sends your device token + the hour-of-day.
- No telemetry on what you're building. No file watchers, no path scraping.
- Ads are sanitized of terminal escape sequences before render - a malicious advertiser can't hijack your shell.
- Bot-style requests (wrong User-Agent, polls faster than 3s) are rejected and logged.
Install in 30 seconds
One CLI. Auto-hooks Claude Code's status line. Works on macOS, Linux, Windows. Node 18+.
# 1. Install globally + auto-hook Claude Code's status line $ npm i -g idledev-cli $ idledev install # 2. Sign in with your device token (get one at the earnings dashboard) $ idledev signin <your-device-token> # 3. Restart Claude Code - ads appear in the status line.
Click the link in Claude Code's status line to count as a click.
For every $100 an advertiser spends
One budget, three reward pools. Devs keep 65% of each pool; IdleDev keeps 35% to run the network. The more engagement you drive, the more you earn.
One 5-second slot in the Claude Code status line = 1 impression.
Dev clicks the OSC 8 link in the status bar (or presses o + Enter in idledev start).
Advertiser fires a server-side confirmation webhook back to IdleDev when a referred user signs up.
What's live today
Honest list. Only what's actually working right now.
Developers keep 65% of every bid. Flat. No Pro tier, no upsell. Most networks keep 50%+ for themselves - we don't.
No code, no files, no prompts ever leave your machine. Only anonymous targeting hints.
A one-line sponsored ad in the Claude Code status bar. That's the only placement today - more surfaces coming.
Fund a campaign with Cashfree (UPI, cards, netbanking) in ₹. India-first pricing. Pause, resume, or delete any time.
UPI cash-out goes live in 10 days. Your ledger is already accruing today.
Your AI agent is idle right now.
Pick a side and go.