What is claude-glow?

This project turns a smart light bulb into a status indicator for Claude Code, the AI coding tool. Instead of watching a terminal window to know what the AI assistant is doing, a WiFi smart bulb in your room changes color: green and dim while it is idle, amber while a tool is about to run, blue when a tool finishes, and red with a pulsing flash when it needs your attention. Everything is deterministic: a small hook built into Claude Code fires, a short Python script runs, and that script sends a single command to the bulb over your home network. There is no AI model involved in deciding what color to show, and after initial setup nothing goes through the cloud. The bulbs supported are Tuya-based WiFi bulbs, which includes many white-label brands such as Halonix and ones sold through the Smart Life app. These bulbs normally rely on Tuya's cloud service, but once you extract a per-device secret code, you can talk to the bulb directly over your local network instead, which is faster, more private, and keeps working even if Tuya's servers are down. Getting that secret code involves creating a free developer account on Tuya's site, linking it to the app your bulb is paired with, and running a setup wizard that scans your network and writes out the needed device details. Installation uses a setup script that creates an isolated Python environment and installs the required packages into it. Once configured, a command line tool lets you test each color state individually or cycle through all of them. If the configuration is missing or the bulb cannot be reached, the tool logs a message and exits quietly rather than crashing whatever called it. To connect it to Claude Code, you add a small set of hook entries into Claude Code's settings file, mapping each stage of a coding session, such as a tool starting, a tool finishing, or the assistant needing input, to the matching light command. The README also includes a troubleshooting section covering issues like wrong bulb protocol versions, stale IP addresses, and bulbs that silently do nothing because another app is holding their connection. The project is released under the MIT license.