Show HN: What's Agent Doing – a Claude Code UI mod that explains each step

A developer released "What's Agent Doing," an MIT-licensed Claude Code UI mod that displays the current step, a timer, and per-background-agent status in a single line above the prompt. The plugin uses Claude Code's new function hooks to read the model's stream, tool calls, and permission requests without altering Claude's behavior, and shows yellow while a tool call awaits approval. It runs with no network access and no telemetry.

I built this because with latest coding models, Claude goes into deep-work mode with obscure commands so that I never know anymore what it's up to. This is a mod a plugin using Claude Code's new function hooks that draws one line above the prompt: - the current step, using the description Claude writes for each shell command git bisect run npx vitest … → "Find the commit that broke fixed-amount coupons" , with a timer - yellow while a tool call waits for your approval - a row per background agent, kept after the turn ends - ▸ expands into the turn's history, with outcomes and durations It reads the model's stream, tool calls and permission requests, and doesn't change anything Claude does. No network, no telemetry, MIT. Happy to answer questions about this mod or the mod building experience Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49934165 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49934165 Points: 2 Comments: 0