Claude Code is powerful but invisible — you watch terminal output and guess what's happening to your files. Claude Companion runs alongside it and shows the session live: a mascot that reacts to processing/done/error states, a feed of every file read and edit made, real-time stats, and contextual nudges when context is growing or it's time to run tests. Ships three ways: VS Code extension, npm CLI, and a macOS menu-bar app. Local-first — code and prompts never leave your machine.