pace-control

claude-pace-control

Session awareness for Claude Code.

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Why I built this

Since I started using Claude Code, I've struggled to sleep. I'm either coding or thinking about coding. I know this isn't the first time you're reading something like this, because you're probably going through the exact same thing.

I started seeing it everywhere. The Reddit threads. The Instagram posts. People describing the same loop: "just one more prompt," then it's 3am and you're refactoring code that was fine to begin with. I thought I had a problem. I do. But it's validating that it's not just me.

Regardless, I need to sleep better. I simply need to do better.

I have a command centre I built for myself called Hangar that tracks my (embarrassingly) five projects, including Hangar itself. And I thought, okay, let me see if I can help myself by locking myself out of Claude. That's why I built this.

How It Works

Pace Control tracks your Claude Code session and surfaces time-awareness inside Claude's responses. When you stop, it saves your work mechanically — git commit, context file, ideas — so the next session picks up where you left off. A Python module with two bash wrappers, no server, no telemetry.

Progressive Intervention

Silent when you're productive. Escalates only when the evidence says you're declining.

Level	Daytime Threshold	Night Threshold (after 11pm)	What Claude Is Asked To Do
0	0–90 min	0–45 min	Nothing. You're in the zone.
1	90–120 min	45–75 min	Mentions session length. No pressure.
2	2–3 hours	75 min–2 hours	Surfaces session duration data and research. Supports stopping.
3	3–4 hours	2–3 hours	Initiates Safe-Save Protocol. Suggests committing.
4	4+ hours	3+ hours	Auto-commits your code. Suggests wrapping up.

Late-Night Awareness

A 2-hour session at 2pm and a 2-hour session at 2am have measurably different outcomes. Pace Control adjusts accordingly.

• Pre-session friction: Start Claude Code after 11pm and it gently surfaces the time before responding. "It's 11:47pm. Quick fix or exploration?" One mention, not a lecture.
• Faster escalation: All thresholds shift down 25-50% at night. Level 4 messaging references sleep research and cites evidence directly.
• Sleep-specific framing: Night-time nudges reference sleep deprivation research instead of generic productivity stats.

Weekly Pattern Detection

Surfaces cumulative stats on session start:

"Last 7 days: 12 sessions, 18.5h total. 4 late-night sessions (after 23:00). Longest session: 5h 12m."

If you've had 3+ late-night sessions in a week, you'll see this even during daytime starts. Not a guilt trip. Just a pattern you might not have noticed.

The Safe Wind-Down Protocol

The reason people don't stop isn't willpower. It's anxiety about losing progress. The Wind-Down Protocol eliminates that anxiety:

1. Commits tracked changes. Stages modifications to tracked files and commits. Untracked files are not included.
2. Saves session context. Git diff stats, recent commits, and a description of what you were working on (provided during /wrap-up).
3. Captures ideas (via /wrap-up). When you run /wrap-up, Claude asks for ideas before saving. The L4 auto-save commits code but does not prompt for ideas.
4. Resumes next time. Your next Claude Code session opens with full context: "Welcome back. Last time you were working on X, you finished Y, and the next step is Z."

Micro-Loop at Level 3+

After the first Safe-Save message, Pace Control doesn't keep repeating the same wall of text. It switches to short check-ins every 5 prompts:

"SESSION: 3h 25m | 52 prompts — Still here. When you finish what you're working on, say 'wrap up' and I'll save everything."

Silent between check-ins. If you cross into Level 4, you get one full automatic wind-down message, then the micro-loop resumes with more direct messaging.

Multi-Terminal Awareness

If you have multiple Claude Code terminals open, Pace Control aggregates time across all of them:

"Note: You also have 2 other terminal(s) running. Combined time across all: 5h 12m."

Each terminal has its own state file. Dead terminals are cleaned up automatically.

Healthy-Stop Streak

Tracks consecutive sessions where you stopped before Level 4:

"Healthy stop streak: 5 sessions in a row."

Surfaced on session start only — never during work. If the streak breaks: "Last session ran long. Previous best: 8 sessions. Fresh start now." Data, not guilt.

What Makes This Different