claude-continue

Automatically send continue in Claude Desktop when your usage limit resets.

A macOS CLI that reads Settings → Usage, waits until the right moment, then opens your first Recents chat on the Code or Chat tab and submits continue—so you do not have to babysit the reset clock.

claude-continue code    # Code tab → first Recents chat → type continue
claude-continue chat    # Chat tab → first Recents chat → type continue
claude-continue enter   # Press Enter in the visible prompt (no navigation)

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Table of contents

• How it works
• Requirements
• Install
• Permissions
• Usage
• Scheduling logic
• Sleep and power
• UI reference
• Debugging
• Troubleshooting
• Limitations
• Development
• License

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How it works

flowchart LR
  A[Start CLI] --> B{--at set?}
  B -->|No| C[Open Settings → Usage]
  B -->|Yes| D[Parse clock time]
  C --> E[Read usage bars]
  E --> F[Compute run time]
  D --> F
  F --> G[Wait until scheduled time]
  G --> H[Launch Claude]
  H --> I{command?}
  I -->|code or chat| J[Code or Chat tab]
  J --> K[First chat under Recents]
  K --> L["Type continue + Enter"]
  I -->|enter| M[Click filled prompt + Enter]
  L --> N{Success?}
  M --> N
  N -->|No| O[Retry up to 3×]
  N -->|Yes| P[Done]
  O --> L

Loading

1. Schedule — From the Usage page (or --at), decide when to run.
2. Wait — Try to schedule a system wake; if macOS refuses, prevent idle sleep with caffeinate.
3. Run — code / chat: focus Claude, switch tab, open the first chat below Recents (skip Pinned), send continue. enter: focus Claude, click the in-view prompt that already has text, press Enter only (no tab switch, no Recents, no typing).

Claude can be closed during the wait. The tool launches and focuses it at run time.

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Requirements

Requirement	Details
OS	macOS 13 (Ventura) or later
Python	3.10+
App	Claude Desktop at /Applications/Claude.app
Permission	Accessibility for the terminal running this tool (Terminal, iTerm, Cursor, etc.)

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Install

git clone https://github.com/hamza-siddiq/claude-continue.git
cd claude-continue

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .

Verify:

claude-continue --version

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Permissions

1. System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility — enable your terminal app.
2. On first run, macOS may prompt to allow controlling Claude — choose Allow.

Without Accessibility, the tool cannot read the UI or send keystrokes.

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Usage

Commands

Command	Description
claude-continue code	Schedule from Usage (or --at), then continue on the Code tab
claude-continue chat	Same for the Chat tab
claude-continue enter	Schedule from Usage (or --at), then press Enter in the visible prompt (draft text required)
claude-continue inspect	Dump the accessibility tree for debugging

Options

Flag	Commands	Description
--at TIME	code, chat, enter	Skip Usage; run at a clock time, e.g. "4:20pm", "7:30 am", "16:20"
--allow-sleep	code, chat, enter	Allow idle sleep while waiting; if macOS refuses the wake schedule, the run may wait until you wake the Mac
--version	all	Print version and exit

--at uses minute precision. If that time already passed today, the tool waits until the same time tomorrow.

Examples

# Read Usage, wait for reset, continue Code session
claude-continue code

# Continue Chat when session countdown ends
claude-continue chat

# Run at a specific time (ignore Usage)
claude-continue code --at "12:00pm"
claude-continue chat --at "7:30 am"

# Prefer battery-saving sleep even if wake scheduling is unavailable
claude-continue code --allow-sleep

# Submit a draft you already typed (leave the right session open)
claude-continue enter --at "12:00pm"

# Keep running after you close the terminal window (optional)
nohup claude-continue code >> ~/claude-continue.log 2>&1 &

What you will see

Typical output when limits are active:

Usage: all_models=100%, session=ok
  All models reset: Resets Wed 12:00 PM
Scheduled for 2026-06-04 12:00 PM
Closed Settings.
Could not schedule a system wake; falling back to caffeinate.
Keeping Mac awake for 2 hr 58 min (display may still sleep).
Scheduled time reached.
Continue attempt 1/3...

If you run with privileges that allow pmset schedule, you may instead see:

Scheduled system wake for 2026-06-04 11:57 AM (2 hr 55 min from now).

If usage is not at 100%, the tool asks:

Usage is not at 100%. Run continue now? [y/N]:

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Scheduling logic

With no --at, the tool opens Settings (⌘,), selects Usage in the main settings nav (not Desktop app → General), reads the usage bars, then closes Settings.

Usage state	When continue runs
All models at 100%	At the reset clock time (e.g. Resets Wed 12:00 PM)
Current session at 100% (all models not full)	Countdown + 1 minute (e.g. Resets in 3 hr 53 min → run in 3 hr 54 min)
Neither at 100%	Prompts: run now or cancel

Retries at run time

At the scheduled time, code / chat send continue and enter presses Enter in the prompt — each up to 3 times:

Attempt	When
1	Immediately
2	30 seconds later
3	60 seconds after attempt 2 (~90s after the first)

Stops early if an attempt succeeds.

Enter mode

Use enter when you already have the right Code or Chat session open and draft text in the prompt (e.g. a pre-typed continue or custom message). Before the scheduled time:

1. Open the session you want.
2. Type your message in the prompt but do not send it.

At run time the tool finds the bottom-most in-window text field with non-empty content and presses Enter. It does not switch tabs or open Recents.

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Sleep and power

The tool prioritizes making the scheduled run happen. A sleeping Mac pauses user processes, so the CLI cannot run again until macOS wakes the machine.

By default, claude-continue first tries to schedule a real wake event with pmset schedule wakeorpoweron. On many Macs this requires root, so if macOS refuses the wake schedule, the tool falls back to caffeinate -i for the wait. That prevents idle system sleep; the display may still sleep.

Phase	Behavior
Long wait (5+ min away)	Try pmset schedule wakeorpoweron for a wake shortly before the run
Wake unavailable	Fall back to caffeinate -i so the Mac does not idle-sleep before the run
Last ~3 minutes	Ensure caffeinate is active so an awake Mac does not idle-sleep and miss the minute
After system sleep	When the Mac wakes, the CLI resumes; if the scheduled time already passed, it runs immediately

Claude does not need to stay open while waiting. After reading Usage, Settings is closed; at run time Claude is launched in the foreground for reliable automation.

Use --allow-sleep to permit idle sleep and rely only on the best-effort wake schedule. If wake scheduling is unavailable, the run may not happen until you wake the Mac yourself.

Keep the terminal session alive — if your shell or laptop policy kills background jobs on sleep, use nohup or leave the lid open / plugged in for critical resets. Lid-closed sleep on battery may skip a scheduled wake, and caffeinate cannot override a manual sleep or closed-lid sleep.

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UI reference

Claude Desktop layout this tool expects:

• Home — usage banner when limited (Usage limit reached • Resets …)
• Settings (⌘,) — Usage in the upper nav (General … Billing → Usage → Capabilities …), above the Desktop app section

The automation always uses ⌘, then Usage in that upper list — not the second General under Desktop app.

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Debugging

# Full accessibility tree (default depth 6)
claude-continue inspect --depth 10

# Sidebar chat rows (Recents selection)
claude-continue inspect --sidebar

# Settings sidebar nav targets
claude-continue inspect --settings-nav

# Open Usage and print detected limits
claude-continue inspect --usage

Use these when Anthropic ships a UI change and selectors stop matching.

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Troubleshooting

Symptom	What to try
Permission errors	Re-enable Accessibility for your terminal; restart the terminal after changing settings
Claude not found	Install Claude Desktop; confirm /Applications/Claude.app exists
No chats under Recents	Open the Code or Chat tab manually once so Recents is populated
Wrong tab or chat	Run claude-continue inspect --sidebar; check English UI labels
Missed reset after sleep	Avoid --allow-sleep; keep the lid open; ensure the CLI process is still running; check logs if using nohup
Nothing happens until I click Claude	Update to latest build (foreground launch at continue time); grant Automation permission for Claude
enter: no prompt with text	Open the target session and type your draft before the scheduled time; the prompt must have visible non-empty text

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Limitations

• English UI — expects labels like Settings, Usage, Recents, Code, Chat
• Usage layout — depends on what Claude Desktop exposes to Accessibility
• UI changes — fragile across app updates; use inspect to adapt
• Cowork tab — not supported (Code and Chat only)

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Development

source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .

# Run unit tests
python -m unittest discover -s tests -q

Project layout:

src/claude_continue/
  cli.py              # Entry point
  usage_ui.py         # Settings → Usage navigation
  usage_parse.py      # Reset time / countdown parsing
  schedule.py         # Wait until target time
  power.py            # Sleep / wake / caffeinate helpers
  claude_app.py       # Tab, Recents, composer automation
  modes/
    continue_mode.py  # code / chat pipeline
    enter_mode.py     # enter-only pipeline
tests/

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License

MIT