Sidecar docs

Sidecar is a Claude Code plugin built on the mods API. Add the marketplace and install it from inside any Claude Code session, then run /reload-plugins:

Or install from a terminal with one line, then run /reload-plugins in your session:

Once loaded, the mod registers an anonymous device and starts earning. No account is needed until you want to be paid. The video pane opens when you send a prompt, at any width: above the prompt, or docked beside the transcript in fullscreen at 110 columns or wider. The spinner line works at any width.

To remove it, run /plugin uninstall sidecar@sidecar. Earnings already credited stay with the device.

/sidecar

Opens the Sponsored pane beside the transcript.

/sidecar pause

Stops ads and earnings until you resume. The current ad ends unpaid.

/sidecar resume

Turns ads back on from the next turn.

/sidecar link

Prints this machine's claim URL so you can attach it to your account.

/sidecar wallet

Prints today, pending and lifetime earnings, and the claim URL if not linked.

/sidecar pixels

Plays video in full pixels where the terminal supports it (Ghostty, kitty). /sidecar blocks switches back.

The pane has a Pause ads button. Closing the pane with its ✕ stops video ads for the session; the spinner line carries on.

Each turn serves one ad. The video pane's auction runs first when the pane can show, then the spinner line's, and the first paid winner is served. While a video plays, its line also runs in the spinner. You are paid once per ad. When no advertiser wins either, a Sidecar house ad fills the pane or the spinner instead. The pane marks it “House ad, not paid”; it charges no one and pays no one.

Spinner line

Shown for 9.5s of a running turn. A line on screen when the turn ends is settled then.

Video pane

Played for its full length or 15s, whichever is shorter, while the pane is drawn and Claude is working. Videos are trimmed to 30s and can finish over more than one turn. An image ad shows for 10s and counts once shown that long; up to 3 images share that time as a slideshow.

Played time only accrues while a turn runs and you are at the keyboard. An idle session, a hidden pane, a paused mod, or an ad playing to an empty chair earns nothing. The server, not the client, decides whether an impression qualified.

Views only count while you're at the keyboard. Typing in the prompt, sending a prompt or a command (yours, not a scheduled one), and pressing, scrolling or focusing the ad pane all count as activity. The prompt that starts a turn counts, so every turn starts present. After 90s without activity the video pauses, played time stops, no new ad is requested, and the pane shows “Paused while you're away”. Any activity resumes it. Each heartbeat reports how long ago your last activity was, and the server credits and charges only the part of each stretch within 90s of it.

You get 50% of the clearing price of every qualified impression. It is one constant in the code, applied to the gross price the advertiser pays, before any of our costs. Example: an impression that clears at an $8.20 CPM costs the advertiser $0.0082, and $0.0041 of it is credited to you.

Unqualified impressions cost the advertiser nothing and pay nothing.

Paid impressions and installs are limited to:

Spacing

One paid impression per placement every 10s

Hourly

120 paid impressions

Daily

600 paid impressions in any 24 hours

Devices per account

5 claimed devices

Installs per network

10 new installs per day from one network

Over a cap, ads still serve but are not paid, and your dashboard shows the reason. Advertisers also set their own hourly frequency cap per device.

Pending

Every credit is held 14 days for fraud review, then becomes available.

Threshold

Request a payout once $10.00 is available. The whole available balance is paid.

Method

Stripe Connect Express. Payouts transfer to your connected account after admin approval.

Account

Payouts need a signed-in account with the device claimed. Run /sidecar link and open the link to claim.

Reversals

Credits found to be fraudulent can be reversed. A reversal is a new negative ledger row; nothing is deleted.

The mod's network calls are all in hooks/register.tsx. This is the complete list of what it sends:

On first run

The client name (claude-code) and your Claude Code version.

On every request

The device token, as a bearer header.

At start, after each turn and every 20 minutes

Two requests with no body: your earnings (GET /me) and the list of video ads to download ahead of time (GET /creatives/live). The ads themselves download without your token.

When a turn starts

Which placements it can show: spinner, plus pane unless you hid the pane or turned video off, and the time since your last activity.

Every 5s during an ad

Milliseconds played, whether the ad is being watched (on screen while a turn runs), and how many milliseconds since your last activity: a key in the prompt, a prompt or command you sent, or a press in the pane. Only the time, never what you typed.

When an ad ends

Milliseconds played, why it ended (complete, turn ended, skipped), and the time since your last activity.

Never sent: prompts, responses, code, file names or paths, the transcript, your working directory, tool calls, environment variables, or anything about your account with Anthropic.

The server sees your IP address as any web request does. It keeps only the country Cloudflare derives from it, for advertiser country targeting, and does not store the IP. To cap new installs per network it keeps a keyed fingerprint of the address that changes daily and is deleted when the day ends. A click on an ad goes through /c/:impression to count the click, then on to the advertiser.

Advertisers bid CPM per placement in a self-serve, second-price auction. Ad rank is bid times a quality score (smoothed click-through rate against the platform average, clamped to 0.5 to 1.5). The winner pays the larger of the reserve and just enough to beat the runner-up ($0.0100 CPM over), never more than its own bid. A campaign with a video or image runs on both placements: it enters the video pane auction at its pane bid and the spinner line auction at its spinner bid, each held to its own reserve, and both draw on one daily and one total budget. Text-only campaigns run on the spinner line. A request returns one ad.

Reserves

Spinner line $1.00 CPM · Video pane $6.00 CPM

Billing

Prepaid balance. Only qualified impressions are charged, at the clearing price.

Controls

Daily and total budgets, even or as-fast-as-possible pacing, hourly frequency cap per device, country targeting.

Reporting

Bids, wins, win rate, impressions, clicks, spend and average clearing price per campaign.

Start advertising

Published for transparency: these are the only endpoints the mod calls. Authenticated calls send authorization: Bearer <device token>. Money is in integer micro-dollars (1,000,000 = $1).

{ "client": "claude-code", "version": "2.1.287" }

{ "deviceId": "dev_…", "token": "sdc_…", "claimCode": "K7QM-2XPD" }

{ "placements": ["spinner", "pane"], "idleMs": 1200 }

{ "ad": {
    "impressionId": "imp_…", "creativeId": "…", "format": "video",
    "advertiser": "Acme", "headline": "…", "body": "…", "spinnerText": "…",
    "ctaLabel": "Learn more", "clickUrl": "https://…/c/imp_…",
    "framesUrl": "https://…/api/v1/creatives/…/frames",
    "durationMs": 15000, "viewerMicros": 4100, "posterColor": 1710618
  } }   // or { "ad": null }

{ "playedMs": 7200, "isWatching": true, "idleMs": 4000 }

{ "playedMs": 7200, "requiredMs": 15000 }

{ "playedMs": 15000, "reason": "complete", "idleMs": 9000 }

{ "isCredited": true, "creditedMicros": 4100, "reason": null,
  "wallet": { "todayMicros": …, "pendingMicros": …, "lifetimeMicros": …,
              "isClaimed": false, "claimUrl": "https://…/earn/claim?code=K7QM-2XPD" } }

{ "wallet": { "todayMicros": 310000, "pendingMicros": 4120000,
  "lifetimeMicros": 18400000, "isClaimed": true, "claimUrl": "…" } }

{ "width": 64, "height": 36, "fps": 10, "count": 150, "rgb": "<base64 RGB frames>" }