Claude Code can now be modded like a video game, and I couldn't stop tinkering

I've always had a habit of personalizing pretty much everything I own. Whether it's a room I'll only be staying in for a few months, a device I spent all my savings on, or a planner I use every single day for work, I like making things feel like they're actually mine.

I'm no different when it comes to software. I'll happily spend hours tweaking settings, experimenting with different extensions, and finding little unknown ways to make an app work exactly how I want it to.

Claude Code's an excellent example of this, and Anthropic's newest trick has given me yet another reason to spend hours tinkering with it. The AI coding assistant is now officially moddable!

You can now mod Claude Code like a video game

Claude Code has officially entered its modding era

Like I mentioned above, I've been a huge fan of customizing Claude Code, both in terms of how it behaves and the functionality it offers. I spend hours and hours setting up custom skills to improve the way it handles certain tasks, tweaking my CLAUDE.md file to make sure it follows my preferences, and experimenting with hooks to automate repetitive parts of my workflow.

I've also played around with customizing Claude Code's interface. A few months ago, I came across an open-source tool called ccstatusline, which lets you customize the status bar at the bottom of Claude Code's terminal. I ended up setting it up to display my five-hour and weekly usage limits, context-window usage, and a bunch of other information I like having visible at all times. I even wrote an entire article about it!

However, while tools like the above and the other built-in customization options give you plenty of control over how Claude Code behaves and what information it displays, they don't necessarily let you change the application itself. You can't exactly use a custom skill to redesign parts of Claude Code's interface, add interactive panels, or replace its built-in functionality.

That's where Anthropic's new Mods feature comes in. Announced on October 1 via a blog post, Mods are small TypeScript functions that can change how Claude Code works. Under the hood, Mods work by hooking into events within Claude Code, such as when it calls a tool, requests permission, or renders part of its interface. Unlike traditional hooks, which run external scripts in response to events, Mods stay loaded within your session and can directly interact with the application.

Much like modding a video game, you can now change how Claude Code looks and works. You can introduce entirely new features and customize parts of the application that were previously off-limits. In fact, Anthropic has already turned some of Claude Code's built-in functionality into Mods, including its /diff feature, which means you can disable it or replace it with your own version. Mods can rewrite prompts before they reach the AI model, modify or block tool calls, introduce new interface elements, and even replace existing features.

You don't even have to get your hands dirty

While Claude's new launches have always felt a tad bit intimidating to someone like me who doesn't come from a traditional software development background, I've found that they're often a lot more approachable than they initially seem. Mods are no exception!

With Mods, you have the classic two options that most Claude Code features come with: you can either build something yourself or take advantage of what the community has already created. Thankfully, choosing the former because you can't find the Mod you had in mind doesn't mean you need to know your way around TypeScript or spend hours figuring out how the Mods API works.

In fact, Anthropic actively encourages users to ask Claude Code to build Mods for them. You can describe what you want in plain English, and Claude will write the necessary code, install the Mod, and even load it into your current session without requiring a restart on your end.

Alternatively, if you're not quite sure what you want to build, you can explore Mods that the community has already created. The best part here is that Mods are distributed through Claude Code's existing plugin system. This means installing one is as straightforward as adding a plugin marketplace and selecting the Mod you want!

I've been going a little overboard with Claude Code Mods

One Mod turned into several very quickly

Of course, I decided to experiment with both approaches, starting with getting Claude Code to build a Mod entirely from scratch.

For my first experiment, I wanted something simple to figure out how Mods actually work: a live dashboard that would show me how many tokens I'd used, how much my session had cost, and which tools Claude was currently running. Since I already use ccstatusline to keep track of my usage limits, I figured a more detailed dashboard built directly into Claude Code's interface would be a great place to start.

Admittedly, Claude Code didn't get things right on its first attempt. Instead of using the new Mods framework, it started building the dashboard using Claude Code's existing hooks system, along with a status-line wrapper. While that would've technically achieved something similar, the dashboard would've run in a separate terminal window, which sort of defeated the entire purpose of testing the new Mods feature.

I had to interrupt Claude and explicitly tell it that I wanted a genuine Mod, not something built using the older customization options. To its credit, Claude immediately acknowledged the mistake, consulted Anthropic's official documentation, and started over using the actual Mods API.

This time around, it built exactly what I'd asked for: a native dashboard docked beside my conversation, complete with a breakdown of token usage, session costs, context-window utilization, and a live view of the tools Claude was running. It even added a /dashboard command so I could open and close the panel whenever I wanted.

If you've followed XDA's AI coverage, you might've come across some of our articles where we attempt to build the same product using different AI tools and pit them against each other to see which one does the best job. One thing we always need to keep track of is how many tokens each tool consumes throughout the experiment, so we can get a better idea of how much it actually costs to build the same product using different AI coding assistants.

That's exactly what the mod I designed above helps with. Rather than having to dig through commands or separate logs, creating a mod means I can have all that information displayed firectly within Claude Code's interface as I'm working.

I also went ahead and installed a bunch of Mods I found on Reddit and GitHub. Fair warning, a lot of these don't serve any real practical purpose, but they're ridiculously fun to play around with, and I think that's part of the appeal of modding in the first place.

For example, I came across a Mod called Code Pet that adds a little pixel pet to your Claude Code interface. It reacts to what Claude is doing, whether that's eating whenever a tool runs, getting sick when a command fails, or falling asleep when Claude is idle.

Another one I found particularly entertaining was Session Wrapped, which is essentially Spotify Wrapped for your Claude Code sessions. It gives you a recap of your session, complete with usage statistics and a fun animated presentation.

Of course, not every Mod is purely for entertainment. Anthropic has also shared a Mod called Replay Theater, which lets you visually step through the changes Claude makes to your files, one edit at a time. Instead of digging through a bunch of modified files to figure out what happened, you can review everything through an interactive panel right inside Claude Code.

If you can dream it, Claude can probably mod it

What excites me most about Mods is that we've probably only scratched the surface of what's possible. Mods give you so much more room to experiment with Claude Code and make it truly your own, whether that's improving your workflow, completely changing its interface, or adding something ridiculous just for the fun of it.