Projects & Status

When you open CC Gate, you see a list of all your projects. Here's what everything means.

CC Gate popup showing a list of projects with colored status dots

How projects appear automatically

CC Gate keeps track of every folder where you've ever run Claude Code. As soon as you use Claude in a new folder, that folder shows up in CC Gate automatically — no setup needed, no adding projects manually.

The list refreshes every few seconds in the background, so new projects appear quickly and status dots stay current. You can adjust how often CC Gate checks for updates in Settings if you want to save battery.

Status dots — what the colors mean

Each project has a small colored dot on the left. It tells you at a glance what Claude is doing right now in that project.

Green (pulsing) — Claude is working

Claude Code is actively running a task in this project

The dot pulses gently to show activity. You'll see this while Claude is thinking, writing code, running searches, or doing anything at all. It might stay green for a while during long tasks like large refactors or test runs — that's normal.

Orange — Idle

Claude Code session is open but idle, or the session is closed

Either a Claude Code session is open in this project but not doing anything right now, or there is no active session at all. This is the resting state between tasks — you'll see it after Claude finishes a task and is waiting for your next message, or when Claude Code is not running.

Red bell — waiting for your approval

Claude needs you to approve something before it can continue

A red notification bell appears when Claude is blocked waiting for your response — for example a permission request ("can I run this command?"), a plan that needs your sign-off, or a direct question. Click the project to see the pending request and respond. If you have Auto-Accept enabled for that action type, CC Gate handles it automatically.

What each project shows

Project name
my-project
The name of the folder where you ran Claude Code.
Last active
2h ago
How long ago Claude last did something in this project. Updates automatically.
Sessions
3 sessions
How many Claude Code sessions have been started in this project total.
Arrow (>)
Expand
Click to expand the project and see individual Claude instances or git worktrees running in parallel.

Adding a new project

Click the + button in the top bar of the CC Gate popup. Type a name for the new project — CC Gate will create the folder inside your configured projects directory and open Claude Code there. The project appears in the list right away.

CC Gate popup showing the New Project dialog with a name input and Create button

Removing a project

Projects fade out on their own when all their session history is gone. You don't usually need to remove them manually.

If you want to remove a project yourself, right-click on it in the list and choose Remove.

What gets deleted — and what doesn't

CC Gate applies a safety rule before deleting anything:

Why this exists: This safety check prevents CC Gate from accidentally deleting files in folders you opened manually from elsewhere on your disk — only folders it created in its own workspace can be removed automatically.

If you have a lot of projects, use the search bar at the top of the CC Gate popup to filter by name. Just start typing and the list narrows down instantly.

Refresh rate

CC Gate checks for changes every 15 seconds by default. That's a good balance between staying up-to-date and not draining your battery. You can change it in Settings under the General tab.

Interval Battery impact Best for
5 seconds Higher When you're actively watching Claude and want instant updates
15 seconds (default) Balanced Most people, most of the time
30 seconds Lower Laptop on battery, or if you don't need to watch status closely
60 seconds Minimal Running CC Gate overnight or leaving it in the background all day
Tip: Even at 60 seconds, CC Gate still picks up permission requests almost instantly — the slow refresh only affects how quickly status dots update. Questions and permission prompts are checked separately and much more often.