What is the usage window, and what does Muster show about it?

The 5-hour window

The CLIs meter usage in a rolling window — five hours for Claude Code. Muster does not set it, cannot raise it, and does not estimate it. What it shows is what the CLI itself reports.

Where it appears

• In the status bar, while a session is active: the current rate and how it compares to normal for this project.
• In the overview tab, per CLI profile: the identity, how many fronts it has open, and the last limit the CLI reported for it.

That distinction matters. It is what the CLI reports, not an estimate. The CLIs do not publish how much of the window is left, so any number claiming to know would be invented.

What to do when you are near the limit

The useful lever is not a bigger window; it is a cheaper conversation.

• Compact. When a session’s cost per turn crosses the 75th percentile for that project, the pane header says expensive and the panel shows the numbers: what a turn costs now against the project’s floor, and in how many turns compacting pays for itself. Clicking writes /compact into the prompt without sending it — you press Enter.
• Branch or hand off a session that has become expensive to carry.
• Queue fewer fronts. Eight fronts spend eight sessions’ worth of context.

What not to do

Adding a second CLI profile does not give you more usage. See Why profiles don’t raise usage limits.

Next

Usage by model, for where the tokens actually went.