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Track and display your Claude Code turn duration on your GitHub profile.
Anthropic's research shows that the top 0.1% of Claude Code users have average turn durations nearly double everyone else's — and climbing. These are the power users tackling the most complex, ambitious work: the kind where Claude reads dozens of files, orchestrates multi-step tool chains, runs tests, refactors, and delivers — all in a single turn. Turn duration is one of the clearest signals of how much autonomy you're granting your agent, and how hard the problems you're throwing at it actually are.
turntime makes that visible. It parses your local Claude Code session logs, calculates your turn durations, and generates badges and histogram charts you can display on your GitHub profile — because if you're going to let an AI work unsupervised for 30 minutes, you might as well get props for it.
Most Claude Code turns are short. The median across all users is around 45 seconds. Nearly every percentile below the 99th has held steady for months — that's what happens when a product is growing fast and new users are still learning the tool.
The interesting signal is in the tail. Between October 2025 and January 2026, the 99.9th percentile turn duration nearly doubled, from under 25 minutes to over 45 minutes. This wasn't driven by model releases — it was a smooth trend, suggesting that power users are building trust over time, attempting more ambitious tasks, and letting Claude work independently for longer.
Internally at Anthropic, Claude Code's success rate on the hardest tasks doubled between August and December, while human interventions per session dropped from 5.4 to 3.3. Users are granting more autonomy and getting better outcomes.
Where do you fall on that curve? turntime lets you find out. Whether you should tell people is between you and your conscience.
Prerequisites:
- Python 3.9+ — check with
python3 --version - Claude Code — you need at least one session. If you just installed Claude Code, open it, ask it any question, and you're good to go. turntime reads the session logs it creates at
~/.claude/projects/. - GitHub authentication (for syncing to your profile) — either:
- GitHub CLI (
gh) — install it, then rungh auth login - Or set a
GITHUB_TOKENenvironment variable:export GITHUB_TOKEN=your_token
- GitHub CLI (
macOS / Linux:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Trevor-Mengel/turntime/main/setup.sh | bashThis clones turntime to ~/.local/share/turntime and adds a turntime command to your PATH.
Windows / manual install:
git clone https://github.com/Trevor-Mengel/turntime.git
cd turntime
python3 scripts/turntime_cli.py statsOn Windows, use python instead of python3 if that's how Python is installed. You can create an alias or run the scripts directly from the cloned directory.
Turn duration = the wall-clock time from when you send a prompt to when Claude finishes its complete response — including every intermediate tool call in between.
When Claude reads 14 files, edits 3, runs the test suite, and refactors based on the results — that's one turn. You were probably making coffee. turntime captures the full duration of that autonomous work, not just the final response.
Technical details:
- Tool results (
usermessages withtool_resultcontent blocks) are correctly identified and skipped — multi-step tool chains count as a single turn, not dozens of micro-turns - Subagent processes (background Task tool spawns) are excluded — only your direct Claude Code sessions are measured
- Turns under 5 seconds are filtered out (quick confirmations and short terminal commands)
- No upper cap — if Claude wants to work for an hour, who are we to stop it
turntime stats⏱ turntime stats (712 turns from 108 sessions)
Period Avg Median P90 Min Max Count
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Today 605.7s 222.6s 2596.4s 4.2s 2900.9s 27
This Week 503.2s 99.6s 1251.3s 4.2s 12395.8s 210
This Month 376.4s 52.4s 645.5s 0.6s 22822.4s 648
All Time 412.1s 53.4s 661.5s 0.6s 24853.5s 712
GitHub displays a special README on your profile when you create a repository that matches your username. If you already have one, skip to step 2.
- Go to github.com/new
- Set the Repository name to your exact GitHub username (e.g., if you're
janedoe, name itjanedoe) - Check Public
- Check Add a README file
- Click Create repository
You should now see a "Hi there" message on your profile at github.com/<your-username>.
# Replace YOUR_USERNAME with your GitHub username
git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/YOUR_USERNAME.git ~/YOUR_USERNAMEThis downloads your profile repo to your home directory. You'll give this path to turntime in the next step.
turntime initThis will:
- Verify Claude Code logs exist on your machine
- Authenticate with GitHub (via
ghCLI orGITHUB_TOKEN) - Create a public Gist to host your stats
- Ask for your profile repo path — enter the path from step 2 (e.g.,
~/YOUR_USERNAME) - Save config to
~/.config/turntime/config.json
Open the README.md inside your profile repo and add these comment markers wherever you want your stats to appear:
<!-- turntime badges -->
<!-- /turntime badges -->
<!-- turntime distribution -->
<!-- /turntime distribution -->
<!-- turntime histogram -->
<!-- /turntime histogram -->Save the file. turntime will inject your badges and charts between these markers automatically. The distribution and histogram sections are optional — include whichever you want (or both).
turntime syncThis parses your Claude Code logs, generates badges and a histogram SVG, pushes them to your GitHub Gist, updates your profile README, and pushes the changes to GitHub.
After it finishes, visit github.com/<your-username> — you should see your badges and histogram chart.
When you ran turntime init, it created a public Gist with a live dashboard showing your weekly average. You can pin this Gist to your GitHub profile:
- Go to your GitHub profile (
github.com/<your-username>) - Click Customize your pins
- Select the turntime Gist (named "turntime - Claude Code turn duration stats")
The pinned Gist will update automatically every time you run turntime sync.
A ready-to-use wrapper script is included at sync-cron.sh. It loads your GitHub token from ~/.config/turntime/.env so it works in non-interactive shells where gh auth token can't access the keychain.
Setup:
-
Create your env file:
echo "GH_TOKEN=$(gh auth token)" > ~/.config/turntime/.env
-
cron (any platform):
crontab -e
0 */6 * * * ~/.local/share/turntime/sync-cron.sh >> ~/.config/turntime/logs/sync.log 2>&1
-
macOS launchd:
cat > ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.turntime.sync.plist << 'EOF' <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>Label</key><string>com.turntime.sync</string> <key>ProgramArguments</key> <array> <string>/bin/bash</string> <string>-c</string> <string>~/.local/share/turntime/sync-cron.sh</string> </array> <key>StartInterval</key><integer>21600</integer> <key>StandardOutPath</key><string>~/.config/turntime/logs/sync.log</string> <key>StandardErrorPath</key><string>~/.config/turntime/logs/sync.log</string> </dict> </plist> EOF launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.turntime.sync.plist
You might be tempted to add a GitHub Action that regenerates charts on a schedule. We tried this and recommend against it. The Action can only work with a turntime-stats.json snapshot committed to your profile repo — it can't parse your local Claude Code session logs. This means:
- The Action regenerates charts from stale data that never updates unless you manually push a new
turntime-stats.json - If the Action pushes a commit, it diverges from your local branch, causing every subsequent
turntime syncpush to silently fail - You end up with a month of local commits that never reach GitHub, wondering why your charts stopped updating
Use local automation (cron or launchd, step 7 above) instead. It parses fresh session logs every time and is the source of truth for your stats.
# Show stats in terminal
turntime stats
turntime stats --project myproject # filter by project name
# Generate files locally without pushing
turntime sync --local-only
turntime sync --local-only --theme dark
# Generate both time-series and distribution charts
turntime sync --local-only --chart-type both
# Full sync: parse → generate → push to Gist → update README
turntime sync
turntime sync --chart-type both # include distribution chart
turntime sync --project myproject # sync only a specific project
turntime sync --config /path/to/config.json # use custom config
# Initialize configuration
turntime initThe scripts can also be used independently:
# Parse sessions to JSON
python3 scripts/parse_sessions.py --output stats.json --verbose
# Generate histogram SVG (time-series or distribution)
python3 scripts/generate_histogram.py stats.json --output histogram.svg --theme auto
python3 scripts/generate_histogram.py stats.json --chart-type distribution --output distribution.svg
# Generate badge markdown
python3 scripts/generate_badges.py stats.json --format markdownConfig is stored at ~/.config/turntime/config.json:
{
"gist_id": "abc123...",
"github_username": "janedoe",
"profile_repo": "~/janedoe",
"badge_periods": ["week", "all"],
"badge_metric": "avg",
"badge_style": "for-the-badge",
"badge_delta": true,
"badge_delta_baseline": "all",
"theme": "auto",
"chart_type": "timeseries"
}| Key | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
gist_id |
GitHub Gist ID for hosting stats | Set by init |
github_username |
Your GitHub username (for Gist raw URLs) | Set by init |
profile_repo |
Local path to your profile repo | Optional |
badge_periods |
Which periods to show as badges | ["week", "all"] |
badge_metric |
Metric to display: "avg", "median", "p90", "count" |
"avg" |
badge_style |
shields.io badge style: "flat", "flat-square", "plastic", "for-the-badge" |
"for-the-badge" |
badge_delta |
Show ▲/▼ percentage vs baseline period | true |
badge_delta_baseline |
Period to compare against for delta | "all" |
theme |
SVG theme: "auto", "dark", "light" |
"auto" |
chart_type |
Chart type: "timeseries", "distribution", "both" |
"timeseries" |
Default — weekly average with delta vs all-time:
{ "badge_periods": ["week", "all"], "badge_metric": "avg", "badge_delta": true }
Median-focused — useful if your distribution is skewed:
{ "badge_periods": ["week", "all"], "badge_metric": "median" }No delta — just the raw durations:
{ "badge_periods": ["today", "month", "all"], "badge_delta": false }Flat-square style — compact alternative:
{ "badge_style": "flat-square" }- Reads Claude Code session logs from
~/.claude/projects/**/*.jsonl - Parses each JSONL file to extract timestamped messages, distinguishing genuine human prompts from tool_result messages (which share
role: "user"in the Claude API) - Calculates turn duration from your prompt to Claude's final response, spanning all intermediate tool-use cycles
- Aggregates into time periods (day, week, month, quarter, year, all-time)
- Generates shields.io badge URLs, a daily time-series histogram (last 30 days), and an optional frequency distribution chart
- Pushes to a GitHub Gist (for dynamic badge endpoints)
- Updates your profile README with badge images and the histogram
turntime never reads your prompts or code. It only extracts:
- Timestamps (to calculate duration)
- Message roles (to identify user vs assistant turns)
- Token counts (for optional usage stats)
- Tool use counts (for optional complexity metrics)
- Session IDs and project directory names
Your prompts, code, and questionable variable names stay between you and Claude.
Badges use shields.io with a Tailwind-inspired color palette. The progression reflects the research — longer turns correlate with more complex, more autonomous work:
| Duration | Tier | Color | Hex |
|---|---|---|---|
| < 2m | Routine | ⚫ Slate | #475569 |
| 2–5m | Engaged | 🟡 Amber | #f59e0b |
| 5–10m | Deep Work | 🟢 Teal | #14b8a6 |
| 10–20m | Power User | 🔵 Indigo | #6366f1 |
| 20–40m | Top 1% | 🟣 Fuchsia | #d946ef |
| ≥ 40m | 99.9th Percentile | ⚪ White | #ffffff |
Use the Gist endpoint for auto-updating badges:
Or use direct shields.io URLs (generated by the badge script):
Both the time-series histogram and frequency distribution chart support GitHub's automatic dark/light theme via prefers-color-scheme:
auto(default) — adapts to the viewer's GitHub themedark— always dark backgroundlight— always light background
- Python 3.9+
- Claude Code installed (with at least one session in
~/.claude/projects/) ghCLI orGITHUB_TOKENenvironment variable (for Gist sync)- No external Python dependencies — uses only the standard library
- A willingness to quantify your relationship with an AI (you're already here)
turntime: command not found
Your shell doesn't see ~/.local/bin. Either restart your terminal (the installer added it to your shell config) or run directly: python3 ~/.local/share/turntime/turntime.py stats
No session files found
Claude Code hasn't created any session logs yet. Open Claude Code, send at least one message, then try again. Logs are stored in ~/.claude/projects/.
No turns extracted from session files
Your session files exist but don't contain complete user-to-assistant message pairs. This can happen with very short sessions or interrupted conversations. Try having a longer conversation with Claude Code first.
GitHub API error (401)
Your token is invalid or expired. Re-authenticate: gh auth login or update your GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable.
GitHub API error (403)
Your token doesn't have the right permissions. For Gist sync you need a token with Gists read/write access. Create a new fine-grained PAT with the Gists permission.
GitHub API error (404)
Your Gist ID is invalid. Run turntime init again to create a new Gist, or check ~/.config/turntime/config.json and verify gist_id is correct.
Badges or histogram not appearing on profile
Make sure your profile README has the comment markers (<!-- turntime badges --> ... <!-- /turntime badges -->) and that you ran turntime sync (not just --local-only). Check that your profile repo was pushed: cd ~/YOUR_USERNAME && git status.
Charts stopped updating / profile repo ahead of origin
If git status in your profile repo shows "Your branch is ahead of origin/main by N commits", something pushed a commit to the remote that your local branch doesn't have (a GitHub Action, a web edit, another machine, etc.). The sync script now auto-rebases before pushing, but if you hit this with an older version: git -C ~/YOUR_USERNAME pull --rebase && git push.
Cron/launchd sync not working
The gh auth token command requires keychain access, which doesn't work in non-interactive shells. Store your token in ~/.config/turntime/.env as GH_TOKEN=your_token and use the included sync-cron.sh wrapper script.
- Global and regional leaderboards W(^,^)W
- Public website for leaderboard display
-
pip install turntimepackage distribution - Additional metrics (tokens/turn, tool uses/turn, complexity score)
- Claude Code hook integration for real-time tracking
- Trend lines and rolling averages
- Per-project breakdown charts
Contributions welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.
MIT — see LICENSE.