# How thinking is detected

> Awaitful watches one shallow signal: the agent thinking indicator. What detection observes, what starts and stops the clock, and what it never reads.

- Source: https://awaitful.com/docs/how-thinking-is-detected
- Updated: July 19, 2026

Every money rule in Awaitful hangs on one phrase: your agent is genuinely thinking. This page explains what detection actually observes - and, just as important, what it never looks at.

## What detection watches

Detection watches the agent's own thinking indicator - the spinner Claude Code itself shows while it works - and nothing else. It does not read what the agent is doing, what you asked it, or what it answers. The signal is binary and shallow on purpose: thinking started, thinking stopped. That an agent is thinking, and for how long, is the entire observation.

**Shallow by design, and checkable**

The shallow signal is what keeps [the egress list](https://awaitful.com/docs/what-leaves-your-machine) so short: a detector that only knows "thinking or not" has nothing deeper to leak. The client source is public, so how detection works is readable, not just describable - start at [Verify it yourself](https://awaitful.com/docs/verify-it-yourself).

## Which agents today

Claude Code is the only supported agent today, in VS Code, Cursor, Devin, VSCodium, and VS Code Insiders. The client is built with a seam for more agents, and the honest per-platform status lives on the landing page's platform table - nothing here will claim an agent before it ships.

## What starts and stops the clock

Thinking starting is what makes the sponsored line appear; thinking stopping is what makes it vanish. In between, the visibility clock of [What counts as an impression](https://awaitful.com/docs/verified-impressions) only accrues while the thinking is genuine: the agent stopping, a permission prompt waiting on you, or your window losing focus each pause the clock. A prompt waiting for your input is you working, not the agent - so it does not count, and the ad hides.

## Why it is built this way

Detecting more would enable more - smarter targeting, richer analytics - and every one of those features would cost the only thing this product cannot spend: the certainty that nothing of yours leaves the machine. Watching only the spinner means the strongest privacy claim survives every feature we ship. The wait is the inventory; the work stays yours.