# No sponsored line showing

> The line shows only while Claude Code is thinking, through its extension. First confirm you are on Claude Code, not your editor's built-in agent, then work the checks.

- Source: https://awaitful.com/docs/no-line-in-editor
- Updated: August 5, 2026

The sponsored line only exists while your agent is genuinely thinking - and it only earns while your window is focused. Most "nothing is showing" reports are one of the states below. Start with the box directly beneath this, then work the checklist in order; each takes seconds to check.

**First: are you using Claude Code, through its extension?**

Awaitful earns from **Claude Code** specifically. It watches for Claude Code's own thinking signal by way of the Claude Code extension (`anthropic.claude-code`). It does **not** detect an editor's built-in AI agent - Cursor's agent, Windsurf's, GitHub Copilot, and the like - even though Awaitful installs happily into those same editors. So if you prompt through your editor's own agent instead of Claude Code, Awaitful sees nothing and you earn nothing, with no error to tell you why.

To confirm: make sure the Claude Code extension is installed, and that you send your prompts through **it** (its own panel or session), not your editor's built-in chat. If you are on a different agent, that is the whole reason for the empty line - support for more agents is on the way, but today earning needs Claude Code. Everything below assumes you have confirmed this.

*Figure: Only prompts sent through Claude Code's own panel reach Awaitful. Your editor's built-in chat - Cursor, Windsurf, Copilot - never does, even fully installed and signed in.*

## The checklist, in order

1.  **Is an agent thinking right now?** The line appears when the agent starts working and disappears the moment it stops. No thinking, no line - that is the product, not a fault.
2.  **Is the window focused?** The line can still show in an unfocused window, but earning cannot: visible time only counts, and only bills, while the window is focused - the rule in [What counts as an impression](https://awaitful.com/docs/verified-impressions).
3.  **Is Awaitful enabled and signed in?** The status bar tells you its state at a glance: a key icon means sign in (see [Sign in and link your editor](https://awaitful.com/docs/link-your-editor)), Paused means [earning is paused](https://awaitful.com/docs/turn-it-off), and "Reload to activate" wants one editor reload after install.
4.  **Did a patch surface fall back?** If you chose the thinking line or chat banner and see the status bar instead, that is the fail-safe - [Thinking line fell back to the status bar](https://awaitful.com/docs/thinking-line-fallback) explains why and what happens next.
5.  **Has another tool changed Claude Code's files?** Other extensions patch the same file Awaitful does. When one holds it, Awaitful stops showing its line rather than stack a second change on top, and the surface card says so - naming the tool when it is still installed, or quoting the marker it left behind when it is not. The card offers to put back Claude Code's original file and apply only Awaitful's change. Note that removing an extension does **not** undo the file changes it already made, so its sponsored line can keep appearing long after you uninstall it.
6.  **Does the card say "Not showing" or "Not confirmed"?** That means Awaitful's change is on disk but nothing has confirmed a line on screen. Awaitful never counts a surface as working just because it patched the file. Reload the window first. If it keeps happening, earning moves to your status bar on its own so you are not left at zero.
7.  **Is the market quiet?** With no advertiser bidding you will usually see a house line that pays nothing and says so - see [House ads and quiet markets](https://awaitful.com/docs/house-ads).
8.  **Is the kill switch on?** A fleet-wide emergency stop exists, and clients check it every 30 seconds. While it is on, nothing payable renders anywhere, by design. When we lift it, your client notices within 30 seconds and resumes on its own - nothing to do on your side.

## Still nothing?

Then it may genuinely be a bug, and we would like it on the record: [open an issue](https://github.com/Awaitful/awaitful/issues) with your editor and surface. The client is public code, so a good report tends to get a specific answer rather than a shrug - see [Verify it yourself](https://awaitful.com/docs/verify-it-yourself).