# Session Log — 2026-03-23

## Summary
Set up a persistent status line for Claude Code that displays session topic, model name, and context window percentage. Scripts were created, moved into claude-foundations, and documentation updated across CLAUDE.md, MEMORY.md, and README.md. Status line config was added to all three profile settings files (~/.claude, ~/.claude-octopus, ~/.claude-oreillyit).

## Decisions
- Decision: Use per-session topic files at `~/.claude/status/<session-id>/claude-topic.txt` — Rationale: Session ID from the status line JSON uniquely identifies each session, allowing multiple concurrent sessions to have independent topics
- Decision: Status line script writes session ID to `/tmp/claude-session-id-<md5 of cwd>` — Rationale: Claude has no direct access to its own session ID; the status line script bridges this by writing it to a predictable path keyed by working directory
- Decision: Canonical scripts live in `claude-foundations/scripts/`, symlinked from `~/.claude/status/` — Rationale: Follows the same pattern as hooks (canonical in repo, symlinked to ~/.claude/) for version control and consistency
- Decision: Status line config added to all three profile settings files — Rationale: Each profile (default, octopus, oreillyit) has its own settings.json; statusLine must be present in each

## Gotchas Discovered
- **[claude-code]** Symptom: `set-topic.sh` fails on the first message of a session because the status line hasn't run yet to write the session ID file — Fix: This is expected; set the topic from the second message onward. The bootstrap caveat is documented in CLAUDE.md and the memory file.

## Key Context
- Claude Code status line receives session JSON on stdin with fields: `session_id`, `model`, `context_window`, `cwd`, `cost`, `rate_limits`, etc.
- Status line script runs after each assistant message, debounced at 300ms
- Three profile settings files need to stay in sync: `~/.claude/settings.json`, `~/.claude-octopus/settings.json`, `~/.claude-oreillyit/settings.json`