How to Customize Status Line in Claude Code
The customizable status line feature in Claude Code allows you to add your terminal prompt display directly to the Claude Code interface, providing consistent visual context between your shell and Claude Code environments. This feature was introduced in v1.0.71 to eliminate the need for repeatedly checking your current directory and provide immediate visual confirmation of your working context without executing commands.
Claude Code includes a specialized statusline-setup agent that automatically handles all status line configuration and customization, making the setup process seamless and allowing for advanced customizations beyond basic PS1 conversion.
How to Configure Status Line
Automatic Setup with statusline-setup Agent
Claude Code features a dedicated statusline-setup agent that handles all status line configuration automatically. Simply ask Claude to configure your status line, and the agent will:
- Read your current
~/.claude/settings.jsonconfiguration - Analyze your shell's PS1 prompt settings
- Create custom status line scripts when needed
- Update your settings with the new configuration
Basic setup approaches:
# Use the /statusline slash command
/statusline
# Or ask Claude directly
"Configure my status line to show [specific requirements]"
The statusline-setup agent analyzes your shell configuration files (.bashrc, .zshrc, .profile) and translates your prompt settings into Claude Code-compatible format, while also enabling advanced customizations.
What You Can Customize
The status line supports extensive customization options through the statusline-setup agent:
Basic Information Display
- Colored username@hostname - Shows your current user and system context
- Current working directory - Eliminates the need to run
pwdcommands - Custom prompt symbols and formatting - Preserves your personal shell styling
- Color scheme consistency - Maintains colors in Bash command calls throughout Claude Code
Advanced Customizations
- Current time and date - Display real-time clock information
- Session duration - Track how long your Claude Code session has been active
- Git branch and status - Show current repository information
- Environment variables - Display custom environment context
- Project-specific information - Add custom project metadata
- Custom scripts and commands - Execute complex logic for dynamic status updates
Technical Capabilities
- JSON metadata access - Status line commands receive rich session data including session_id, model information, workspace details, and more
- Custom shell scripts - Create sophisticated status line scripts that can process the JSON input and display complex information
- Dynamic updates - Status line refreshes automatically as your session context changes
- Shell integration - Seamlessly converts existing PS1 configurations while supporting enhanced features
Example Customization Requests
You can ask Claude to configure your status line with specific requirements:
Basic examples:
Configure my status line to show current time and session duration
Add git branch information to my status line
Show my status line with username, directory, and current time
Advanced examples:
Create a status line that shows project name, git status, and how long I've been working
Configure status line with environment info and custom colors
The statusline-setup agent handles all the technical implementation, creating custom scripts and updating your ~/.claude/settings.json automatically.
With JSON metadata access and custom shell scripting capabilities, you can build sophisticated status line items like battery percentage, weather info, active Docker containers, test coverage stats, build status indicators, or even custom productivity metrics. The statusline-setup agent can help implement any creative status display you can imagine.
See Also: Installation|Configuration