Hooks / context

Session-start repo snapshot

Hands Claude a bounded snapshot - branch, dirty state, recent commits - at every session start and resume.

What it does

Fires on SessionStart for startup and resume. Prints the current branch, a one-line dirty-file count, and the last 5 commits to stdout, which SessionStart adds to context. Bounded on purpose: a wall of git log at every start is context pollution, not context.

When it runs

Config

Merge this into .claude/settings.json - or use the generator to combine hooks.

{
  "hooks": {
    "SessionStart": [
      {
        "hooks": [
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR}/.claude/hooks/session-start-snapshot.sh",
            "timeout": 10
          }
        ],
        "matcher": "startup|resume"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Script

Save as .claude/hooks/session-start-snapshot.sh and chmod +x it.

#!/bin/bash
# session-start-snapshot: bounded git snapshot into context.
set -u
cd "${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR:-$PWD}" || exit 0
git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree >/dev/null 2>&1 || exit 0
branch=$(git branch --show-current 2>/dev/null || echo detached)
dirty=$(git status --porcelain 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')
echo "Repo snapshot: branch=$branch, uncommitted files=$dirty"
echo "Recent commits:"
git log --oneline -5 2>/dev/null
exit 0

Install

1. Save the script to .claude/hooks/session-start-snapshot.sh and chmod +x it.
2. Add the config fragment to .claude/settings.json.

Test it

• Positive: start a session in a repo with uncommitted changes - Claude knows the branch and dirty count without running git itself.
• Negative: outside a git repo, nothing is printed.

Sources

• Claude Code hooks reference (checked 2026-09-10)

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