claude-menu-system

claude-menu-system

Claude Code's built-in option prompt is awkward for a large number of choices.

Just run this command and you get a nice menu with as many entries as you need:

cat > /tmp/my-menu.json <<'EOF'
{
  "spec_version": 1,
  "mode":         "menu",
  "plugin":       "my-plugin",
  "slug":         "main",
  "header":       "What do you want to do?",
  "rows": [
    {"key": "1", "action_id": "scan",     "label": "Scan the codebase"},
    {"key": "2", "action_id": "validate", "label": "Validate the manifest"},
    {"key": "3", "action_id": "publish",  "label": "Publish to marketplace"},
    {"key": "0", "action_id": "cancel",   "label": "Cancel"}
  ],
  "footer": "Type a number to choose:"
}
EOF
python3 "$CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT/scripts/menu_write.py" /tmp/my-menu.json

That's it. The menu appears in the user's terminal at the end of the current turn (a bundled Stop hook does the emit). The user's reply arrives in your next turn.

Add as many rows as you need — no option-count limit, no truncation.

Install

claude plugin install Emasoft/claude-menu-system@emasoft-plugins
/reload-plugins

Self-test:

/menu-test

Calling from another plugin

If your plugin lives in a different marketplace, $CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT points at YOUR plugin — not this one. Resolve the cache path:

CMS_ROOT=$(ls -d ~/.claude/plugins/cache/emasoft-plugins/claude-menu-system/*/ | sort -V | tail -1)
python3 "$CMS_ROOT/scripts/menu_write.py" /tmp/my-menu.json

Routing the user's reply

menu_write.py also writes a sibling .actions.json file mapping rendered key → action_id. It does not live at the spec path — it sits beside the queued menu file inside the session queue dir. menu_write.py prints that queue path to stdout, so capture it and derive the sidecar from it:

QUEUE_PATH=$(python3 "$CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT/scripts/menu_write.py" /tmp/my-menu.json)
ACTIONS=$(cat "${QUEUE_PATH%.menu.md}.actions.json")
# ACTIONS is JSON like: {"1":"scan","2":"validate","3":"publish","0":"cancel"}

Read the sidecar in the same turn you queue the menu, and keep the mapping in mind. The bundled Stop hook emits the menu and deletes both the menu file and its .actions.json sidecar at turn-end — so the files are gone by the time the user's reply arrives in your next turn. The action map is small; read it now, remember it, and route the reply next turn from what you already know.

Other modes

mode: menu is the common case. Seven more modes ship for richer output:

Mode	Purpose
menu	Numbered table with action map (above)
summary	Severity counts + verdict + report path
breakdown	Per-category × per-severity matrix
status_table	Component / Status / Notes table (✓/✗/⚠/◐/○)
panel	Single titled box with body text
multi_box	Stack of panels
progress	Title + bar + counter (12/20 (60%))
confirm	Yes / No / Cancel prompt

See examples/ for one canonical spec per mode — copy and adjust.

Optional spec fields

These can appear in any spec on top of the per-mode required fields.

Field	Type	Default	Meaning
truncate_at	int > 0 / null	absent	Per-menu cap (chars) consumed by the emit hook. null disables per-menu shaping entirely (overflow fails loudly under the 9500-char queue cap). Absent = default heuristic shaping.

Reserved keys (always preserved verbatim even with renumber:true): 0, A, M, B, X — the last three are CPV's navigation letters (Main / Back / eXit) so menus that route through CPV's fixed-key contract keep their nav glyphs stable across rerenders.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.