init-statusline

Full initialization of claude-code-status in a single command. Run this after plugin install + /reload-plugins — no Claude Code restart needed.

When to use

• First install: right after claude plugin install claude-code-status and /reload-plugins
• Plugin update: after updating and reloading
• Troubleshooting: when status line is empty or shows errors

This skill replaces the need to restart Claude Code for the SessionStart hook.

What this skill does

1. Bootstrap — runs the SessionStart hook to create the data directory, sync runtime, install npm deps, and copy the launcher
2. Wire settings.json — sets statusLine.command to the stable launcher path
3. Populate cache — runs all collectors (gmail, tasks, jira, github) so data appears immediately
4. Verify — tests the status line end-to-end and reports the result

Steps

0. Resolve plugin paths

The environment variables CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT and CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA are only available inside hook/skill runtime contexts — they are NOT available when Claude executes Bash tool commands. So you MUST resolve them from the known directory conventions:

# Find CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT (versioned cache directory)
CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT=$(ls -d ~/.claude/plugins/cache/claude-code-status/claude-code-status/*/ 2>/dev/null | head -1 | sed 's:/$::')

# CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA (persistent data directory)
CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA="$HOME/.claude/plugins/data/claude-code-status-claude-code-status"

If CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT is empty (no directory found), the plugin is not installed. Tell the user to run claude plugin install claude-code-status and /reload-plugins first, then stop.

Use these resolved values as export in ALL subsequent bash commands. Do NOT rely on environment variables being set across separate Bash tool calls.

1. Bootstrap data directory

Run the SessionStart hook manually. This creates the full directory structure under $CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA.

export CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT="<resolved path from step 0>"
export CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA="<resolved path from step 0>"
bash "$CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT/hooks/session-start.sh"

After this step, verify these files exist:

• $CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA/bin/status-line.sh
• $CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA/runtime/dist/render.js

If either is missing, print the session-start log and stop:

cat "$CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA/logs/session-start.log"

2. Wire settings.json

Read ~/.claude/settings.json, set statusLine.command to $CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA/bin/status-line.sh, and write back. Do NOT overwrite unrelated fields — merge only the statusLine key.

The statusLine object must have:

{
  "type": "command",
  "command": "node <CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA>/runtime/dist/render.js"
}

Using node render.js directly avoids spawning a bash process, which prevents CMD window flashing on Windows.

3. Populate cache by running collectors

For each service (gmail, tasks, jira, github), attempt to run the collector. Collector failures are non-fatal — unconfigured services simply won't appear.

CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA="$CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA"
COLLECT="$CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA/runtime/dist/collect.js"

for svc in gmail tasks jira github; do
  node "$COLLECT" --service "$svc" 2>&1 || true
done

4. End-to-end verification

Pipe sample JSON through the launcher and confirm output is not empty:

echo '{"rate_limits":{"five_hour":{"used_percentage":1},"seven_day":{"used_percentage":1}}}' \
  | bash "$CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA/bin/status-line.sh"

5. Report results

Print a summary:

• Which services have cached data (read each $CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA/cache/<service>.json)
• Whether settings.json is correctly patched
• Remind the user that unconfigured services are hidden (not an error)
• Tell the user the status line is now active — it may take a few seconds to appear

Error conditions

Condition	Action
Plugin cache directory not found in ~/.claude/plugins/cache/claude-code-status/	Plugin is not installed. Tell user to run claude plugin install claude-code-status first
session-start.sh fails	Print the log file contents and stop
Launcher file missing after bootstrap	Print error and session-start log
Collector fails for a service	Non-fatal — print warning, continue to next service
settings.json parse error	Back up the file, then overwrite with minimal valid JSON

Notes

• This skill is idempotent — safe to run multiple times.
• It replaces the SessionStart hook for first-time setup.
• After running this skill, the status line works immediately without restarting Claude Code.