Custom Minimal Standard

Ultra-clean statusline showing only essential information: model name, working directory, and session timestamp.

When to Use This Setting

Apply this setting when you need to:

• Reduce visual clutter to an absolute minimum while retaining core session context
• Maintain a professional, distraction-free statusline suitable for screen recordings and presentations
• Standardize statusline appearance across team members with a simple, unopinionated baseline Consider alternatives when:
• You want rich contextual data like git branch, build status, or language detection in your statusline
• Your workflow benefits from gamified or themed statusline elements that boost engagement

Quick Start

Configuration

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name: custom-minimal-standard
type: setting
category: statusline

Example Application

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claude setting:apply custom-minimal-standard

Example Output

Setting applied. Changes:
- statusLine.type: command
- statusLine.command: bash minimal-status inline
- display_fields: model, directory, timestamp
- formatting: single-line, pipe-separated
- decorations: none

Core Concepts

Minimal Statusline Overview

Aspect	Details
Model Display	Shows the active Claude model display name from session input
Directory	Displays the basename of the current working directory
Timestamp	Current time in HH:MM format for session time awareness
Separator	Clean pipe character between each field for visual clarity
Dependencies	Requires only jq and date; no git, node, or external tools

Minimal Statusline Architecture

+-------------------+     +------------------+     +------------------+
| Session Input     |---->| Field Extractor  |---->| Format Assembler |
| JSON via stdin    |     | model, dir       |     | pipe-separated   |
+-------------------+     +------------------+     +------------------+
                                   |                        |
                                   v                        v
                          +------------------+     +------------------+
                          | Time Stamp       |     | Statusline Output|
                          | date +%H:%M      |     | [Model] dir|time|
                          +------------------+     +------------------+

Configuration

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
show_model	boolean	true	Include the active Claude model name in the display
show_directory	boolean	true	Show the basename of the current working directory
show_timestamp	boolean	true	Append current time in HH:MM format to the statusline
separator	string	"	"
time_format	string	"%H:%M"	Date format string for the timestamp field

Best Practices

1. Use as a team-wide baseline - The minimal standard works well as a starting point that all developers agree on. Commit the setting to your shared Claude configuration so new team members get a clean, consistent statusline from day one without needing to configure anything.
2. Layer additional fields incrementally - Start with the minimal standard and add one field at a time such as git branch or node version. This incremental approach helps you find the right balance between information density and visual cleanliness for your personal workflow.
3. Optimize for narrow terminals - The minimal design specifically avoids long strings, making it ideal for split panes in tmux or tiling window managers where terminal width is limited to 60-80 columns.
4. Customize the separator for accessibility - If pipe characters blend into your terminal background, switch to a different separator like a bullet, dash, or colored Unicode character that stands out better against your theme.
5. Disable timestamp in multiplexed environments - If you already have a clock visible in your tmux status bar or window manager panel, disable the timestamp field to avoid redundant time displays and reclaim statusline space.

Common Issues

1. Statusline appears empty - The jq command failed to parse the session input JSON. Verify that jq is installed and accessible on your PATH by running which jq in your terminal.
2. Directory shows root path instead of basename - The parameter extraction may be returning the full path. Ensure the script uses ${DIR##*/} shell parameter expansion to strip the path and display only the directory name.
3. Timestamp shows wrong time - Your system clock or timezone environment variable is misconfigured. Run date in your terminal to verify the correct time, and set the TZ variable in your shell profile if the timezone is wrong.