# Claude Code Custom Context Tooling

## Metadata

- **Published:** 9/18/2025
- **Duration:** 9 minutes
- **YouTube URL:** https://youtube.com/watch?v=uS1mN8UpbkY
- **Channel:** nerding.io

## Description

Join the Community: https://nas.io/vibe-coding-retreat

Unlock the hidden power of custom status lines in Claude Code to take your context engineering to the next level. In this video, we’ll walk through how the status line works, what kind of information you can display (model, token usage, costs, Git branch, project path, etc.), and how this real-time feedback helps you manage AI context like a pro.

You’ll learn:
- What the status line is and how to customize it
- How to track token usage & avoid unexpected context drops
- Ways to visualize costs, project state, and model info
- Best practices for using context tooling in your workflow

If you’re serious about AI coding, context management, or prompt engineering, this tutorial will give you a huge edge in keeping Claude efficient and predictable.

👉 Subscribe for more tutorials on Claude, MCP, and AI-powered coding workflows.

## Key Highlights

### 1. Context Switching Made Easy

The Claude Code status line helps users manage multiple projects and branches simultaneously, improving workflow and reducing confusion.

### 2. Customizable Status Information

Users can customize the status line to display relevant information such as working directory, Git branch, model details, and token usage for better session awareness.

### 3. Token Usage Tracking

The status line displays token usage, enabling users to monitor their context window and reset sessions before reaching token limits.

### 4. Shell Script Integration

The Claude Code status line leverages shell scripts for advanced customization, allowing users to create dynamic and informative displays.

### 5. Improved Project Visibility

The status line provides a clear overview of the current project and branch, especially useful when using Git worktrees or working with multiple repositories.


## Summary

## Claude Code Custom Context Tooling: Video Summary

**1. Executive Summary:**

This video demonstrates how to leverage the Claude Code status line feature to enhance context awareness and improve workflow efficiency while using Claude. By customizing the status line with relevant information like Git branch, working directory, model details, and token usage, users can better manage their AI coding sessions, avoid unexpected context drops, and improve project visibility.

**2. Main Topics Covered:**

*   **Introduction to the Claude Code Status Line:** What it is, where it appears, and how it works.
*   **Customization of the Status Line:** Defining what information to display (working directory, Git branch, model details, token usage, etc.) and how to format it.
*   **Token Usage Tracking:** Monitoring token consumption to prevent exceeding context window limits and knowing when to reset the session.
*   **Shell Script Integration:** Understanding how the status line uses shell scripts for advanced customization and dynamic information display.
*   **Practical Examples and Use Cases:** Demonstrating how the status line improves context switching, project visibility, and overall workflow in a coding environment with multiple projects/branches.
*   **Color Coding:** Using shell script to change the colors displayed on the status line based on particular conditions (uncommitted changes, etc.)

**3. Key Takeaways:**

*   The Claude Code status line is a valuable tool for managing context and enhancing workflow.
*   Customization is key: Tailor the status line to display the information most relevant to your workflow.
*   Token usage tracking helps optimize context window usage and prevent unexpected behavior.
*   Shell scripting enables advanced customization, providing dynamic and informative displays.
*   The status line promotes better project visibility, especially when using Git worktrees or multiple repositories.
*   Color-coded status line can help you see different status changes as soon as you glance over.

**4. Notable Quotes or Examples:**

*   "So basically, I can't really tell that this is my what project I'm in, what branch I'm on, anything like that." - Illustrates the initial problem the status line addresses.
*   "This is a great way for me to track when I need to reset or clear my context window so that I know that I'm approaching uh a different kind of of uh percentage." - Highlights the practical benefit of token usage tracking.
*   "If I'm doing things like get work tree, uh, I can have like multiple screens up and know what's going on with every single thing." - Showcases the improved project visibility in complex coding environments.
*   Example customization requests: "I want working directory. Get branch. Get branch color coded coded. uh in with model." and "make this branch name puke pink or fuchsia. That just seems a little hard to read for me. In yellow if there's uncommitted changes. And then also uh pipe separator model. token."
*   The presenter offers an example shell script for others to use as a base.

**5. Target Audience:**

*   Developers using Claude Code for AI-powered coding.
*   Individuals interested in context management and prompt engineering with AI models.
*   Those seeking to optimize their workflow and improve project visibility when using Claude.
*   Users working with multiple projects, branches, or Git worktrees.


## Full Transcript

Hey everyone, welcome to Nering.io. I'm JD and today what I'm going to do is take you through Claude Code status line and how it's helping me with my context engineering and a lot of different uh context switching. So working in different projects at the same time as well as different branches. And with that, let's go ahead and get started. All right, so I'm in the middle of debugging this issue and writing some code. And as you can see, the way I split out my terminal is I basically have my web view over here, my API view over here, and if I come into cloud, I basically start to lose track uh over what's going on. So basically, I can't really tell that this is my what project I'm in, what branch I'm on, anything like that. And so uh the fact that I have both an API I'm not in a mono repo and I have my web version and then my API version it basically means that I can't really see what's what's happening. So there's this thing called status line that will give basically a uh information underneath this our input. And so what we're going to do is just see what like their baseline is. But basically, it will give you information underneath this uh configuration. And this is going to get set up on a global view, but you could also technically set it up for your uh local. So, I'm going to go ahead and not give it any instructions, and we're just going to kind of see what it comes back with. So, basically, it's asking me for uh PS1 settings. It's trying to go through and find out some of my setup. I'm sorry. So that I can find uh what kind of access to shell commands that I can actually run as part of this configuration. So now it's looking and it's seeing that in my root my cloud settings does not actually have a file of defining this status line. So it's going to go ahead and create one. So what this means is it'll actually give us a output. So now we can actually see where our home directory is this, this, and this. And we're going to say yes, allow all edits. And we should be able to see soon once actually processes. What does this actually mean? All right. So let's take a look at what uh this file is. So in here we have our status line command. This is basically our uh command that's going to output what we're actually going to be seeing. So right now it's looking at our current working directory uh and trying to put in some different kind of snippets and it's also going to print out looks like our session information and our model uh and a particular style. So let's go back and see uh if we can get our status line to come back up. So if we start a new session now, we can actually see our status line. So, but what we want to do is maybe this isn't everything that we want and so we want to see uh different kinds of colors or uh things like that. So you can actually tell it with status line what you actually want to see. I want working directory. Get branch. Um, get branch color coded coded. uh in with model and we'll see what this comes back with because it can actually show different types of colors. Now you see this one hasn't been updated. So we still have our live session over there. But what we're going to try and do is we'll close both of these and we'll actually see that we can see our working directory beyond this and what we actually uh and color code and then we're going to look at see how it's putting in the more advanced you might have there and then gone but basically it allows for shell scripts. So this means that it's actually going to make an enhanced script for it to follow. Now, what that script is going to do is instead of running these input commands, it's actually going to try and run this shell script. Go ahead and say yes. All right. So, I had to clear a couple of times, but now you can actually see that this playlist uh it it shows the functionality. You can even do uh something like uh read allation just to kind of see like what our context window is being affected. And while that's running, I'm going to come over here and see uh how this works here. So now I have a status of the status window here. You can see that everyday web on and this is actually a really long branch name. So real quick everyone, if you haven't already, please remember to like and subscribe. It helps more than you know. Also, if you're interested in more AI challenges, please check out the Vibe Coding Retreat community. And with that, let's get back to it. What it does is it actually gives me not only the directory, but this branch name is actually really long. So I had to do like an ellipsus basically on that branch name. So I can get the main chunk of it, but it doesn't take up the entire screen. And uh we can do other things. So over here it's also telling me my session amount of time, the amount of tokens that I've used. This is a great way for me to track when I need to reset or clear my context window so that I know that I'm approaching uh a different kind of of uh percentage. So, similar to the way that like compact works, I can figure out like what is my token count at currently. And once I get to like a 50 50% measure or something like that, I can actually say, okay, uh maybe it's time for me to to reset. So, uh, this to me has been like super helpful. I know it's kind of like a small change, like a very subtle change, but it allows me to know where I am in the project or which directory. So, if I'm doing things like get work tree, uh, I can have like multiple screens up and know what's going on with every single thing. So, so I'm going to add one more change. I'm going to say make this branch name puke pink or fuchsia. That just seems a little hard to read for me. In yellow if there's uncommitted changes. And then also uh pipe separator model. token. So that way we can just kind of see things a little bit easier. Um, and as this is running, again, what this is using is a shell script. So this status inline. Now, you can make your own or if you're interested, uh, you can, uh, get a copy of this one that I generated and use it. uh just drop it into your root clawed settings and then your settings uh session or your settings status line JSON configuration. Um and that link will be down in the description. All right. So now you can kind of see we have our folder structure, we have our branch, we have our model, we have our time, we have our tokens and I don't know if git commit will work, but let's give it a shot and see. So I wrote test here test save doesn't look like it updated on the uncommitted changes but still uh pretty awesome uh understanding of what you can do. So this colorcoded and allows me to actually see. Now this isn't updating in real time. We would have to close this and then open it again. But again, uh, makes it way easier for me to understand what's going on, where am I, and how to track, uh, the status of this, uh, cloud code session.

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