[Feature Request] Add --session-name and /session-name for custom session identification

[gwpl]

🤖 Beep boop! This issue was co-authored by an AI assistant (that's me!) and a human who's tired of playing "guess the session" roulette 🎰

Problem Description

Currently, Claude Code sessions are only identifiable by auto-generated session IDs and timestamps. When using claude --resume to view previous sessions, it's difficult to identify which session contains the work you're looking for, especially after days or weeks. The auto-generated summaries are helpful but often insufficient for distinguishing between similar coding sessions.

This issue is related to #1407 (session ID retrieval) and #1335 (session identification challenges), but focuses on making sessions human-readable rather than just exposing technical IDs or auto-generated summaries, as users may want to use their own keywords etc.

Proposed Solution

Add the ability to assign custom names/descriptions to sessions for easier identification and retrieval.

1. Command-line flags for new sessions:

# Start a new session with a descriptive name
claude --session-name "refactoring auth system"

# With initial prompt
claude --session-name "fixing payment bug #234" "investigate the stripe webhook issue"

# Alternative flag name (if preferred)
claude --session-comment "working on user dashboard redesign"

2. Interactive command for active sessions:

# During an active session
/session-name refactoring auth system

# Or to update existing name
/session-name updated: auth system + oauth integration

3. Enhanced resume interface:

Current behavior:

$ claude --resume
┌─────┬────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ No. │ Last Update           │ Summary                                 │
├─────┼────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 1   │ 2025-01-15 14:32:00   │ Working on file editing and bug fixes   │
│ 2   │ 2025-01-15 09:15:00   │ Implementing new features for API       │
│ 3   │ 2025-01-14 16:45:00   │ Debugging test failures                 │
└─────┴────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────┘

Proposed behavior with session names:

$ claude --resume
┌─────┬────────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ No. │ Last Update           │ Session Name                 │ Summary                                 │
├─────┼────────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 1   │ 2025-01-15 14:32:00   │ refactoring auth system      │ Working on file editing and bug fixes   │
│ 2   │ 2025-01-15 09:15:00   │ stripe webhook fix           │ Implementing new features for API       │
│ 3   │ 2025-01-14 16:45:00   │ [unnamed]                    │ Debugging test failures                 │
└─────┴────────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────┘

4. Integration with existing features:

• Include session name in /status output (addresses [Feature Request] Add session ID retrieval command for interactive sessions #1407)
• Preserve session name in /compact summaries (Feature request: save session summaries from /compact #269)
• Show session name when using --continue to confirm correct session
• Allow searching/filtering by session name: claude --resume --search "auth"

Implementation Considerations

1. Storage: Session names should be stored alongside existing session metadata
2. Length limits: Suggest max 100 characters for session names
3. Special characters: Allow alphanumeric, spaces, dashes, underscores
4. Backwards compatibility: Sessions without names show as "[unnamed]" or use auto-summary

Benefits

• Dramatically improves session discoverability
• Reduces time spent searching for the right session to resume
• Better project organization for long-running development tasks
• Complements session ID functionality rather than replacing it

Related Issues

• [Feature Request] Add session ID retrieval command for interactive sessions #1407 - Session ID retrieval (this feature would make IDs less critical)
• How to get session ID from interactive session? #1335 - Session identification after compaction
• Feature Request: Session Resumption for Claude Code CLI #1340 - Enhanced session resumption
• Feature request: save session summaries from /compact #269 - Saving compact summaries (could include session names)

Alternative Approaches Considered

1. Auto-generating names from first prompt (too limiting)
2. Using git branch names (not all sessions are git-related)
3. Mandatory names (would break existing workflows)

Would love feedback on the flag naming (--session-name vs --session-comment vs other options) and whether both CLI flag and interactive command are needed.

[michael-hedgineer]

I like how you make the "name" of the session more easily discoverable but we should make this the case for the Session ID as well as i don't want to lose that. Currently the only way I am aware of getting the session ID is programmatically looking through the messages. However I wouldn't want to use the "name" as a primary key for the session, and instead just treat this as an alias for humans. You need to prevent name collisions and a human needs to set it and it could get messy. But keeping as an option.

In that case change the No. column to actually be the ID and nuke the concept of a number (not that helpful). So if you add this have the columns be:

Session ID, Last Updated, Name, Description

[gwpl]

@michael-hedgineer

• 💯 Session ID visibility and easy to get it super important!

To me adding note/description is just a helper, to get session id later and use it later via session id.

E.g. one can imagine putting "tags" in session name/commnent, then via "tags" retrieve lists of session ids that maybe relevant etc... basically I just see both things playing well with each other like UNIX KISS lego blocks.

[wolffiex]

thanks for this input. would you still want auto-summarization as well?

[gwpl]

thanks for this input. would you still want auto-summarization as well?

I see value in having both , as separate columns / separate json output fields.

I would personally use this notes section to put "tags" "keywords" not real descriptions, so I could "grep by them", while auto summarization as "human take a look" nice to have of course!

[michael-hedgineer]

It is medium useful however in practice I have so many sessions that it is a bit difficult to decifer through which is which in a large description. Just a name similar to a branch in git would be more helpful as there is less entropy. I am wrapping the claude sdk in a python sub process, exposing as a web socket, and running withing a task queue so the summary is not as helpful for this.

Any plans for making this meta data storage option available outside to the local machine? Currently we have to store the outputs of of json-stream, session ids, and prompts within our own internal store to get around this but would be nice if you supported this natively.

[gwpl]

Any plans for making this meta data storage option available outside to the local machine?

If we get CLI/SDK access to metadata (summary, session ID, notes) in text/JSON formats, you could export it anywhere. @michael-hedgineer - remote storage/sync deserves its own issue/discussion thread.

Let's refocus here on the core feature: adding name/description fields to sessions for better local organization. The key decisions seem to be:

• Column order: Session ID, Last Updated, Name, Description
• Keep both manual notes AND auto-summary as separate fields
• Make Session ID easily visible (not just programmatic access)

Does this capture what we need for the basic session naming feature?

[michael-hedgineer]

Sounds good to me!

…

________________________________ From: Grzegorz Wierzowiecki ***@***.***> Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2025 10:14:56 PM To: anthropics/claude-code ***@***.***> Cc: Michael Watson ***@***.***>; Mention ***@***.***> Subject: Re: [anthropics/claude-code] [Feature Request] Add --session-name and /session-name for custom session identification (Issue #2112) [https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/221403?s=20&v=4]gwpl left a comment (anthropics/claude-code#2112)<#2112 (comment)> Any plans for making this meta data storage option available outside to the local machine? If we get CLI/SDK access to metadata (summary, session ID, notes) in text/JSON formats, you could export it anywhere. @michael-hedgineer<https://github.com/michael-hedgineer> - remote storage/sync deserves its own issue/discussion thread. Let's refocus here on the core feature: adding name/description fields to sessions for better local organization. The key decisions seem to be: * Column order: Session ID, Last Updated, Name, Description * Keep both manual notes AND auto-summary as separate fields * Make Session ID easily visible (not just programmatic access) Does this capture what we need for the basic session naming feature? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<#2112 (comment)>, or unsubscribe<https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/A6QOOYPBRQ4QNGN3HBPU5NL3EHJFBAVCNFSM6AAAAAB7LJDEW2VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDSOBVG4YTGMZSGU>. You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***> Michael Watson ***@***.******@***.***> hedgineer.io<https://www.hedgineer.io> H E D G I N E E R