how i actually start a claude code session.
not the official docs version. the real version, with the muscle memory and the shortcuts.
open terminal. cd into the project. type claude. that's it.
on launch, claude code loads CLAUDE.md from the project root, reads any .claude/settings.json for hook registrations, and fires SessionStart hooks. if you wire up stale-branch.sh, it runs here and checks for local branches whose remote is gone.
by the time you see the prompt, hooks are loaded, context is cached, and claude knows your conventions.
three things work together on startup:
CLAUDE.md -- project conventions, structure, rules. cached aggressively, so keeping it stable saves money. i update mine maybe once a week. it tells claude what the repo is, how to name things, what never to do.
skills -- the /mine skill gives claude access to session data (search, mistakes, burn, hotspots, loops). skills are like domain-specific knowledge packs that activate on command.
hooks -- 11 scripts registered in settings.json. they don't add to the prompt -- they run silently in the background, blocking bad commands, logging actions, fixing lint. claude doesn't even know most of them exist.
the order matters: CLAUDE.md sets the rules, skills give capabilities, hooks enforce boundaries.
from real data: 32% of 30-60 min sessions needed compaction, 54% of 2hr+ sessions did. here's when to use each:
/compact when:
- 20+ turns and you're shifting topics
- context-save.sh hook is active (it preserves state before compression)
- you see claude repeating itself or losing track of earlier decisions
/clear when:
- starting a completely new task
- the previous task is done and committed
- you want a fresh context window (cheaper than carrying dead context)
the data says: sessions that hit compaction average 1.7 compactions. if you're compacting more than twice, the session is too long -- split it.
when a session ends (ctrl+c, /exit, or timeout), two things fire:
version-stamp.sh (SessionEnd) -- if you modified files in docs/, hooks/, plugins/, or scripts/, it auto-updates the "tested with: claude code vX.Y.Z" stamps to your current version. no manual stamp maintenance.
panopticon has already logged every tool call during the session to ~/.claude/panopticon.db.
nothing to do manually. close the terminal. the data is there when you need it.
tested with: claude code v2.1.94