feat(plugins): fall back to user-level ~/.claude settings for hook config

The SessionStart and PreCompact hooks read basicMemory config only from
<cwd>/.claude/settings.json, so every project needs its own block (or a
bm-setup run) before briefs resolve a pinned project and checkpoints write
at all. Users with one primary knowledge graph end up repeating the same
config in every repo.

Make load_settings in both hooks merge user-level ~/.claude/settings.json
and settings.local.json as the base, with the project's .claude files
overriding per key — same layering Claude Code itself uses for settings.
A single user-level basicMemory block now covers every project, while any
project can still pin its own mapping, which wins. Documented in the
plugin README.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Signed-off-by: Samuel Lawrentz <samuel.lawerence@plivo.com>

Author: 2 people

plugins/claude-code/README.md

@@ -80,6 +80,13 @@ your project's `.claude/settings.json`. Copy
 }
 ```
 
+The block can also live in your **user-level** `~/.claude/settings.json` (or
+`settings.local.json`) — one block there covers every project, no per-repo setup.
+Precedence, lowest to highest: user-level `settings.json` → user-level
+`settings.local.json` → project `settings.json` → project `settings.local.json`,
+merged per key — so a project that pins its own `primaryProject` wins over the
+user-level default.
+
 To enable the capture reflexes, also set `"outputStyle": "basic-memory"` in your
 settings (or select it via `/config`).
 

plugins/claude-code/hooks/pre-compact.sh

@@ -65,16 +65,21 @@ session_id = payload.get("session_id") or ""
 
 
 def load_settings(directory):
+    # Same precedence as session-start.sh: user-level ~/.claude is the base,
+    # the project's .claude overrides it, settings.local.json wins per level.
     merged = {}
-    for name in ("settings.json", "settings.local.json"):
-        path = os.path.join(directory, ".claude", name)
-        try:
-            with open(path) as fh:
-                merged.update(json.load(fh).get("basicMemory") or {})
-        except FileNotFoundError:
-            continue
-        except Exception:
-            continue
+    home = os.path.expanduser("~")
+    dirs = [home] if os.path.abspath(directory) == home else [home, directory]
+    for d in dirs:
+        for name in ("settings.json", "settings.local.json"):
+            path = os.path.join(d, ".claude", name)
+            try:
+                with open(path) as fh:
+                    merged.update(json.load(fh).get("basicMemory") or {})
+            except FileNotFoundError:
+                continue
+            except Exception:
+                continue
     return merged
 
 

plugins/claude-code/hooks/session-start.sh

@@ -76,25 +76,32 @@ cwd = payload.get("cwd") or os.getcwd()
 
 
 # --- Load plugin config from .claude settings (local overrides committed) ---
-# Precedence: settings.local.json (per-user) wins over settings.json (team).
-# `found` is True if either file declared a basicMemory block at all — its
-# presence is the first-run sentinel (setup writing it stops the nudge below).
+# Precedence (lowest to highest): user-level ~/.claude/settings.json,
+# ~/.claude/settings.local.json, then the project's .claude/settings.json and
+# .claude/settings.local.json. A single user-level basicMemory block can cover
+# every project without running setup per repo; any project can still pin its
+# own mapping, which wins. `found` is True if any file declared a basicMemory
+# block at all — its presence is the first-run sentinel (setup writing it stops
+# the nudge below).
 def load_settings(directory):
     merged = {}
     found = False
-    for name in ("settings.json", "settings.local.json"):
-        path = os.path.join(directory, ".claude", name)
-        try:
-            with open(path) as fh:
-                data = json.load(fh)
-        except FileNotFoundError:
-            continue
-        except Exception:
-            continue
-        block = data.get("basicMemory")
-        if isinstance(block, dict):
-            found = True
-            merged.update(block)
+    home = os.path.expanduser("~")
+    dirs = [home] if os.path.abspath(directory) == home else [home, directory]
+    for d in dirs:
+        for name in ("settings.json", "settings.local.json"):
+            path = os.path.join(d, ".claude", name)
+            try:
+                with open(path) as fh:
+                    data = json.load(fh)
+            except FileNotFoundError:
+                continue
+            except Exception:
+                continue
+            block = data.get("basicMemory")
+            if isinstance(block, dict):
+                found = True
+                merged.update(block)
     return merged, found