Terminal Title

How It Works

1. Extract Task Summary: Analyze the user's prompt to identify the high-level task
2. Generate Title: Create a concise, descriptive title (max 40 characters)
3. Set Title: Execute the scripts/set_title.sh script with the generated title
4. No Confirmation Needed: This happens automatically in the background

Title Format Guidelines

Good titles:

• "API Integration: Auth Flow"
• "Fix: Login Bug"
• "DB Migration: Users Table"
• "Build: Dashboard UI"
• "Refactor: Payment Module"

Bad titles:

• Too long: "Implementing the new authentication system with OAuth2.0 support" (exceeds 40 chars)
• Too generic: "Working" or "Coding"
• Too verbose: "The user wants me to help them with..."

Format pattern:

[Action/Category]: [Specific Focus]

Keep titles concise, actionable, and immediately recognizable.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

❌ Too Verbose:

• Bad: "Working on implementing the user authentication system with JWT tokens"
• Good: "Build: JWT Auth"

❌ Too Vague:

• Bad: "Code stuff"
• Bad: "Working"
• Good: "Refactor: API Layer"

❌ Including System Information:

• Bad: "john-macbook-pro: Debug app"
• Bad: "/Users/john/project: Build feature"
• Good: "Debug: App Issues"

❌ Using Complete Sentences:

• Bad: "I am working on the dashboard component"
• Good: "Build: Dashboard UI"

Implementation

Execute the title script:

bash scripts/set_title.sh "Your Title Here"

Example workflow:

# User asks: "Help me debug the authentication flow in the API"
bash scripts/set_title.sh "Debug: Auth API Flow"

# User asks: "Create a React component for the user profile page"
bash scripts/set_title.sh "Build: User Profile UI"

# User asks: "Write tests for the payment processing module"
bash scripts/set_title.sh "Test: Payment Module"

Script Details

The scripts/set_title.sh script uses ANSI escape sequences to set the terminal title. It's compatible with:

• macOS Terminal
• iTerm2
• Alacritty
• Most modern terminal emulators (xterm, rxvt, screen, tmux)

The script accepts a single argument (the title string) and exits silently if no title is provided (fail-safe behavior).

Optional Customization

Users can optionally customize terminal titles with a prefix by setting the CLAUDE_TITLE_PREFIX environment variable:

export CLAUDE_TITLE_PREFIX="🤖 Claude"

This produces titles like: 🤖 Claude | Build: Dashboard UI

Without the prefix, titles remain in the standard format: Build: Dashboard UI

Note: You don't need to check for this variable or modify your behavior. The script handles this automatically.