[DOCS] Status line documentation incorrectly states only first line is used

Documentation Type

Incorrect/outdated documentation

Documentation Location

https://code.claude.com/docs/en/statusline

Section/Topic

"How it Works" section and "Tips" section

Current Documentation

Two statements in the documentation claim single-line output:

How it Works section:

"The first line of stdout from your command becomes the status line text"

Tips section:

"Keep your status line concise - it should fit on one line"

What's Wrong or Missing?

Claude Code actually supports multi-line status lines. Scripts that output multiple lines via separate echo statements have all lines displayed in the status area, not just the first line.

A working multi-line statusline implementation outputs 4 separate lines:

Line 1: cwd (working directory)
Line 2: session id
Line 3: git info
Line 4: status · duration · context

Each line is output via a separate echo statement, and all 4 lines render correctly in the Claude Code interface.

Suggested Improvement

Update the "How it Works" section:

Current:

"The first line of stdout from your command becomes the status line text"

Suggested:

"The output from your command becomes the status line text. Multi-line output is supported - each line will be displayed."

Update the "Tips" section:

Current:

"Keep your status line concise - it should fit on one line"

Suggested:

"Keep your status line concise. Multi-line output is supported for displaying grouped information (e.g., separate lines for directory, git status, and session info)."

Consider adding a "Multi-line Example" section showing how to structure a multi-line statusline script, similar to the existing examples but with multiple echo statements.

Impact

Medium - Makes feature difficult to understand

Additional Context

Tested with Claude Code version 2.1.25 on macOS. The multi-line statusline implementation uses a modular segment-based architecture where each segment outputs to a specific line, and all lines render correctly in the terminal interface.