[FEATURE] Feature request: flag to hide chat history when using --fork-session

Resolved 💬 2 comments Opened Mar 17, 2026 by wvanmaasakker Closed Apr 15, 2026

Preflight Checklist

  • [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
  • [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)

Problem Statement

Use case
We run a nightly cron job that resumes a base session (claude -r <id> -p "...") to re-read our project and update documentation. Each morning, developers start an interactive session by forking from that base session (claude -r <id> --fork-session).
The fork correctly inherits all context/knowledge, which is great. However, the old chat messages are rendered in the TUI, cluttering the screen.

Desired behavior
A flag like --no-history or --clean that:

  • Forks the session as usual (preserving context for the model)
  • But does not render previous messages in the TUI

Workarounds attempted

  • clear before launching Claude — TUI re-renders history
  • --append-system-prompt — only affects Claude's output, not TUI rendering
  • Dropping --fork-session entirely — clean screen but loses session knowledge

Proposed Solution

Add a flag like --clean or --no-history

Alternative Solutions

_No response_

Priority

Medium - Would be very helpful

Feature Category

CLI commands and flags

Use Case Example

We run a nightly cron job that resumes a base session (claude -r <id> -p "...") to re-read our project and update documentation. Each morning, developers start an interactive session by forking from that base session (claude -r <id> --fork-session).
The fork correctly inherits all context/knowledge, which is great. However, the old chat messages are rendered in the TUI, cluttering the screen.

Additional Context

_No response_

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