[FEATURE] Auto-name sessions from first line of user message + VS Code rename on hover missing

Problem

1. No way to control auto-generated session titles

When starting a new Claude Code session in VS Code, the session title is auto-generated as a summary of the conversation. For users managing multiple projects, these auto-titles are vague and hard to distinguish (e.g., "Review TODO and update s...", "UtilajHub platform devel...").

What I want: Structure my first message as:

ProjectName
Fix the login form email placeholder showing wrong tooltip

And have the session automatically titled "ProjectName" (from the first line).

2. VS Code sidebar: rename on hover not available

The documentation mentions hovering over sessions in "Past Conversations" to reveal rename/remove actions, but this option does not appear in my VS Code Claude Code extension sidebar. I see sessions listed but no rename action on hover.

Environment:

• VS Code on Windows 11
• Claude Code VS Code extension (latest)

Proposed Solution

Option A: First-line-as-title convention

If the first line of the user's first message is short (< 50 chars, no punctuation), treat it as the session title instead of generating a summary. This would be a simple heuristic:

Line 1 (short, no period/question mark) → session title
Line 2+ → actual task description

Option B: Configurable title pattern

Add a setting like claude.sessionTitlePattern that accepts:

• "auto" (current behavior)
• "first-line" (use first line of first message)
• "project-prefix" (extract project name from cwd and prepend it)

Option C: Hook support

Allow a SessionCreate hook that can return a custom title, e.g.:

{
  "event": "SessionCreate",
  "command": "echo $PROJECT_NAME"
}

Related Issues

• #33165 — Programmatic session rename API (related but different — that's about Claude renaming itself)
• #30917 — --session-name flag for CLI
• #25090 — Renamed session name disappears after second exit
• #23610 — Session name overwritten after /resume
• #15762 — Smart session rename

Use Case

I manage 10+ projects via AI pipelines. Each Claude Code session corresponds to a specific project + task. Being able to quickly identify which session belongs to which project (without reading the conversation) is essential for workflow efficiency.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code