Feature: Programmatic session/thread renaming via hooks or tools

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/33181
2. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/34243
3. https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/29355

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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

A PostToolUse hook can maintain a logical session name based on activity:

INPUT=$(cat)
TOOL=$(echo "$INPUT" | jq -r '.tool_name // empty')
SESSION_FILE="/tmp/cc-session-context.json"
[ -f "$SESSION_FILE" ] || echo '{"files":[],"issue":null}' > "$SESSION_FILE"
case "$TOOL" in
    Edit|Write)
        FILE=$(echo "$INPUT" | jq -r '.tool_input.file_path // empty')
        [ -n "$FILE" ] && jq --arg f "$(basename "$FILE")" '.files = (.files + [$f] | unique | .[-3:])' "$SESSION_FILE" > "${SESSION_FILE}.tmp" && mv "${SESSION_FILE}.tmp" "$SESSION_FILE"
        ;;
    Bash)
        CMD=$(echo "$INPUT" | jq -r '.tool_input.command // empty')
        if echo "$CMD" | grep -qE 'gh (issue|pr) (view|create)'; then
            NUM=$(echo "$CMD" | grep -oE '#?[0-9]+' | head -1)
            [ -n "$NUM" ] && jq --arg n "$NUM" '.issue = $n' "$SESSION_FILE" > "${SESSION_FILE}.tmp" && mv "${SESSION_FILE}.tmp" "$SESSION_FILE"
        fi
        ;;
esac
ISSUE=$(jq -r '.issue // empty' "$SESSION_FILE")
FILES=$(jq -r '.files | join(", ")' "$SESSION_FILE")
BRANCH=$(git branch --show-current 2>/dev/null)
TITLE=""
[ -n "$ISSUE" ] && TITLE+="#$ISSUE "
[ -n "$BRANCH" ] && TITLE+="[$BRANCH] "
[ -n "$FILES" ] && TITLE+="$FILES"
[ -n "$TITLE" ] && printf '\033]2;CC: %s\033\\' "$TITLE" >&2
exit 0

This auto-updates the terminal title to reflect what you're working on (e.g., CC: #42 [fix-auth] auth.ts, middleware.ts). Works with tmux, iTerm2, and most modern terminals.

This is essentially the same request as #33165 — a programmatic API for renaming sessions.

I built a workaround skill called /better-title that analyzes the conversation, suggests 3 descriptive titles, and applies the chosen one by appending directly to the session JSONL file: https://github.com/ElliotDrel/elliots-skills/tree/main/better-title

It works, but it's a hack — a proper rename API or hook event would make this much cleaner.

Another duplicate just filed: #43700 — multi-agent system needing programmatic session IDs. That's at least 3 independent requests for a rename API/tool in the last week.

For reference: #44786 was filed recently with essentially the same request (hooks-callable rename), making this at least the 4th independent ask for a programmatic rename API. The use cases are converging on multi-agent systems needing structured session IDs. Demand is clearly growing — worth keeping this open.

The PostToolUse hook workaround from @yurukusa is clever but it only sets the terminal title — it doesn't update the session name stored in the JSONL metadata, so the programmatic name doesn't persist in the sessions list or survive terminal restarts. The JSONL-append hack in my /better-title skill has the same limitation: it works until Claude Code's session indexer rewrites the file.

A first-party SetSessionName tool would solve both cases cleanly and would unblock multi-agent workflows where the orchestrator needs stable, human-readable session identifiers to route context between agents.

Cross-session messaging (2.1.224+) turned the session name into an address rather than a label, which makes this worth more than cosmetics. SendMessage addresses a peer by its exact name, so a session that cannot name itself cannot be usefully reached.

I run 20 to 40 sessions in parallel, often several on the same repo in separate worktrees. Derived names come out as api-2b, api-9f, api-a1, all indistinguishable to a human and to the agent picking a recipient. /rename is the only fix and it is interactive only, so a skill or a SessionStart hook that knows exactly what the session is for still cannot set the name.

One data point on the workaround, in case it helps scope the fix. The peer-visible name is read from ~/.claude/sessions/<pid>.json. Writing a new name into that file does change what other sessions see: a second session on the same machine called ListAgents and returned my patched name. The TUI kept displaying the old one, and the periodic write from the owning process preserved the patched value instead of restoring its own. So the file write does not rename a session, it silently splits the name in two, one for the display and one for every peer. Verified on 2.1.233, macOS.

Any of the three options in the description would remove the need for that. Option 3 is the one that helps most here, since the session usually learns what it is working on several turns in.