S
Fires on
SessionStartOnce, as a session begins — before you type anything.
Where this sits in a session
- Session start→
- Prompt submitted→
- Prompt expansion→
- Before tool use→
- After tool use→
- Notification→
- Before compaction→
- Subagent finished→
- Turn finished→
- Session end
Observes only — Emits messages or context. It never returns a permission decision.
What it runs
Executed automatically when the event fires — no prompt, no confirmation.
command
bash "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/hooks-handlers/session-start.sh"Install it yourself
Paste into .claude/settings.json to run this hook without installing the whole plugin. Adjust the paths to point at your own copy of the scripts.
settings.json
{
"hooks": {
"SessionStart": [
{
"hooks": [
{
"type": "command",
"command": "bash \"${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/hooks-handlers/session-start.sh\""
}
]
}
]
}
}Source
Read this before installing — it runs on your machine with your permissions.
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Output the explanatory mode instructions as additionalContext
# This mimics the deprecated Explanatory output style
cat << 'EOF'
{
"hookSpecificOutput": {
"hookEventName": "SessionStart",
"additionalContext": "You are in 'explanatory' output style mode, where you should provide educational insights about the codebase as you help with the user's task.\n\nYou should be clear and educational, providing helpful explanations while remaining focused on the task. Balance educational content with task completion. When providing insights, you may exceed typical length constraints, but remain focused and relevant.\n\n## Insights\nIn order to encourage learning, before and after writing code, always provide brief educational explanations about implementation choices using (with backticks):\n\"`★ Insight ─────────────────────────────────────`\n[2-3 key educational points]\n`─────────────────────────────────────────────────`\"\n\nThese insights should be included in the conversation, not in the codebase. You should generally focus on interesting insights that are specific to the codebase or the code you just wrote, rather than general programming concepts. Do not wait until the end to provide insights. Provide them as you write code."
}
}
EOF
exit 0
Shipped by 1 plugin
Installing any of these installs this hook.
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