claude-stoic

Puts a Stoic quote in your Claude Code status line. One quote per session, picked at startup, stable until you restart.

npx claude-stoic

Install

Interactive (picks scope + emoji prefix):

npx claude-stoic

Non-interactive:

npx claude-stoic --global --yes --icon "🏛️"
npx claude-stoic --project --source aurelius,seneca --yes

Then restart Claude Code.

What it touches

Writes two things:

1. ~/.claude/claude-stoic/ (or ./.claude/claude-stoic/ with --project) — statusline.js + quotes.json.
2. ~/.claude/settings.json — sets statusLine to run the script.

{
  "statusLine": {
    "type": "command",
    "command": "node \"/Users/you/.claude/claude-stoic/statusline.js\" --icon \"🏛️\""
  }
}

If you already have a statusLine set, you'll be asked before it's overwritten.

Uninstall

npx claude-stoic --remove --global
# or
npx claude-stoic --remove --project

Deletes the statusLine entry and the install dir. Leaves the rest of settings.json alone.

Flags

| Flag | Default | Notes | | ---------------- | ----------- | -------------------------------------------------- | | --global | yes | Install into ~/.claude/ | | --project | | Install into ./.claude/ | | --source <csv> | all | Pick from a subset, e.g. aurelius,seneca | | --icon <text> | | Raw prefix, no brackets (e.g. 🏛️) | | --label <text> | STOIC | Bracketed prefix ([STOIC]). Ignored if --icon. | | --remove | | Uninstall | | --dry-run | | Print what would change | | --list | | List sources + counts | | --yes, -y | | Skip prompts | | --help, -h | | | | --version,-v | | |

Sources

npx claude-stoic --list

| Key | Author | | ------------ | --------------------------------------------------- | | aurelius | Marcus Aurelius | | seneca | Seneca | | epictetus | Epictetus | | zeno | Zeno of Citium (via Diogenes Laertius, Stobaeus) | | cleanthes | Cleanthes | | chrysippus | Chrysippus (via Diogenes Laertius) | | musonius | Musonius Rufus | | cato | Cato (via Plutarch) | | hecato | Hecato of Rhodes (via Seneca) | | general | Mixed maxims, Latin tags (memento mori, amor fati) |

How the per-session lock works

Claude Code re-runs the status-line command on every render (mode toggles, keypresses, etc). To avoid flicker, the script caches the chosen quote keyed by session_id (read from the JSON Claude Code pipes to stdin). Cache lives at $TMPDIR/claude-stoic-cache/. New session, new quote.

Want a new quote without restarting? Delete that dir:

rm -rf "$TMPDIR/claude-stoic-cache"

Custom quotes

Edit the installed quotes.json directly, or point statusLine.command at your own script. The bundle only ships Stoics on purpose.

Requirements

• Node 18+
• settings.json must be plain JSON (no // or /* */ comments)

Contributing

PRs for new quotes welcome. Keep them short — one status-line row. Cite the primary source if you have it (Meditations, 5.20 beats "attributed").

License

MIT © Anton Mendelson