sclaude

Opinionated Claude Code wrapper for long-running sessions. A Cartage OSS contribution.

What it does:

• Launches claude with --dangerously-skip-permissions so you never see a permission prompt.
• Appends a strict non-destructive guardrails system prompt so Claude self-imposes the safety checks the permission gate would have enforced.
• Runs a context-window sidecar. At ~70% context, it asks Haiku to write a handoff doc and auto-swaps the session: kills the running claude, respawns it fresh, and types /resume <doc> for you. No mid-flow compacting, no lost state.
• Bundles a Claude Code status line showing context %, 5-hour and 7-day usage buckets, and a pace meter.
• Spawns git worktrees with sclaude <name> — one command, branch + tree
  • wrapped claude.

Install

pipx install sclaude

Requires Claude Code installed and authed (claude login) — sclaude uses your existing OAuth session, no API key needed.

Quick start

# launch claude in current cwd (no worktree)
sclaude run

# spawn a worktree at <repo>/.worktrees/my-feature and launch claude in it
sclaude my-feature
sclaude worktree my-feature           # explicit form

# remove worktrees whose branches are merged / clean
sclaude prune                          # dry run
sclaude prune --apply                  # actually remove

Any argument that isn't a known subcommand is treated as a worktree name. So sclaude AE-1234 ≡ sclaude worktree AE-1234.

Worktree paths

Default: <repo>/.worktrees/<name>. Override with --path:

sclaude my-feature --path ~/scratch/my-feature

Branch defaults to the worktree name and forks off the detected default branch (origin/main → origin/master → main → master). Override with --branch / --base.

Context threshold

Default fires at 70% of the 200k context window. Override:

sclaude --threshold 0.65

To disable the PTY auto-swap and fall back to a banner-only handoff:

sclaude --no-auto-handoff

Status line

On first launch, sclaude composes a settings JSON that points Claude Code's statusLine at the bundled statusline.sh (cached at ~/.cache/sclaude/statusline.sh). Your existing ~/.claude/settings.json is preserved — only the statusLine key is added.

The bar shows: context fill % • pace (7d burn-rate vs sustainable) • 5h and 7d usage buckets when either crosses 50%.

Guardrails

See src/sclaude/guardrails.md. Summary: no force-push, no destructive git/SQL, no editing CI/secrets, always work in a worktree, commit per chunk, confirm before irreversible ops.

Architecture

sclaude <name>
├── git worktree add <repo>/.worktrees/<name>
├── spawn watcher.py (subprocess, polls ~/.claude/projects/<cwd>/*.jsonl)
└── pexpect-driven PTY around `claude --dangerously-skip-permissions
                                       --append-system-prompt <guardrails>
                                       --settings <bundled-statusline.json>`

When the watcher detects context ≥ threshold, it calls claude -p --model haiku to write a handoff doc under ~/.claude/handoffs/. The PTY runner spots the new file, terminates the current claude, respawns it, and pre-types /resume <doc> as the first user input.

Acknowledgements

Built at Cartage for our own non-technical AO users running multi-day Claude Code sessions. Released as a standalone OSS package in the hope it's useful to anyone else who hates compaction.