ctx-show

name	ctx-show
description	Show the full Claude Code session context assembled in load order. Outputs all CLAUDE.md files, auto-memory, SessionStart hook output, and skill listings in one document with source separators. Prints a summary table to stderr with scope, type, source, status, lines, tokens, and context% per source. Keywords: session context, what is loaded, show context, debug context, rules, hooks, skills.

/ctx-show — Show Full Session Context

Assemble and display everything Claude Code loads at session start, in load order.

Flags

Flag	Description
--file	(default) Write to /tmp/claude-context-{timestamp}.md and print the path
--stdout	Print full content to terminal

Sources (in load order)

1. ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md — global user instructions
2. {project}/CLAUDE.md — project instructions
3. ~/.claude/projects/{hash}/memory/MEMORY.md — auto-memory
4. Global SessionStart hooks (from ~/.claude/settings.json)
5. Project SessionStart hooks (from {project}/.claude/settings.json)
6. Plugin SessionStart hooks (enabled plugins in ~/.claude/plugins/cache/)
7. Skills — SKILL.md listings from user (~/.claude/commands/, ~/.claude/skills/), plugins, and project ({project}/.claude/commands/)

Each source is wrapped with <!-- Source: ... --> comments. Missing files are noted but do not cause errors.

Summary Table

After the file is written (or content printed), a summary table is printed to stderr with:

Column	Description
Scope	User (global ~/.claude/) or Project (project-level + plugins)
Type	CLAUDE.md · Memory · Plugin hook · User hook · Project hook · Playbook Preset · Skill
Source/ID	Shortened path (~/, ./) or plugin identifier name@marketplace (vX.Y.Z)
Status	has content · missing/empty · command failed (shown as "script error" in Lines column)
Lines / Tokens	Content metrics; exact via Anthropic count_tokens API when ANTHROPIC_API_KEY is set, otherwise estimated as ~Tokens (bytes/3.8)
Context%	Each source's share of total context

Playbook presets (from playbook@artem-from-ua) appear as individual rows when using playbook v0.3.1+.

Steps

1. Run the script via Bash. ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT} is a runtime env var pointing to the plugin root — use it to locate scripts. The script prints two paths on stdout: the context file path and the table file path.

   Default (write to file):

   bash "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/ctx-show.sh"
   

   With --stdout flag:

   bash "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/ctx-show.sh" --stdout
   

   With --file flag (explicit):

   bash "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/ctx-show.sh" --file
   

2. After running the script, always read the table file (second line of output) using the Read tool and display its contents verbatim in the response — do NOT summarize, collapse, group, or reformat rows. Show the exact table the script produced. Example — if the script output is:

   /tmp/claude-context-20260225-123456.md
   /tmp/claude-ctx-table-20260225-123456.txt
   

   Then read /tmp/claude-ctx-table-20260225-123456.txt with the Read tool and show the table content.

   • --file mode: also show the context file path and offer to open or read it.
   • --stdout mode: also show the full context output.

Notes

• Requires jq for parsing settings.json and plugin hooks. If jq is missing, static file sources (CLAUDE.md, MEMORY.md) are still shown.
• SessionStart hook commands are executed in isolation — their output may differ slightly from a real session start (e.g., different working directory).
• For plugin hooks, the script uses ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT} substitution with the actual cache path.
• Playbook preset splitting requires playbook plugin v0.3.1+ in cache (emits <!-- Source: Plugin playbook@... Preset NAME --> markers).
• Threshold warning: When total tokens exceed CTX_WARN_THRESHOLD (default 3% of CTX_CONTEXT_WINDOW), a ⚠️ warning is printed after the TOTAL row. The context window is auto-detected (1M for [1m] models, 200K fallback). Override with CTX_CONTEXT_WINDOW and CTX_WARN_THRESHOLD env vars.
• Exact token counting: Set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY to enable exact token counts via the Anthropic count_tokens API (free endpoint). The column header changes from ~Tokens to Tokens and a footer line indicates the counting method. If the API call fails, the script falls back to the bytes/3.8 heuristic. Override the model used for counting with CTX_TOKEN_MODEL (default: claude-sonnet-4-6).