Feature request: --session-name flag for naming sessions at startup

[cmbays]

Problem

When launching Claude Code programmatically (e.g., via terminal multiplexer layouts like Zellij/tmux), there's no way to set a human-readable session name at startup. The only way to name a session is via the /session rename slash command from within an active interactive session, which requires manual user input.

Use Case

I use a shell orchestrator (work) that creates git worktrees and launches Claude instances in Zellij tabs with pre-configured prompts. Each session maps to a specific task (e.g., garments-breadboard, invoicing-schema). Being able to name sessions at launch would make --resume and session management much more useful — currently all sessions show up as unnamed UUIDs unless the user manually renames each one.

Example of how this would be used:

# In a Zellij KDL layout:
pane command="claude" {
    args "--session-name" "garments-breadboard" "--dangerously-skip-permissions" "Read .session-prompt.md for your task instructions."
}

Or from the command line:

claude --session-name "invoicing-schema" --resume

Proposed Solution

Add a --session-name <name> CLI flag that sets the session's display name at creation time. This would be the equivalent of running /session rename <name> immediately after startup, but without requiring interactive input.

Alternatives Considered

• --append-system-prompt with rename instruction: Claude can't execute slash commands, so this doesn't work.
• Wrapper script piping stdin: /session rename only works from interactive user input, not piped stdin.
• Prompt file instruction: Unreliable — depends on the model choosing to tell the user to rename.

Environment

• Claude Code v1.0.33 (current at time of writing)
• macOS, Zellij 0.43.1

[github-actions]

Found 3 possible duplicate issues:

1. [Feature Request] Add --rename flag to set custom session name on startup #18410
2. [Feature Request] Allow programmatic session naming via CLI flag or model tool #21810
3. [Feature Request] Add --session-name and /session-name for custom session identification #2112

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[techwolf359]

#18410 is the oldest one for this.

[gabriel-dehan]

You can start it with claude /rename "My session name" so that the first command it launches is /rename. That's what I've been doing and it works well

[techwolf359]

You can start it with claude /rename "My session name" so that the first command it launches is /rename. That's what I've been doing and it works well

Thanks, I'll see if I can get this going. My workflow is already to run a Claude project scoped command. I'll see if I can somehow make Claude chain the commands.

[olejorgenb]

You can start it with claude /rename "My session name" so that the first command it launches is /rename. That's what I've been doing and it works well

Thanks ❤️ Small correction - seems the /rename and the name must be one single shell argument:

claude "/rename My session name"

Though I sometimes get an error: (nor sure if it's due to the dashes or some timing issue..

❯ /rename CC: tree-with-annotations-2026-02-21                                                                                             
  ⎿  Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, open                                                                                        
     '/home/ole/.claude/projects/-home-ole-ad-hoc-work-tree-with-annotations-2026-02-21/0fb0085c-7034-4588-a497-4705657a3c27.jsonl'

[techwolf359]

I wasn't able to chain the commands. I could either get rename or my custom command (which starts delivery of a GH issue). Will keep waiting for this feature for now.