Episode 18: Q&A — HUD Debugging, Memory & Advanced Topics — 📊 Claude HUD Complete Tutorial: From Beginner to Master in 18 Chapters

This Episode: 6 advanced questions encountered by power users during deep usage.

Q15: Why aren't HUD token details showing?

Diagnose in order:

contextCriticalThreshold too high — Default 85%, won't show below that. Lower to 30: { "contextCriticalThreshold": 30 }
current_usage data missing — Non-native Claude models may not provide this field
Multi-line truncation — Expanded layout has too many lines, session tokens line gets cut. Disable unimportant elements
showTokenBreakdown is off — Confirm it's not false

See Episode 12 for the complete diagnostic flow.

Q16: How does HUD differ with non-native Claude models?

Feature	Native Claude	ZAI/Compatible Platforms
Context percentage	Normal	Normal
Token details	Normal	⚠️ May be missing
Usage limits	Normal	❌ Not shown
Cost estimate	Actual cost	⚠️ May be $0

HUD has context-cache fallback: even if stdin occasionally drops data, it recovers from the last complete snapshot.

Q17: What if expanded layout lines disappear?

Claude Code statusLine multi-line display has known limitations (GitHub #37522).

Solutions:

Disable unimportant elements (recommended):

{ "display": {
    "showSessionName": false,
    "showClaudeCodeVersion": false,
    "showMemoryUsage": false,
    "showOutputStyle": false
}}

Widen terminal window
Switch to compact layout: { "lineLayout": "compact" }

Q18: Does Memory consume context?

Yes. Memory files are injected into the system prompt at SessionStart, becoming part of the fixed section.

Fixed section = System Prompt (~3K) + CLAUDE.md (~4K) + Memory (~0.5-3K) + Hooks (~1.5K)

But thanks to Prompt Cache, the fixed section is only charged once. Memory takes space but doesn't incur repeated costs.

Q19: Can Session History files be deleted?

Yes, but not recommended. After deletion:

HUD can't read that session's tool/agent/todo data
claude-mem can't extract observations from that session
Conversation history is permanently lost

To clean up disk space, delete the oldest sessions:

ls -lt ~/.claude/projects/-Users-eric-work-teachagent/*.jsonl | tail -10

Q20: Does `/compact` or `/clear` affect Memory?

No. Memory files are stored in the memory/ directory, independent of sessions.

/compact — Only compresses in-session conversation history, doesn't touch Memory
/clear — Clears session conversation history, doesn't touch Memory
Memory only changes when you manually edit it or Claude explicitly writes to it

New sessions auto-load Memory via the SessionStart hook, unaffected by the previous session's /compact or /clear.

Tutorial Complete: Congratulations on finishing all 18 chapters of the Claude HUD tutorial! From installation to mastery, you've learned everything about context management, token optimization, and caching strategies.

Project: jarrodwatts/claude-hud

Episode 18: Q&A — HUD Debugging, Memory & Advanced Topics