prompt-rail

A rail of your prompts for Claude Code. Hover to read one, click to jump back to it.

Quick start

prompt-rail is a mod, so it needs Claude Code 2.1.287 or later, where mods are on by default. If you set CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_FUNCTION_HOOKS during early access, you can remove it, since Claude Code now ignores it.

Install, from your shell or inside a session:

claude plugin marketplace add oikon48/prompt-rail
claude plugin install prompt-rail@oikon48

/plugin marketplace add oikon48/prompt-rail
/plugin install prompt-rail@oikon48

Start a new session. The rail opens on its own.

Mouse works best with "tui": "fullscreen".

Two layouts

Horizontal, above the prompt (default)

The horizontal rail: a text line with the hovered prompt and its turn summary over a row of bars

Vertical, beside the transcript

The vertical rail: one row per prompt in a pane beside the transcript, the prompt being read marked with a thick tick

Commands

Command
`/prompt-rail horizontal`	Bars above the prompt input
`/prompt-rail vertical`	A pane beside the transcript
`/prompt-rail off`	Hide the rail
`/prompt-rail next`	Jump to the next prompt
`/prompt-rail prev`	Jump to the previous prompt
`/prompt-rail first`, `last`	Jump to the first or the newest prompt
`/prompt-rail 12`, `#12`	Jump to prompt #12
`/prompt-rail find <words>`	Jump to the newest prompt that holds the words
`/prompt-rail-next`, `/prompt-rail-prev`	Jump to the next or previous prompt, with no argument, for a keybinding
`/prompt-rail-toggle`	Hide the rail, or bring it back in the layout last on, with no argument, for a keybinding
`/prompt-rail`	Reopen the rail in the current layout

The layout is also the "Rail mode" row in /config, and it is kept across sessions.

Keyboard

Bind the step commands in ~/.claude/keybindings.json; they run mid-turn too:

{
  "bindings": [
    { "context": "Chat", "bindings": { "ctrl+k": "command:prompt-rail-prev", "meta+j": "command:prompt-rail-next" } }
  ]
}

In the horizontal layout, ctrl+x tab moves the focus to the bars: the ring starts on the prompt you are reading, ← → move it across the bars on screen and show its prompt, Enter jumps there, Esc returns to the prompt input.

Tick legend

Tick	Meaning
`━` `┃`	The prompt you are reading
`─` `│`	Any other prompt
`┄` `┆`	A prompt Claude Code refused to scroll to; `next` and `prev` skip it

How it works

From the transcript file to the rail

flowchart LR
  T[transcript .jsonl] -->|every prompt on the live branch| R[rail]
  S[rows on screen] -->|topmost row's prompt| R
  R -->|click, next/prev| J[scroll that prompt's row into view]

The rail lists the prompts of the live branch, so prompts abandoned with /rewind drop out, and prompts from before a resume are listed too. The prompt you are reading owns the topmost row on screen. The transcript is read again only when its size or time changed.

Limitations

Known limits

The mods API may still change between Claude Code releases.
The hover card with the turn summary is part of the horizontal rail.
The Claude desktop app draws the horizontal rail and its hover cards, but a click cannot jump there. The app gives a plugin no way to scroll its transcript, so the rail says so once a session. The prompt being read is named beside the bars rather than on the line above them, since the app paints a card over that line without hiding what is under it. Checked with Claude Code 2.1.280, the app did not draw the vertical pane.
The dock width is shared by all plugin panes; drag its edge to narrow it, down to 24 columns.
A /compact command's own row cannot be jumped to; its tick turns dotted after the first try.
Near the end of the transcript, next cannot scroll further.

Development

claude --plugin-dir plugins/prompt-rail        # load this checkout; saving reloads it
claude plugin validate plugins/prompt-rail
claude plugin test plugins/prompt-rail

Run /plugin-types .claude/types in a session here for type declarations. Bump the version in plugins/prompt-rail/.claude-plugin/plugin.json with each release, since installed copies update only when it changes.

The Claude directory listing tracks the release branch rather than main, so merged changes reach it only when a release is pushed there. After a Release PR merges, publish it with:

git push origin main:release

The directory picks the new commit up within about six hours and scans it before it goes live.

License

MIT

oikon48

PLUG IN

README