[eric-engberg]

What

When the TUI can't change Claude Code's settings.json, it now reports a failure instead of claiming success:

• Uninstall. If settings.json can't be read or parsed, Uninstall fails with "✗ Uninstall failed". The TUI stays installed and the global npm/bun package is left alone. Before this change, npm uninstall -g / bun remove -g ran anyway and the TUI flashed "✓ Uninstalled from Claude Code and removed global package", while statusLine, the managed --hook hooks and the installation metadata were all still there. Uninstall also fails now when statusLine is already gone but the managed --hook hooks are still in a settings.json that can't be written, for example a read-only one. That failure used to be ignored, so the package was removed and the hooks were left running it. A hook entry in a shape Claude Code doesn't expect, such as one written by hand, is left as it is and no longer stops the cleanup.
• Refresh Interval. If settings.json can't be read or parsed, or no longer has a statusLine, Configure Status Line shows "✗ Failed to save refresh interval" and keeps the value that is still in effect. Before, it flashed "✓ Refresh interval updated" and showed the new value although nothing was written.

Why (evidence)

Both writers caught the failure and returned normally:

• uninstallStatusLine printed "Warning: Could not read existing Claude settings." and returned. It also ignored any failure to remove the managed hooks, which is the only write to settings.json when statusLine is already gone.
• setRefreshInterval returned without a word when the read failed and when there was no statusLine.

The TUI treats a normal return as success. It only takes its existing failure paths ("✗ Uninstall failed", "✗ Failed to save refresh interval") when the call rejects, so these cases never reached them.

The TUI reads settings.json once at startup, and only offers Uninstall and Configure Status Line if the file parsed and had our statusLine. So hitting this takes the file changing while the TUI is open, for example a hand edit saved with a trailing comma in another window. Reproduced on main, as an Ink test and in the demo below:

• Uninstall (pinned npm install, trailing comma added with the confirm dialog open):
  • The warning lands on top of the TUI and npm uninstall -g ccstatusline runs.
  • The flash reads "✓ Uninstalled from Claude Code and removed global package" and the menu switches to "📦 Install to Claude Code".
  • settings.json is unchanged. Once its JSON is fixed, statusLine.command is still ccstatusline, the binary that was just removed, so Claude Code shows a blank status line. The --hook hooks point at it too.
  • The settings-only options said "✓ Uninstalled from Claude Code" while removing nothing.
• Refresh Interval (refreshInterval: 10; the file given a trailing comma, or rewritten without statusLine): "✓ Refresh interval updated" and "(15s)", while settings.json still says 10.

installStatusLine already refuses to touch an unreadable settings.json (#627), and the TUI reports that as "Install Failed". Uninstall and Refresh Interval now do the same.

How

• In claude-settings.ts, the read guard installStatusLine had inline moves into loadClaudeSettingsForUpdate(retry). It throws "Could not read existing Claude settings at (). The file was left unchanged; fix or remove it, then ." Install, uninstall and setRefreshInterval use it; install's message is unchanged.
• uninstallStatusLine throws before removing anything, so the metadata and hooks stay in place. It now removes statusLine and the managed hooks in one write, before it clears the metadata, so a failure to save rejects with both still in the file and the metadata kept. With neither in the file it doesn't write at all, so Uninstall still goes ahead when statusLine is already gone and no managed hooks are left, even if the file can't be written, since nothing would be left pointing at the binary. The .bak copy now holds the file as it was before the uninstall.
• The hook cleanup leaves alone what isn't ours: an event whose value isn't a list, an entry that isn't an object, or an entry whose hooks isn't a list. Before, such an entry threw a TypeError, which uninstall ignored.
• setRefreshInterval also throws when there is no statusLine, including when clearing the interval: the TUI's idea that ccstatusline is installed is out of date in that state.
• The TUI code is unchanged; its existing failure paths handle both cases. For Uninstall the catch runs before any settings were removed, so it skips the global package removal, shows "✗ Uninstall failed" and stays on the uninstall screen. For Refresh Interval the .catch puts the previous value back.
• The stderr warning that used to land on top of the TUI is gone.

Demo

The TUI runs in the top of a tmux split. The shell below adds a trailing comma to ~/.claude/settings.json mid-session. npm is a stub that only records npm uninstall -g ccstatusline.

Uninstall. Before: the warning bleeds in, "✓ Uninstalled from Claude Code and removed global package", and the stub log shows npm ran. After: "✗ Uninstall failed", it stays on the uninstall screen, and npm never runs.

Powerline

Before:

After:

Plain

Before:

After:

Refresh Interval. Before: "✓ Refresh interval updated" and "(15s)" on reopening, while the file still says 10. After: "✗ Failed to save refresh interval", "(10s)" on reopening, and the file is unchanged.

Powerline

Before:

After:

Plain

Before:

After:

Testing

• On main as of fix(powerline): keep the Custom theme when Powerline is enabled again #793 (a0bedc0): it merges cleanly. bun run lint is clean, and bun test gives 4155 pass, 0 fail (4147 on main). The built CLI under Bun 1.4.4 and Node 26.13.0 agrees across runtimes and matches main in plain and Powerline mode, and the TUI opens and exits cleanly under both. It adds no JavaScript or Node API newer than Node 14, the build's target.
• 11 tests fail on main and pass here:
  • claude-settings.test.ts: 3 changed, 4 new. Uninstall rejects and leaves the file and metadata alone, both when the file can't be parsed and when managed hooks are left in a read-only file. With neither statusLine nor managed hooks in a read-only file, Uninstall resolves, clears the metadata and doesn't try to rewrite the file. Uninstall keeps hook entries it doesn't recognize, and its .bak copy is the file from before the uninstall. setRefreshInterval rejects on an unreadable file and on a missing statusLine.
  • App.test.ts: 4 new Ink tests. Uninstall shows "✗ Uninstall failed", never calls the global uninstall, and leaves the file, the metadata and the installed state alone. That holds with a settings.json that no longer parses, and with a read-only one that has lost its statusLine but kept the managed hooks. Refresh Interval with an unparseable file or no statusLine shows the failure flash, keeps "(10s)" and leaves the file unchanged.
• Node vitest on the two changed files: 135 pass / 11 fail here, 127 / 11 on main. The same 11 tests fail on both (spying on node:child_process execSync isn't allowed under Node ESM). hooks.test.ts, whose source changed, passes 7 / 7 on both.