claude-code - 💡(How to fix) Fix Feature request: show absolute timestamps in inline status lines (not just elapsed duration) [2 comments, 2 participants]

Problem

When working with multiple Claude Code sessions in parallel across many terminals, the inline status indicators show only elapsed duration:

✻ Brewed for 50s
Worked for 8m 14s
● Mark task #6 complete.

This makes it hard to orient in time after switching between consoles. "Worked for 8m 14s" tells me how long something took, but not WHEN it happened. After switching back to a terminal that's been idle for a while, I can't tell at a glance whether the last action was 2 minutes or 2 hours ago — and "8 minutes from when?" is impossible to answer without context. Worse, sessions often span multiple days (left running overnight, picked up next morning), so a pure clock time like 14:22 is also ambiguous.

Proposed solution

Add a setting (e.g. "timestampFormat": "absolute" | "duration" in settings.json, or a CLI flag) that switches inline indicators to absolute wall-clock timestamps with full date:

✻ Brewed at 2026-05-19 14:22
Worked at 2026-05-19 14:22 (took 8m 14s)
● Mark task #6 complete at 2026-05-19 14:30

Format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM is preferred over just HH:MM:SS because sessions frequently span multiple days. Either replacing the elapsed duration entirely, or appending the wall-clock timestamp alongside it, would work.

Why this matters

Real workflow: developers running 10+ Claude Code instances across projects often lose track of which session was last active and when. Sessions can also span days (left idle overnight, resumed next morning). A full wall-clock timestamp solves orientation instantly without needing to glance at the system clock or compute "8 minutes ago from when?" — and without ambiguity about which day an event happened.

Workarounds tried

• Custom status line with date — shows current time, but not the time of each past action.
• showTurnDuration: false — hides the duration but doesn't replace it with anything useful.

Neither addresses the actual need: knowing when each step happened.