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model: haiku name: Claude Code Hooks Configuration description: Configure Claude Code lifecycle hooks with proper timeout settings to prevent hook cancellation errors. allowed-tools: Bash, Read, Write, Edit, Grep, Glob, TodoWrite created: 2025-12-27 modified: 2025-12-27 reviewed: 2025-12-27

Claude Code Hooks Configuration

Core Expertise

Configure Claude Code lifecycle hooks (SessionStart, SessionEnd, Stop, PreToolUse, PostToolUse) with proper timeout settings to prevent "Hook cancelled" errors during session management.

Hook Types

Common Issue: Hook Cancelled Error

CopySessionEnd hook [bash ~/.claude/session-logger.sh] failed: Hook cancelled

Root cause: Hook execution exceeds the 60-second default timeout.

Solutions (in order of preference):

1. Background subshell - Run slow operations in background, exit immediately
2. Explicit timeout - Add timeout field to hook configuration

Hook Configuration

Location

Hooks are configured in .claude/settings.json:

• User-level: ~/.claude/settings.json
• Project-level: <project>/.claude/settings.json

Structure with Timeout

Copy{
  "hooks": {
    "SessionEnd": [
      {
        "matcher": "",
        "hooks": [
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "~/.claude/session-logger.sh",
            "timeout": 120
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "SessionStart": [
      {
        "matcher": "",
        "hooks": [
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "~/.claude/session-setup.sh",
            "timeout": 180
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "Stop": [
      {
        "matcher": "",
        "hooks": [
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "~/.claude/stop-hook-git-check.sh",
            "timeout": 30
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Timeout Guidelines

Fixing Timeout Issues

Recommended: Background Subshell Pattern

The most portable and robust solution is to run slow operations in a background subshell and exit immediately:

Copy#!/bin/bash
# ~/.claude/session-logger.sh
# Exits instantly, work continues in background

(
  # All slow operations go here
  echo "$(date): Session ended" >> ~/.claude/session.log
  curl -s -X POST "https://api.example.com/log" -d "session_end=$(date)"
  # Any other slow work...
) &>/dev/null &

exit 0

Why this works:

• ( ) creates a subshell for the commands
• & runs the subshell in background
• &>/dev/null prevents stdout/stderr from blocking
• exit 0 returns success immediately

Comparison of approaches:

Alternative: Increase Timeout

If you need synchronous execution, add explicit timeout to settings:

Copycat ~/.claude/settings.json | jq '.hooks'
# Edit to add "timeout": <seconds> to each hook

Script Optimization Patterns

Related: Starship Timeout

If you see:

Copy[WARN] - (starship::utils): Executing command "...node" timed out.

This is a separate starship issue. Fix by adding to ~/.config/starship.toml:

Copycommand_timeout = 1000  # 1 second (default is 500ms)

For slow node version detection:

Copy[nodejs]
disabled = false
detect_files = ["package.json"]  # Skip .nvmrc to speed up detection

[command]
command_timeout = 2000  # Increase if still timing out

Agentic Optimizations

Quick Reference

Error Handling

Best Practices

1. Use background subshell - Wrap slow operations in ( ) &>/dev/null & and exit 0
2. Set explicit timeouts - Add timeout field for hooks requiring synchronous execution
3. Test hook timing - Use time bash ~/.claude/script.sh to measure execution
4. Redirect all output - Use &>/dev/null to prevent blocking on stdout/stderr
5. Apply /hooks menu - Use Claude Code's hook menu to reload settings after changes