Feature Request: Add /reloadSettings command to reload configuration without restart

[NightMachinery]

Feature Request: /reloadSettings slash command

Summary

Add a /reloadSettings slash command that reloads the settings.json configuration without requiring a full Claude Code restart.

Proposed Usage

/reloadSettings    # Reloads all settings from settings.json files

Current Problem

When making changes to settings.json (user, project, or enterprise level), users must:

1. Exit Claude Code (Ctrl+D or Ctrl+C)
2. Restart Claude Code
3. Wait for initialization

This interrupts workflow and loses conversation context when tweaking settings like permissions, hooks, or other configurations.

Expected Behavior

• Reload all settings.json files in precedence order (user → project → enterprise)
• Apply new permissions, hooks, and other configurations immediately
• Preserve current conversation context and history
• Show confirmation message indicating settings were reloaded
• Handle any errors gracefully (invalid JSON, permission conflicts, etc.)

Use Cases

• Iterating on permission configurations during development
• Testing different hook configurations
• Adjusting timeout settings without losing context
• Quick experimentation with new settings
• Collaborative development where settings change frequently

Implementation Notes

• Should validate settings before applying (prevent broken configurations)
• Should handle partial failures gracefully
• Could show a diff of what changed (optional)
• Should work with all setting types (permissions, hooks, timeouts, etc.)
• Consider adding a confirmation prompt for potentially disruptive changes

This would significantly improve the developer experience when working with Claude Code configurations.

[christiangenco]

I want this for automatic theme switching when my system changes from light to dark mode or vice versa.

On macOS I wrote a system for updating the themes of my terminal apps with current system theme when the theme changes. I have this sytem working with the ~/.claude/settings.json file to update Claude Code's theme but currently Claude has to be reloaded for the change to take effect.

My ideal solution here would be that claude just listens to changes in its settings file and reloads them automatically (this is how Alacritty works) but I suppose if I could call something like claude -p "/reloadSettings" and have that trigger reloads in all active claude processes that'd be fine too (this is similar to how I have to do it in tmux).

[jenko]

Expand scope to include slash commands and hooks

I'd love to see this /reloadSettings command expanded to also reload:

• Slash commands from .claude/commands/*.md
• Hooks from .claude/hooks/*
• Pretty much anything that requires a restart

Use Case

When developing custom slash commands and hooks, the current workflow is painful:

1. Create/edit a command file (e.g., .claude/commands/dogit_merge.md)
2. Test it in Claude Code
3. Find an issue or want to refine the behavior
4. Edit the command file
5. Restart entire Claude Code session (losing all context)
6. Re-explain the codebase and current work
7. Test again

This makes iterative development of custom workflows incredibly tedious.

Proposed Enhancement

A comprehensive /reloadSettings command that refreshes:

• ✅ Settings (.claude/settings.json) - already covered by this issue
• ✅ Slash commands (.claude/commands/*.md) - addition
• ✅ Hooks (.claude/hooks/*) - addition

All while preserving conversation context.

Example Output

User: /reloadSettings

Claude: 🔄 Reloading Claude Code configuration...

✅ Reloaded settings.json
✅ Reloaded slash commands:

• /dogit
• /dogit_merge
• /dogit_del
  ✅ Reloaded hooks:
• PostToolUse: ruff_check.sh

Configuration successfully reloaded. Context preserved.

This would eliminate the context-loss friction when building custom Claude Code workflows and make the platform significantly more developer-friendly for
extensibility.

+1 for this feature with expanded scope! 🚀

[efrazier]

It is only sensible to want this for anyone working on hooks. The number of restarts I have had to do is insane, just fiddling with syntax and parsing data. Being able to replay events would be pretty cool as well. So each time I want to test a hook, I have to do more stuff to make that data for testing.

[memetican]

+1 and glad to see I wasn't going crazy.

[rcgalbo]

+1+1

[kieranklaassen]

Yes, please.