statusline-command.sh silently shows empty defaults when jq is missing (common on fresh Linux/WSL installs)

[MHoroszowski]

Summary

On a fresh Ubuntu 24.04 / WSL2 install, jq is not present by default. statusline-command.sh depends on jq for every piece of data it displays — parsing stdin from Claude Code, reading settings.json, extracting model/context/cost/version info, counts, weather, location, etc.

Because every jq invocation in the script is defensively wrapped in 2>/dev/null with fallback defaults, a missing jq produces silent, confusing degradation instead of a loud error. The status line renders successfully but every field shows its empty default:

LOC: Unknown,
ENV: CC: 2.1.104 | PAI:— ALG:—
CONTEXT: 0%
PWD: (empty)
MEMORY: 0 Work | 0 Ratings | 0 Sessions | 0 Research
LEARNING: No ratings yet

Users understandably assume the status line is broken. In my case I spent time investigating Claude Code's refresh cadence, tty detection, and WSL rendering before checking which jq and finding it wasn't installed. Once I ran sudo apt-get install -y jq, every field populated correctly on the next refresh.

Platform

• Ubuntu 24.04 on WSL2 (Windows 11)
• Claude Code 2.1.104
• PAI v4.0.3

Reproduction

1. Fresh Ubuntu / WSL2 install (or any Linux env without jq preinstalled)
2. Install PAI normally
3. Open Claude Code
4. Observe the status line shows empty defaults for every field
5. which jq returns nothing

Suggested fixes (in order of increasing scope)

1. Minimal: Add a loud check at the top of statusline-command.sh that prints a clear single-line error if jq isn't on PATH, e.g.:

   if ! command -v jq >/dev/null 2>&1; then
     echo "PAI statusline: jq not found. Install with: sudo apt-get install -y jq (or brew install jq)"
     exit 0
   fi

   This turns a silent failure into an actionable one-line message.

2. Better: Have install.sh check for and install hard dependencies on Linux, mirroring what most users have on macOS via Homebrew. In practice the full list for a functional PAI install on Ubuntu/WSL is approximately:

   • jq (statusline parsing — this issue)
   • mpg123 and/or ffmpeg (VoiceServer audio playback — see VoiceServer: afplay (macOS-only) breaks audio on Linux — silent failure #855 and PR fix(VoiceServer): cross-platform audio playback in playAudio() #1061)
   • poppler-utils (PDF reading via Read tool)
     These are all one-line apt installs.

3. Most complete: Add a bin/check-dependencies.sh that runs at SessionStart via hook, validates all hard dependencies, and warns the user once with a copy-pasteable install command for their distro.

I'm happy to submit a PR for option (1) immediately — it's a ~5-line change and turns an opaque failure into an actionable one. Options (2) and (3) are bigger conversations.

Related

• PR fix(VoiceServer): cross-platform audio playback in playAudio() #1061 — cross-platform audio playback (same pattern: silent fallback on Linux)
• PR feat(notifications): add Pushcut as a notification channel #1062 — Pushcut notification channel
• Issue VoiceServer: afplay (macOS-only) breaks audio on Linux — silent failure #855 — VoiceServer afplay missing on Linux