Claude Code startup hook exceeded its 10,000-character cap, so most pickup notes never loaded

A developer running several projects with Claude Code kept a per-project 'what to do next' file, which a SessionStart hook passed into every new conversation. Measuring the files revealed they had grown to about 530 KB, far beyond the hook's 10,000-character output limit. Records showed the combined output was over that limit for as long as they were tracked, meaning little of the content reached the conversation's context. The developer verified the problem by asking a fresh session to repeat the heading, which the fixed hook made possible. The revised hook now extracts only one prioritized line per project, sorted by recent modification, while full text remains in each file.