Show HN: A Claude Code plugin that plays a song and shows a startup card

A developer released a Claude Code plugin called startup-song that plays a random 10-second song clip and displays a startup card each time Claude Code launches. The plugin rotates through three genres by default (pop, hip hop, retro hits), pulls a random track from the top 10 iTunes Search API results, and shows a card with coding streak, repo status (branch, changed files, ahead/behind, last commit) and a Wikipedia on-this-day event, using zero tokens since it makes no model call. It installs via `/plugin install startup-song --marketplace heyyviv/claude-boot-beats`, runs only on macOS because playback uses `afplay`, and stays silent on Linux and Windows.

A Claude Code plugin that plays a few seconds of a random song every time you start Claude Code. - Rotates through genres, one per session: pop → hip hop → retro hits → pop … - For each one, it searches the iTunes Search API https://performance-partners.apple.com/search-api free, no key and plays a random song from the top 10 results. - Shows a startup card above the prompt while it plays: - Coding streak : days in a row you've started Claude Code - Repo status : branch, changed files, ahead/behind, last commit - On this day : one event from Wikipedia's on-this-day feed https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest v1/ grim ones skipped - The card goes away when the song ends. Press Esc at an empty prompt to stop it early. /today opens the card again. - Uses zero tokens : no model call, just two web requests, two local git commands and an audio clip. Audio is Apple's official 30-second preview of each track; nothing is downloaded or stored. /plugin install startup-song --marketplace heyyviv/claude-boot-beats Or try it from a local copy: claude --plugin-dir ./claude-startup-song Change these in /config : | Setting | Default | What it does | |---|---|---| | genres | pop, hip hop, retro hits | Comma-separated search words, used in turn | | seconds | 10 | How long to play max 30 | - macOS playback uses afplay . On Linux/Windows the plugin stays silent. - Internet at startup. Offline, it simply plays nothing.