j-resume - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: j-resume description: Write a paste-back resume note for the next session, especially before container recreate, image rebuild, or any context handoff.

/j-resume

Produce a paste-back-ready note at scratch/resume-session.md so the next session bootstraps with current state intact.

This is the ephemeral-handoff complement to /j-save-state (which persists durable knowledge to denote notes and TODO.org). Use both when ending a session with shippable work; use /j-resume alone when there's nothing denote-worthy but state-of-play matters for the next bootstrap.

Arguments

[focus] — optional phrase emphasizing what to highlight ("rebuild prep", "post-PR", "before mosh restart"). Without focus, summarize the whole session.

Instructions

1. Read the prior resume note

scratch/resume-session.md may already exist. Read it. Items under Still outstanding / parked should usually carry forward verbatim unless this session resolved them. The prior note is your starting point; update, don't restart.

2. Gather current state

git status and git diff --stat — what's uncommitted
git log --oneline -n 5 — what shipped this session
TODO.org top items connected to the recent work (rg -n "^\*+ (TODO|NEXT|INPROGRESS)" docs/TODO.org | head -10)
Anything you specifically verified working this session — envs, processes, ports, sockets, services. These become the verify commands in step 3.

3. Write the note

Overwrite scratch/resume-session.md with these sections:

Header — one line: "Resuming. State at end of last session (YYYY-MM-DD)" with today's date.
Branch / commit context — current branch, clean or dirty, what's uncommitted, recent shipped commits (short hashes + subjects).
What changed this session — short bullets per change, each with WHY, not what.
Re-verify after [handoff event] (one batch) — concrete shell commands to re-confirm the things you specifically verified. Copy-paste block. Include expected output where useful.
Still outstanding (parked, do NOT redo) — items not addressed this session but worth knowing. Carry forward from prior resume note plus anything new discovered. Strike items resolved this session.
Don't — rabbit holes / tangents to avoid without explicit go-ahead. Carry forward from prior note plus anything new this session warned off.

Format: markdown. Tight prose, focused bulleting where it helps.

4. Print confirmation

After writing, output:

Resume note saved to scratch/resume-session.md — paste this into the next session.

Nothing else.

Rules

Read-only on the repo except for scratch/resume-session.md. No commits, no docs/ edits, no TODO.org changes. That's /j-save-state's job.
Don't duplicate save-state. If durable knowledge surfaced this session, suggest the user run /j-save-state alongside — but don't run it yourself unless asked.
Carry forward parked items verbatim unless this session resolved them. Future-you needs the same warnings that current-you was given.
Concrete verify commands. Vague "make sure X works" is useless — paste the actual command. If you didn't verify it this session, don't put it in the verify block.
Date format: use today's actual date (check date +%Y-%m-%d if unsure), not a relative phrase.
No fluff. This file is read once and discarded. Keep it under ~80 lines.