context-catch-up

name: context-catch-up description: Catch up a new agent or resumed session from context-harness files before planning or editing. user-invocable: true allowed-tools: "Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Glob, Grep"

Context Catch-Up

Use this when starting or resuming work in a repository that already has context-harness files.

Compatibility Check

Before ordinary catch-up, quickly inspect AGENTS.md, CONTEXT.md, and NOW.md for:

• <!-- context-harness:schema v2 --> or <!-- context-harness:schema v3 --> in generated context files.
• A small AGENTS.md Context Contract plus generated Context Index.
• Required CONTEXT.md sections: Project, Structure, Rules, Workflow, Language, Relationships, Flagged Ambiguities, Learned Patterns.
• A non-empty NOW.md with current focus, blockers, immediate next step, and touched files.

If files are old, empty, partial, or missing the schema marker, report the drift in the catch-up summary. Repair it only when the user asks, when the current task requires reliable project context, or when the edit is a narrow index/script refresh. Prefer model-led edits that preserve local instructions over broad rewrites. If repairing, refresh runtime scripts, run node scripts/context-index.js update, and continue with the normal catch-up.

Read Order

1. Read NOW.md first.
2. Use AGENTS.md Context Index to choose relevant CONTEXT.md sections.
3. If there is no index yet, read CONTEXT.md enough to run Compatibility Upgrade.
4. If present, skim active PLAN.md sections.
5. If the project already uses ADRs, skim only the ADR titles/dates relevant to the current task.

Output

Give the user a short catch-up summary:

• Current focus
• Active blockers
• Immediate next step
• Rules or terms that matter for the requested task
• Any uncertainty that should be resolved before editing

Guardrails

• Do not rewrite context files during catch-up unless running Compatibility Upgrade or capturing a durable correction from the user.
• Do not summarize raw external content into CONTEXT.md; route task-local discoveries to PLAN.md when work begins.
• Keep the summary short enough that it helps the next action, not replaces it.