session-pickup

Resume a prior session with zero loss and zero false confidence. Pairs with session-end (which wrote the snapshot). Your job is to rehydrate and reconcile — then hand control back to the operator at the right decision point, not to barrel ahead.

Operating principle: a handoff is a SNAPSHOT — trust, then verify

The handoff was true when written. Between then and now, things may have moved: commits landed, the branch changed, another session advanced or abandoned the in-progress work, files were renamed. Never resume blindly on the handoff's word — reconcile it against current reality first. This is the inverse of session-end's "ground in artifacts": there you grounded the summary; here you ground the resume.

Step 1 — Locate the handoff

• Default: the newest file in <project-root>/.claude/handoffs/ (prefer the full handoff doc; also read

its companion continuation-prompt file if one exists). Use git rev-parse --show-toplevel to find root.

• Accept an optional arg: a path or a slug to pick a specific handoff.
• If none found: say so plainly. Offer to (a) proceed cold from a stated goal, or (b) check

chat-history-search for a prior session. Do not fabricate a handoff.

Step 2 — Read tiered (honor the handoff's own tiers; don't over-read)

Read the handoff in full first. Then read only what it marks must-read; respect its read-on-demand list (pull those only if Step 3 or the task implicates them). Over-reading here re-creates the exact context-bloat the handoff existed to prevent.

Step 3 — Reconcile with current reality (the safety core)

Gather and compare against the handoff:

• git log --oneline -20 (+ since the handoff's date) — what landed since it was written?
• git status --short and current branch — does the branch match the handoff's? Uncommitted work?
• For each artifact / in-progress item the handoff cites: does the file still exist? has it changed

since the handoff (mtime / diff)? was the "in-progress" work since committed, advanced, or abandoned?

• Re-check each open verification debt / assumption — is it still open, or was it resolved?

Produce a short drift report: unchanged (handoff still accurate) · advanced (work moved forward — adjust the next step) · conflicts (reality contradicts the handoff — STOP and surface it). Never silently resume past a conflicts.

Step 4 — Re-establish working state

• Rebuild the TodoWrite list from the handoff's in-progress + next-step, adjusted for any drift.
• Restate the settled constraints to HONOR and the open verification debts (carry assumptions as

assumptions — do not promote them to fact just because a prior session wrote them down).

• Note explicitly what NOT to redo (the handoff's done/settled items).

Step 5 — Orient + confirm (don't auto-execute)

Present a tight orientation: where we are · what changed since the handoff · the immediate next action. Then:

• If the handoff's next action carries a STOP / approval gate (e.g. "deliver review findings, then

wait"), honor it — stop at that gate.

• Before any side-effecting work, confirm with the operator ("resume from here?"). For a clean

unchanged drift report and a read-only next step, you may begin immediately and say so.

Safety + quality gate

• Read-only to the repo (+ TodoWrite). Pickup orients; it does not change files or commit.
• Distinguish handoff-claims from pickup-verified in your orientation — label what you confirmed

against current state vs. what you're taking on the handoff's word.

• A conflicts drift finding always halts for the operator — resuming on stale state is the failure mode

this skill exists to prevent.

Complements

session-end writes the snapshot this reads. chat-history-search recovers older sessions with no handoff file. pattern-retrospective mines many sessions; session-pickup resumes exactly one.