/session-lifecycle

The session bookends, codified — one skill that makes every repo start, run, and end sessions the same way. It bundles the Resume protocol (session start), the during-session reporting conventions, the end-of-session checklist, and the follow-on protocol into a single installable unit, composing the component skills (/catchup, /learn, /visual-brief, /create-issue) by reference. Natural-language cues like "resume", "let's start", "wrap up", or "close out the session" should route here.

This skill is a bundle head: it does not re-implement the components, it drives them. Where a component skill is not yet installed in this repo, the install-on-miss rule applies — run skill add <name> first, then invoke it.

Arguments

• $ARGUMENTS — optional subcommand:
  • start — run the session-start (Resume) protocol only.
  • end — run the end-of-session checklist only.
  • (empty) — infer from context: fresh session with no work done yet → start; work shipped and the user is wrapping up → end; otherwise ask which bookend is meant.

Instructions

Session start — the Resume protocol

Run these in order; each step re-derives state rather than trusting memory:

1. Conventions — read CLAUDE.md (project root). If the repo has none, note it and continue.
2. Working tree — git status && git log --oneline -5. Name anything dirty; never assume a clean tree.
3. Open PRs, split by author — the split matters so external contributions aren't lost before autonomous work starts:

   gh pr list --state open --author "@me"
   gh pr list --state open --search "-author:@me"

4. Skill drift — run /skill outdated and report any drifted skills (fix now only if the session will use them).
5. Prior-session state — if a handoff note, session ledger, or queue file exists (no handoff-note/session-ledger convention exists in this repo yet — for a marathon session use autonomous-session-<date>.md at the repo root (gitignored, never commit) per /tackle-issues and /prime-directive's convention), read the ledger's STATE header (not the full history) and the handoff TL;DR. /catchup is the component skill for reconstructing a prior session where installed.
6. Verify the last claimed merge — if the prior session's notes claim a merge, confirm it (gh pr view <n> reports MERGED) before building on it. State is re-derived, not trusted.

Then state, in one short block: branch/HEAD, dirty files, open PRs (mine/others), drifted skills, and what the session is picking up.

During the session

• Every user-facing message ends with a bold **Status:** line — one to three lines: done / in flight / blocked-on-named-thing. This is the global reporting rule in ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md ("End-of-message summary"); follow it from there — do not restate or fork it here. Subagents' final messages carry their own **Status:** line.
• Session boundaries — the global ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md "Session boundaries" section governs when to end this session and restart fresh (wave boundaries, ~150K main-thread context, second compaction, work-class switches). Follow it from there.

Session end — the checklist

Run in order; skip a step only by saying so with a reason:

1. Convergence note — write what shipped, what remains, and why each remaining item is blocked or deferred, into the closing chat message for ad-hoc sessions; autonomous-session-<date>.md's STATE header for a marathon session (see /tackle-issues).
2. Executive brief — for a session that shipped real work (several PRs/issues, an epic), run /visual-brief into the vault ($CLAUDE_BRIEF_DIR). Skip for small sessions — say so.
3. Capture learnings — run /learn for genuinely novel lessons; "nothing novel" is a valid outcome, stated.
4. Cleanup — remove this session's worktrees (leave other sessions' worktrees alone), prune branches only after verifying each had a MERGED PR, stop dev daemons/servers started this session, restore any test-env mutations (stop any dev daemons started this session (npx chroxy start, npx expo start, the mock server on :9876, a booted iOS simulator) — this repo has several long-running processes that outlive a session if not stopped explicitly; no test-env files get mutated during testing).
5. Final **Status:** line — the last message ends with the short status pointing at the brief (if one was produced) and naming anything left for the user.

Follow-on protocol (when a task completes and work remains)

The canonical rules live in ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md under "Follow-on protocol" — fold-in vs file-an-issue vs comment-and-skip. Follow them from there; this skill deliberately does not duplicate the text, so the global file stays the single source of truth. The one repo-local hook: filing a scoped follow-up goes through /create-issue where installed.

Component skills (the bundle)

Component	Role	If missing
/catchup	Reconstruct prior-session state at start	skill add catchup
/visual-brief	End-of-session HTML executive brief	skill add visual-brief
/learn	Persist novel lessons at end	skill add learn
/create-issue	File scoped follow-on issues	skill add create-issue

Installing session-lifecycle should be followed by installing any missing components in the same pass — the bundle head without its components is a checklist that can't execute.