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name: session-opening description: > Re-orient to session context on demand. Loads companion skills (beads, todoist-gtd) based on what's present. Use when you missed the startup context, want a fresh look at what's available, or after cd'ing to a different project. Triggers on /open, 'what were we working on', 'where did we leave off'. Pairs with /ground and /close. (user) user-invocable: false

/open

Interpret context and load companion skills.

When to Use

Context is surfaced automatically at session start via hook. The hook provides data; this skill provides behavior.

Use /open for:

• Re-orientation — "Show me the context again"
• Skill loading — Ensures beads/todoist-gtd patterns are available
• After directory change — Context is project-specific; if you cd'd, context may differ

Prerequisites

Before running /open, verify infrastructure is healthy. Silent failures here cause downstream confusion.

Quick pre-flight:

Copy[ -x ~/.claude/scripts/open-context.sh ] && echo "OK" || echo "BROKEN: open-context.sh missing"

If pre-flight fails, STOP and diagnose before proceeding. See ~/Repos/claude-advanced/references/ERROR_PATTERNS.md for common issues.

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Structure

CopyPrerequisites → Verify infrastructure
Gate          → Load required companion skills
Gather        → Script output (already present from hook, or re-run if needed)
Orient        → Synthesize what matters
Decide        → User picks direction
Act           → Draw-down to TodoWrite

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1. Gate: Load Companion Skills

Before synthesizing, load skills based on what's present. Do not proceed until loaded.

Beads is mandatory when present. The draw-down pattern (bead → TodoWrite checkpoints) is where drift gets caught. Without it, Claude works from bead directly → no checkpoints → drift compounds.

Todoist-gtd is conditional. Offer it when relevant, don't load by default.

Skill loading bias (Jan 2026 learning): Loading todoist-gtd primes Claude to think about "where work belongs" (Todoist vs bd). This caused misinterpretation when user said "refactor beads into proper epics" — Claude proposed moving to Todoist instead of organizing within bd. When todoist-gtd is loaded, stay anchored to the user's explicit tool references ("the beads", "in bd").

Memory is optional. Offer when user seems confused about history, not by default.

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2. Gather

Pattern: Notifications to stdout, content on disk.

Hook output at session start shows what exists:

Copy📋 Handoffs: 9 available, latest 23h ago
   Index: ~/.claude/.session-context/<encoded-cwd>/handoffs.txt
📦 Beads: 8 ready
   Context: ~/.claude/.session-context/<encoded-cwd>/beads.txt
📰 News: available
   File: ~/.claude/.update-news

Context files are per-project. The <encoded-cwd> is the working directory with / and . replaced by - (e.g., -Users-modha-Repos-claude-suite).

To get actual content, read the files:

To compute the path: echo "$(pwd -P)" | tr '/.' '-' → use as subdirectory name.

Missing or Stale Context

If context files don't exist for current directory, regenerate them:

Copy~/.claude/scripts/open-context.sh

This happens when:

• Session started in a different directory (hook ran there, not here)
• First time in this project
• After cd'ing to a different project mid-session

Check first: [ -d ~/.claude/.session-context/$(pwd -P | tr '/.' '-') ]

Script Failure Handling

If the script fails (exit code 127 = file not found, or any other error):

1. STOP. Do not continue with partial context.
2. Tell the user: "The open-context.sh script failed. This usually means a broken symlink."
3. Diagnose: Run ~/.claude/scripts/check-symlinks.sh to identify the issue.

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3. Orient

Read files based on what notifications indicate, then synthesize.

Reading Pattern

First, compute the context directory:

CopyCONTEXT_DIR=~/.claude/.session-context/$(pwd -P | tr '/.' '-')

Then read:

1. Check handoff index — read $CONTEXT_DIR/handoffs.txt (if missing, run ~/.claude/scripts/open-context.sh first)
2. Read most recent handoff — path is in the index, read the actual .md file
3. Check beads context — read $CONTEXT_DIR/beads.txt for hierarchy + ready
4. News if relevant — read ~/.claude/.update-news if user asks or it's actionable

Synthesize What Matters

• Handoff — Done, Next, Gotchas from previous session
• Beads hierarchy — from beads.txt, show directly to user
• Beads ready — what's unblocked
• Commands — if handoff has a Commands section, offer to run them
• Scope mismatches — if handoff "Next" doesn't match ready beads, flag it

Orphaned Local Handoffs

When stdout shows orphaned .handoff* files:

1. Tell the user: "Found local .handoff* files — these are invisible to /open"
2. Offer to rescue: "Want me to move them to the central location?"
3. If yes: mv .handoff* ~/.claude/handoffs/<encoded-path>/

Multiple Handoffs

When handoff index shows multiple entries, present choices to user:

CopyAskUserQuestion([{
  header: "Handoff",
  question: "Multiple handoffs found. Which workstream to continue?",
  options: [
    { label: "9ac230b1", description: "23h ago — Removed --local bypass..." },
    { label: "a6317919", description: "yesterday — Added raw_text to FTS..." },
    { label: "Start fresh", description: "Ignore existing handoffs" }
  ],
  multiSelect: false
}])

Then read the selected handoff file.

Single Handoff (default)

Read the handoff, present concisely: "Previous session did X. Next suggested: Y. Z beads ready."

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4. Decide

User picks direction. Options typically:

• Continue with handoff "Next"
• Pick from ready beads
• @Claude inbox items
• Something else

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5. Act: Draw-Down

Draw-down triggers on ALL substantial work, not just explicit bead claims.

Explicit bead selection

When user picks a bead to work on:

1. bd show <bead-id> --json — read design and acceptance criteria
2. Create TodoWrite items from acceptance criteria
3. Show user: "Breaking this down into: [list]. Sound right?"
4. Mark bead in_progress: bd update <id> --status in_progress

Continuation phrases

When user says "continue X", "keep going", "pick up where we left off":

1. Clarify scope: "Which bead? Epic nzr (broad goal) or subtask nzr.1 (specific task)?"
2. Read the bead's acceptance criteria
3. Create TodoWrite items — this catches scope gaps before work begins
4. Proceed with checkpoints

Failure mode (Jan 2026): User said "continue backfill" → Claude continued existing code without checking epic scope → discovered an hour later that "complete pass" meant more than file attachments.

External briefs

When user provides a spec, brief, or requirements from elsewhere:

1. Extract acceptance criteria from the brief
2. Create TodoWrite items from those criteria
3. Show user: "I'm reading this as: [list]. Right?"
4. Proceed with checkpoints

Failure mode: User provided brief from another Claude → work completed → "fix" didn't work → second debugging phase had no TodoWrite → drift.

Ambiguous references

When user says "the email thing", "that feature", or similar:

1. Don't guess. Ask: "Do you mean bead X (description) or Y (description)?"
2. Once clarified, do full draw-down

The test

If the work will take >10 minutes, it needs TodoWrite items.

No TodoWrite items = No checkpoints = Drift compounds.

Full draw-down patterns live in the beads skill — that's why gate-loading it matters.

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Mirrors (GODAR)