start

name	start
description	Open a working session — orient to where work was left off, run a structured interview on a greenfield repo, check the context gauge to confirm it's really session-start, then recommend planning with context already warm. The opening bookend to /wrap. Use when the user says "let's start", "pick up where we left off", "what were we doing", "start a session", or invokes /start.
allowed-tools	Bash, Read, Grep, Glob, TaskList, TaskGet, AskUserQuestion

Start — open the session

Open a working session by getting oriented first, then handing the operator a warm runway into planning. This is the on-demand opening bookend to wrap: wrap reads the context gauge to confirm the session is near its end; start reads the same gauge to confirm it's near its beginning.

Step 0 — Read the gauge, and guard the beginning

Before anything else, confirm this really is a start:

ways context --json   # used / total tokens, pct filled

Starting is a beginning-of-session act. Locate the fill level:

• Early (well below the curves — e.g. under ~30%): the expected state. Proceed.
• Mid/late (half or more of the window spent): dissuade, don't pretend. Opening fresh work deep into a used window strands it against the next compaction. Say so plainly, and offer the better move: /wrap if a piece just finished, or /clear and a fresh window if switching tasks. Only continue a start here if the operator insists.

Step 1 — Read the state (where did we leave off?)

Assess in parallel — the opening move depends entirely on what you find:

git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree 2>/dev/null   # a repo at all?
git status --short
git branch --show-current
git log --oneline -5

Also check for continuity markers: the TaskList (via the tool), any tracking files under .claude/, and the CLAUDE.md where this was invoked. tracking(meta) is the discipline here — check for existing tracking before beginning anything.

Step 2 — Branch on what you found

• Work in flight (uncommitted changes, an open branch, live TaskList tasks) → this is a resume, not a cold start. Summarize where things stand and what the next concrete step is. Read the TaskList to square your understanding before proposing work — mutating it is the job of /wrap and /develop, not start.
• Clean main, prior history → a fresh piece of work in an established project. Read CLAUDE.md and recent history for the project's shape; propose candidate directions grounded in what the repo is.
• Greenfield (empty repo, or no repo) → nothing to pick up. Do not invent a plausible task. Go to Step 3.

Step 3 — Greenfield: structured interview

When there's nothing to resume, the referent of "let's start" is itself the uncertainty — name it, don't hunt for it. Interview the operator, structured (AskUserQuestion where it helps): what are we building, what's the end-state, what constraints bound it, what's the first load-bearing question. Enough to frame intent — not a full plan yet.

Step 4 — Recommend planning (warm context, can't self-invoke)

By now the context is warm — state read, intent framed. That's the whole reason the order is start-then-plan: plan mode should inherit an oriented situation, not a blank page.

A skill cannot flip plan mode for you — Claude Code forbids skills/hooks from firing / commands (the same constraint wrap has with /compact). So either run a lightweight planning pass inline, or recommend the operator enter plan mode now that the ground is prepared. Don't claim to have entered a mode you can't.

If the work is multi-turn with a checkable end-state, mention /goal and the goal-author skill as the autonomy path.

Key Principles

• Gauge first — start is a beginning-of-session act; dissuade a mid-session start.
• Read before proposing — the opening move is dictated by the actual state, not a guess.
• Greenfield gets an interview, never an invented task.
• Warm the context, then hand off to planning — prepare, don't pretend to enter plan mode.

Not for

• Doing the development work itself — that's /develop and the stage skills.
• Mid-session resumption deep into a used window — that's a /wrap + fresh window, not a start.

See Also

• wrap — the closing bookend; same gauge, opposite pole.
• develop — the loop start opens into.
• goal-author — composing a /goal condition when the work wants autonomy.
• context-status — the gauge start reads in Step 0.