| name | session-manager |
| description | Session management skill — checkpoint/restore, context compression, progress tracking, and recovery for maintaining continuity across agent sessions. |
| version | 1.1.0 |
| category | software-development |
| source | hermes-cortex |
| author | Hermes Agent |
| license | MIT |
| platforms | ["linux","macos","windows"] |
| metadata | {"hermes":{"tags":["session","checkpoint","restore","context","progress","tracking","recovery","continuity","state","resume"],"related_skills":["agent-flow","memory-architecture","subagent-driven-development","writing-plans"]}} |
Session Manager — Continuity & Recovery
Use this skill to manage long-running or interrupted agent sessions. It provides structured patterns for saving progress, compressing context when approaching token limits, tracking what's been done, and recovering gracefully after interruptions.
Principles
- Save before you leave — checkpoint at every natural boundary (task complete, breakpoint hit, user disconnects).
- Compress before you overflow — summarize and prune before hitting context limits so no state is lost.
- Track visibly — maintain a running progress list so you (and the user) always know where things stand.
- Resume safely — provide enough context for a fresh session to pick up exactly where the previous one stopped.
1. Checkpoint / Restore
Save a compact snapshot of session state at key milestones. Each checkpoint captures what was accomplished, what's pending, and any critical decisions or blockers.
When to checkpoint
- Task complete — after delivering a finished artifact or answer.
- Milestone reached — after a logical sub-goal (e.g., "all tests pass", "schema designed").
- Before any risky operation — before a large refactor, destructive migration, or complex merge.
- On user request — if the user says "save progress", "checkpoint", or "remember this".
- On disconnect — if you detect a mid-turn interruption or session timeout.
Checkpoint format
Write a checkpoint to one of these locations (prefer first):
.hermes-cortex/sessions/current.md (repo root, committed to git) — for ongoing work tracked in a shared repo. Update the Session Notes section.- A dedicated
session-checkpoint-{timestamp}.md file — for private or long-running work.
- The session's working MEMORY.md — for quick inline saves.
## Session Checkpoint — YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM UTC
### Objective
What the session was hired to do (one sentence).
### Completed
- [x] Task or sub-task description (file, path, or artifact)
- [x] Another completed item
### In Progress
- [ ] Current active work item
[ ] Next step after current item
Description of blocker (link to error, decision needed, dependency)
Decision / rationale (e.g., "Chose SQLite over PostgreSQL for local dev simplicity")
Another decision
Files modified or created: [list paths]
Commands run with relevant output: [one-liner each]
Tools used: [checkpoint, search, write, patch, etc.]
