overnight

name	overnight
description	Long-running mode with file checkpointing + session resumption. `cmax overnight <spec> --budget-credits N` runs until the spec is done or the budget is exhausted, snapshotting on every turn so a SIGTERM or crash doesn't lose work.

/overnight — long-running mode

For multi-hour or multi-day autonomous runs. Combines /goal with file checkpointing and session resumption.

Mechanics

• Runs /goal loop with enableFileCheckpointing: true.
• Snapshots session ID + cumulative credit usage to .claudemax/state/overnight/<slug>.checkpoint.json after every meaningful turn.
• On crash / SIGTERM / max-turns hit, re-running cmax overnight <spec> picks up from the last checkpoint.
• Hard budget cap via --budget-credits N (Agent SDK credit, USD). Run terminates when budget hit.

CLI

cmax overnight SPEC.md --budget-credits 50
cmax overnight SPEC.md --budget-credits 50 --max-turns 500

When to use

• A multi-hour migration you want to start before bed.
• A big test suite that takes hours to debug.
• Any /goal run where you'd rather come back to results than babysit turns.

When NOT to use

• Quick tasks — overnight overhead (checkpointing) costs you turn latency.
• Tasks where you genuinely need to babysit (security-sensitive, irreversible) — use plain /goal instead.

What's preserved across restarts

• Session ID (Claude Code resume).
• Cumulative credit usage.
• File checkpoints (SDK feature; per-file rewind possible).

What's NOT preserved

• In-memory orchestrator state. /overnight assumes the SPEC is the source of truth — re-reading SPEC.md + the session is enough to resume.