claude-session-observe

name	claude-session-observe
description	Use this skill to inspect Claude Code session history under ~/.claude, recover what sessions exist, and manually determine what a session was doing from transcript evidence.
skillKey	pokoclaw/claude-session-observe

Claude Session Observe

Use this skill to inspect Claude Code's local session artifacts under ~/.claude.

The goal of this skill is not to teach you to trust a magic script. The goal is to teach you how to:

• find which Claude Code sessions exist for a project
• inspect what happened in a session
• understand what a session was doing from transcript evidence
• check whether work was completed, interrupted, delegated, or still needs follow-up
• compare the session story with the current repo state when the user wants to continue or verify work

Core principle

There are three layers here:

1. Artifacts
   • ~/.claude transcript and sidecar files
   • current repo/worktree state for the recovered cwd
2. Query helpers
   • optional scripts under scripts/
   • ordinary file reads, ls, grep, tail-style inspection
3. Your judgment
   • "what sessions exist"
   • "what this session was doing"
   • "what was completed"
   • "what should happen next"

The scripts are only layer 2. They are read-only retrieval helpers, similar to ls, tail, or select ... from ... limit .... You decide the final answer.

If the scripts do not exist, you should still be able to use this skill. The real contract of this skill is the investigation workflow.

Channels

• Active session map: ~/.claude/sessions/*.json
• Project session transcripts: ~/.claude/projects/<encoded-project>/<session-id>.jsonl
• Session sidecar directory: ~/.claude/projects/<encoded-project>/<session-id>/
• Subagent transcripts: subagents/*.jsonl
• Subagent metadata: subagents/*.meta.json
• Tool output captures: tool-results/*.txt
• Global history: ~/.claude/history.jsonl
• Current repo/worktree for the recovered cwd

Choose channels based on the question. Do not force every question through the same path.

Required first reads

• If the task is about ~/.claude layout, path encoding, or where files live:
  • read references/layout-overview.md
• If the task is about finding which session to inspect:
  • read references/session-discovery-recipes.md
• If the task is about how to read transcript JSONL records:
  • read references/transcript-records.md
• If the task is about interpreting recent work or takeover / continuation:
  • read references/activity-heuristics.md
  • then read references/continuation-handoff.md

Default posture

Start manually unless a helper script will obviously save repetitive work.

In many cases you do not need Python at all. The job can often be done with:

• path resolution
• directory listing
• reading one or more transcript files
• checking the tail of the transcript
• checking the current repo state

Use scripts only when they make repetitive retrieval faster or safer.

Core workflows

1. User asks: what Claude Code sessions exist for this project?

1. Resolve the project to an absolute path.
2. Map it to the encoded project directory under ~/.claude/projects/.
3. Check ~/.claude/sessions/*.json for active-session matches by cwd.
4. List the project's *.jsonl files.
5. Rank candidates by evidence:
   • active-session match
   • transcript timestamps
   • nearby progress / last-prompt
   • file mtime only as fallback
6. Present the candidate sessions and your ranking evidence.

2. User asks: what was this session doing?

1. Read the transcript tail.
2. Inspect the latest useful evidence:
   • last-prompt
   • recent user records
   • recent assistant records
   • recent progress records
3. If the parent transcript suggests delegated work, inspect subagents/.
4. If a tool result is needed, inspect tool-results/.
5. Then you explain:
   • what the user wanted
   • what Claude already did
   • whether the flow looks finished, interrupted, or still in flight

Do not ask the scripts to produce that explanation for you.

3. User asks: continue the latest Claude Code session / finish what it did not finish

1. Choose the best candidate session for the target project.
2. Recover the session story from transcript evidence.
3. Then inspect the current repo/worktree for that session's cwd.
4. Compare transcript evidence with disk state.
5. Answer with a continuation brief:
   • recovered objective
   • artifacts touched
   • completed so far
   • current repo/worktree state
   • what remains
   • immediate next action

Important: for continuation, transcript evidence alone is not enough.

4. User asks: check whether Claude's work actually landed

1. Recover the claimed work from the transcript.
2. Check the relevant repo directly:
   • git status --short --branch
   • git diff --stat
   • relevant file diffs or file reads
   • recent commits if needed
3. Compare the claim with the actual repo state.
4. Report agreement or mismatch explicitly.

Working rules

• Prefer direct evidence over guesswork.
• Prefer project-local transcript evidence over global history for project continuation.
• Scripts are optional helpers, not answer generators.
• If you use a script, treat its output as evidence to inspect.
• Do not let a script decide the goal, stopping point, completion state, or next step.
• Inspect progress before assuming the latest assistant text tells the whole story.
• Inspect sidecar artifacts only when the transcript suggests they matter or when more detail is needed.
• If the user wants continuation or verification, compare the session story with the current repo/worktree state.
• If evidence is ambiguous, present ranked interpretations instead of pretending certainty.
• If the trailing transcript line is malformed, ignore that line and continue with earlier valid records.

Optional helper scripts

These are convenience tools only.

• scripts/find_project_sessions.py
  • read-only helper to list project-local candidate sessions
• scripts/read_session_records.py
  • read-only helper to slice one session transcript and optionally list sidecar artifacts

Use them the same way you would use ls, tail, or a small select ... from ... limit ... query.

Available references

• references/layout-overview.md
• references/session-discovery-recipes.md
• references/transcript-records.md
• references/activity-heuristics.md
• references/continuation-handoff.md

Anti-patterns

• Do not treat helper scripts as semantic summarizers.
• Do not expect a Python script to tell you what a session "means".
• Do not stop at transcript reading when the user asked you to continue or verify work.
• Do not ignore the current repo state for the recovered cwd.
• Do not rely only on file mtime when transcript timestamps exist.
• Do not assume tool results are top-level transcript records.
• Do not assume interruptions have a dedicated top-level schema.
• Do not require the scripts when direct file inspection is enough.