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Fire manually when context is filling up (just before compact, or before a deliberate /clear), flushing to the graph with A (flush of work-state) and B (rescue of un-written-back durable knowledge) as equal partners. A clean restart is checkpoint → /clear (§C). For the read/write foundation and CLI details, follow the parent skill graphrag-knowledge and $REF/ (= ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references). $CLI = node --experimental-strip-types ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/graphrag/cli.ts.
Scope (what this skill does and does not do)
This runs proactive-persistence on a "pre-compact" trigger. Existing always-on triggers (pre-commit nudge, etc.) stay in place. checkpoint is the later stage that sweeps up their leftovers/misses.
The primary channel is always-on triggers. checkpoint can only capture what still remains in context at fire time — you cannot preserve everything from a 100%-full context. The value is deliberately keeping what matters (better than compact's blind summarization).
Firing is manual, human-only. No signal for remaining context exists, and the "right moment" cannot be auto-detected. A human fires it while there is still headroom. Firing itself consumes context, so fire before things get tight.
checkpoint's essence is saving ctx. Since each flush/rescue step itself consumes context, keep reading within this skill to a minimum (the lightweight duplicate-check rule for B is in §B).
Restore is out of scope for this skill. The SessionStart hook (clear-restore.mjs) reads the intent that Procedure C wrote into the reserved __checkpoint__ key of the vault-side .graphrag/cache/ask-state.json (resolved by the same rule as the writer, including .envGRAPHRAG_VAULT_DIR redirects) only right after /clear, and consumes it (one-shot, single use) the moment it reads, then restores. 60-min expiry, and an identity match in three tiers (session_dir declared by Procedure C → project root → strict cwd; see §C). Nothing is injected after compact (left to blind summarization — the old auto-injection is fully abolished). checkpoint → /clear → clean restart is the cleanest, with zero blind summarization, and is the sole auto-restore path. If tightness lets auto-compact swallow you, there is no fallback — next session, manually fire $CLI brief --mode resume to trace from the same Investigation.
Handover ack contract. The hook's injection is invisible to the human, so it obligates the restored agent to open its first reply by declaring the restore (restored focus + first action), and likewise to declare when a checkpoint existed but was not restored (expired / different project). Therefore: a first reply after /clear that opens with no declaration means the handover failed — recover with $CLI brief --mode resume. This detection rule is told to the user at checkpoint time (§Reporting).
Procedure
0. preset judgment
Run $CLI inspect to check the vault type → read only the matching system / project quickref (§Schema quick-ref in the parent skill). The rescue-destination vocabulary differs.
A. Flush (work-state → active Investigation + ConversationChunk)
Run $CLI brief --mode resume to find the active Investigation for the current focus.
If present, update (while the focus is the same, keep updating the one). Procedure C passes this Investigation's id to checkpoint-mark by name, so keep exactly 1 active per focus (restore is by id name — it does not depend on generated_at or primary selection).
If absent, create (state: active). If the focus changed midway, set the old one to state: closed and create a new one (§Focus continuity in the parent skill).
If the checkpoint is the session's "close" and the focus itself is settled, set this Investigation to state: closed and do NOT fire Procedure C (checkpoint-mark) — settled work needs no restore.
Write the work-state as structured text into that Investigation's raw_content (via commit-mutation updates; note: do not create a dedicated field):
current focus: what you are doing now (a one-liner restart point after restore)
next: the concrete next action (granular enough to resume without re-deriving; drop finished branches). The first item is the "unique first action" — always place at the head one action concretized down to its target (file:line or command to run) and expected result, so the agent right after restore can start without hesitation. Writing that can only start with exploration, like "investigate ~" or "clean up around ~", is forbidden (that is the main cause of post-restore wandering and ctx waste).
touched: files being edited / targeted (file:line and "what you are trying to change" where possible)
Deep raw logs (failed paths / exact commands / non-obvious findings / constraints the user stated this session / mid-flight state of multi-step changes) go into a ConversationChunk, update-in-place with a fixed slug (avoid bloat; high-value fragments only). Wire it to the Investigation via discussed_in. Sanitize on write (parent skill §Content hygiene): no verbatim abusive language / insults / personal information, even when "quoting the user" — flush the substance (constraint, decision, cause), not the phrasing.
Pre-flush self-check (ask yourself before writing work_state):
Reading only the head of next, can you enter the first edit/command without exploration?
Are there contradictions or stale statements among current focus / next / touched (did you drop finished branches)?
If either is No, rewrite before flushing. A vague checkpoint comes back as the cost of "not being able to uniquely narrow what to do, and searching around" after restore.
B. Rescue (un-written-back durable knowledge → existing knowledge types, auto-written)
Make one pass by type over un-written-back durable knowledge to close gaps. The recall trigger is chiefly the model's memory (git diff is optional support — commit timing and work breaks are offset, so do not make it mandatory).
Decision (a judgment chosen from alternatives)
RejectedOption (an approach tried and discarded — leaves the least trace; pick it up first)
project preset only: Assumption (a premise you set) / Agreement (an agreement)
For each candidate:
Keep duplicate-check lightweight. Knowledge this session itself produced (an option just tried and discarded, a gotcha just hit) is unlikely to collide with existing nodes, so you may skip the upfront ask — if the write-time duplicate gate returns a suspect, handle it with skip / update / --dup-ack. (This is a checkpoint-only relaxation of the parent skill's "ask pre-check" principle. Rationale: checkpoint's essence is saving ctx, and hammering per-type asks bloats easily via evidence escalation.) Only for candidates that might be updates to existing knowledge (general points likely to predate the session) run $CLI ask "<candidate>" --limit 2.
Auto-write only what is missing via add-* / commit-mutation (do not wait for approval; write clear ones immediately, surface only truly borderline ones in the report). Link touched files via documented_by in evidence.
Wire knowledge this focus produced to the Investigation (so restore reaches real nodes, not just prose):
Attach derived_from (knowledge node → Investigation) on all B nodes (universal provenance; both presets).
For Decision, additionally led_to (Investigation → Decision).
Off-limits: do NOT write to planning/schedule types (Task / Milestone / Resource / Stakeholder). project's Task is the project's own plan, not a sink for the products of this chat work.
C. Marker (declaring /clear-restore intent; the mandatory close)
Once writing is done, fire $CLI checkpoint-mark --investigation <id> --session-dir <dir> (<id> is the id of the active Investigation you updated/created in Procedure A). This is the one-shot intent declaration to the SessionStart hook: "if /clear happens, restore me":
--session-dir must be your session's primary working directory — the one stated in your system prompt (environment section), not the Bash tool's current directory (that may be polluted by an earlier cd, and the CLI cannot see the session's own directory). Pass it verbatim. It is the most precise identity the restore hook has: it is matched alone against the directory Claude Code hands the hook, so a checkpoint fired in one monorepo subdirectory-as-project never leaks into a session opened at another. Omit it and identity falls back to the coarser git-root / cwd match.
The verb validates before firing and, if it fails, hard-errors and makes you fix it on the spot: the target node is an active Investigation / raw_content has both current focus: and next: / a unique first action can be extracted from the head of next / raw_content is within 8KB (if over, split deep raw logs out into a ConversationChunk). §A's self-check is guidance at write time; this validation is the last line of defense.
If it passes, it stamps the work_state snapshot and first_action into the reserved key __checkpoint__ of .graphrag/cache/ask-state.json (no new file is created).
The SessionStart hook (clear-restore.mjs) reads this key only right after /clear, and consumes it (one-shot, single use) the moment it reads, then restores. 60-min expiry, plus an identity match in three tiers, most precise first: session_dir (from --session-dir; when present it decides alone — a mismatch is refused, never softened by the tiers below), else project root (closest ancestor with a .git, so a checkpoint fired from a subdirectory still restores at the session root), else strict cwd match (entries with neither). It does not rely on wall-clock alone, so it will not miss even if you read the report or chat before /clear. The injected text obligates the restored agent to open its first reply with a restore declaration (§Scope, Handover ack contract) — success is always verbalized, so silence is a reliable failure signal.
Nothing is injected after compact (the old behavior is fully abolished). If auto-compact swallows you under tightness, next session, manually fire $CLI brief --mode resume to trace from the same Investigation.
Forget to fire it and no /clear restore happens at all (the old generated_at 10-min gate is already abolished — the problem of missing on a re-checkpoint with unchanged content is itself gone). Do not skip C.
Reporting (user-facing)
In natural language: the flushed focus / the first action at the head of next (in one sentence) / the count of next actions / sticking points; and for the rescue, what you wrote / what was skipped as existing / what was deferred as a judgment call — briefly. Close with "Marked — OK to /clear (within 60 min)" plus the detection rule in one sentence: after /clear, the first reply will open by declaring the restored focus and first action — if it doesn't, the handover failed; recover with brief --mode resume. Do not dump IDs / raw JSON (§Reporting format in the parent skill).
Batch-apply hint
A and B are independent node groups, but can be bundled into a single commit-mutation plan (Investigation update + ConversationChunk + new knowledge nodes + discussed_in/derived_from/led_to edges). Template: $REF/mutation-templates.md. For just a single piece of knowledge, typed-add (add-*) suffices. C's checkpoint-mark --investigation <id> --session-dir <dir> is a standalone verb not part of the plan — fire it once at the end.
