start-leftover

name	start-leftover
description	Pick one or more open items from `planning/leftover-tasks.md` and spawn a fresh Claude session focused on them. Counterpart to `capture-leftover`. Use when the user says "tackle a leftover", "pick up a parked task", "start on a leftover", "what's in the parking lot", or wants to clear deferred follow-ups without polluting the current session.

Start Leftover

Picks open entries from planning/leftover-tasks.md, lets the user choose one or a batch to work on, and spawns a clean Claude session focused on just those items. The original session keeps its context untouched.

When to use

• User wants to address a previously-deferred follow-up
• "What's parked?" / "let's clear some leftovers" / "tackle that auth refactor we noted"
• After context-gate writes a handover, user wants to tackle one parked item rather than resume the main thread

Steps

1. Locate and read

repo_root=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null) || repo_root="$PWD"
target="$repo_root/planning/leftover-tasks.md"

If target doesn't exist, tell the user there are no leftovers to start from and stop. Don't auto-scaffold here — there's nothing to scaffold for.

2. Parse open entries

Each entry begins with ## YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM — <summary>. Read the file and extract entries where Status: open. Skip in-progress and done.

If zero open entries, print:

No open leftovers in planning/leftover-tasks.md. ✓

3. Present the list

Show open entries newest-first by capture timestamp:

Open leftovers (4):

1. 2026-04-27 18:53 — Refactor auth middleware to drop legacy session-token path
   Scope: medium  |  Captured 2h ago

2. 2026-04-26 14:10 — Investigate flaky CI run on linter step
   Scope: small  |  Captured 1d ago

3. 2026-04-25 09:30 — Add OG images to blog posts
   Scope: medium  |  Captured 2d ago

4. 2026-04-23 16:45 — Migrate utils.py to typed module structure
   Scope: large  |  Captured 4d ago

4. User picks

Ask:

Pick one or more (e.g. 1, 1,3, or all). Or cancel.

• Single number → one task focus
• Comma-list → batch mode
• all → batch all opens
• cancel → exit cleanly

5. Mark in-progress

For each picked entry, change **Status:** open → **Status:** in-progress in the file. Append a marker line:

- **Started:** 2026-04-27 21:05 (session: <new-session-id-or-cwd-marker>)

This way the original session knows what's been claimed.

6. Build a focused-session prompt

Construct an initial message for the new session that includes:

• Which leftover(s) to tackle (full entry text from the file)
• The original repo context (path, branch)
• A one-line directive: "Tackle the items below. When complete, mark each as Status: done in planning/leftover-tasks.md and append a one-line outcome note."

Example payload:

Continue from these parked items in this repo:

[paste the full markdown entry blocks here]

Repo: /home/user/repos/myproject
Branch: main

When you finish each, mark `Status: done` in planning/leftover-tasks.md and append a one-line outcome below the entry. If any item turns out larger than the estimated scope, ask before continuing.

7. Spawn

Delegate to new-claude-here (same plugin) with the message pre-loaded. Default form:

# in a new Konsole window at $repo_root, opens claude with -m "<the payload>"

If new-claude-here isn't available or the user prefers manual launch, print the command + payload and let the user run it.

8. Return

Print one summary line in the original session:

✓ Started: "Refactor auth middleware..." in new session (1 picked, 3 still open)

Batch behaviour

If the user picked multiple items, the new session gets all picked entries in one prompt. Tell it to handle them sequentially. The original session's leftover-tasks.md reflects all picked items as in-progress.

Cleanup after completion

The new session is responsible for marking Status: done and appending an outcome line per task. If the user reports "I finished those" in the original session and the file still shows in-progress, offer to update it from this side — but the new session should normally do it.

Edge cases

• Same item picked twice across sessions — second pick should detect Status: in-progress, warn the user, and let them either reclaim it (force) or pick something else.
• Capture-while-in-flight — user might capture new leftovers while the picked-up ones are running. That's fine — file is append-only at the entry level, and Status updates are line-level.
• No new-claude-here available — print the manual launch command instead. Don't fail the workflow.

Hard rules

• Don't reorder entries. Newest-first is presentation only; the file stays in capture order.
• Don't auto-pick. Always require user confirmation, even if there's only one open item.
• Don't mark done from this skill. That's the new session's job — it ensures whoever did the work confirms it landed.
• Don't spawn a session without the explicit prompt payload. A blank new-claude-here loses the focus.

Counterparts

• capture-leftover — adds entries that this skill consumes
• scaffold-planning — creates the file
• new-claude-here — actual session-spawning mechanic this delegates to