continue-work

name	continue_work
description	Resume context from a prior session. Reads recent-sessions.md to identify session IDs, lets you pick a session to revive, then extracts the last checkpoint summary and recent messages from the session JSONL. Use for: /continue_work, 'resume prior session', 'revive old session', 'where was I', 'switch to last session'.
model	sonnet

Continue Work

Portable intent doc: quoin/core/skills/continue_work.md

Revives context from a prior Claude Code session by reading session history and extracting checkpoint summaries and recent messages.

§0 Model dispatch (FIRST STEP — execute before anything else)

This skill is declared model: sonnet. If the executing agent is running on a model strictly more expensive than the declared tier, you MUST self-dispatch before doing the skill's actual work.

Detection:

• Read your current model from the system context ("powered by the model named X").
• Tier order: haiku < sonnet < opus.
• Sentinel parsing: the user's prompt is checked for the [no-redispatch] family.
  • Bare [no-redispatch] (parent-emit form AND user manual override): skip dispatch, proceed to §1 at the current tier.
  • Counter form [no-redispatch:N] where N is a positive integer ≥ 2: ABORT (see "Abort rule" below).
  • Counter form [no-redispatch:1] is reserved and treated as bare [no-redispatch] for forward-compatibility; do not emit it.
• If current_tier > declared_tier AND prompt does NOT start with any [no-redispatch] form: Dispatch reason: cost-guardrail handoff. dispatched-tier: sonnet.

Pre-dispatch 1M check (IVG-90 Layer 1+2):

• Run: python3 QUOIN_HOME/scripts/dispatch_config.py --decide --tier <declared_tier> --verbose where <declared_tier> is the tier declared for this skill (e.g. "sonnet" or "haiku", as shown in the dispatched-tier line immediately above).
• If the command returns "safe-path" on line 1: Read the reason token from line 2 (config|cache|probe). Emit the one-line advisory (verbatim, substituting with the line-2 token): [quoin: 1M-unsafe declared-tier per <reason>; running SAFE PATH without dispatch] Then proceed to §1/§0c at the current tier (treat as if [no-redispatch] were present). Do NOT call the Agent dispatch. Do NOT call AskUserQuestion.
• If the command returns "dispatch" on line 1, OR if the script is missing / errors: Continue to the Agent dispatch call below (today's path — fail-OPEN).

  Spawn an Agent subagent with the following arguments:
    model: "sonnet"
    description: "continue_work dispatched at sonnet tier"
    prompt: "[no-redispatch]\n<original user input verbatim>"
  Wait for the subagent.

  Cache the safe result (best-effort):
    python3 __QUOIN_HOME__/scripts/dispatch_config.py --write-cache --tier <declared_tier> --result safe
  (Fail-OPEN: if the script errors or is missing, silently skip and continue.)

  Return its output as your final response. STOP.
  (Return the subagent's output as your final response.)

Abort rule (recursion guard):

• If the prompt starts with [no-redispatch:N] AND N ≥ 2: ABORT before any tool calls.
• Print the one-line error: Quoin self-dispatch hard-cap reached at N=<N> in continue_work. This indicates a recursion bug; aborting before any tool calls. Re-invoke with [no-redispatch] (bare) to override.
• Then stop. Do NOT proceed to §1.

Manual kill switch:

• The user can prefix any user-typed slash invocation with bare [no-redispatch] to skip dispatch entirely (e.g., [no-redispatch] /continue_work).
• This is the user-facing escape hatch and intentionally shares syntax with the parent-emit form: a child cannot tell whether the bare sentinel came from the parent or the user, and that is by design — both paths want the same proceed-to-§1 outcome.
• Use this only when intentionally overriding the cost guardrail (e.g., for one-off debugging on a different tier).

Fail-graceful path with error-class triage (per architecture I-01):

• If the Agent tool returns an error during dispatch, classify the error message text BEFORE proceeding:

• Error classification:

  • Worktree-class: the error text contains the substring Cannot create agent worktree, OR (the substring worktree AND the substring not in a git repository). This is recoverable — the harness tried to create a git worktree for isolation and the project root is not a git repo. Continue to Worktree-class branch.
  • Other-class: any other tool error, exception, or harness rejection — skip to Other-class path below (existing fail-OPEN behavior).

• 1M-credit-class: if the error text contains the substring Usage credits required for 1M context: This is the 1M-context credit mismatch (IVG-89). The parent session carries the context-1m-2025-08-07 beta header which propagates to all subagent calls; the declared-tier model lacks 1M credits. Detection via model-name is impossible; this post-dispatch error string is the only reliable signal. Emit (verbatim): [quoin: 1M-context credit mismatch on <tier> subagent dispatch; proceeding in-session at parent tier — run /model to switch this session to standard context for a permanent fix]

  Cache the unsafe result (best-effort):
    python3 __QUOIN_HOME__/scripts/dispatch_config.py --write-cache --tier <declared_tier> --result unsafe
  (Fail-OPEN: if the script errors or is missing, silently skip and continue.)

  Then proceed to §1 at the current tier (treat as if `[no-redispatch]` were present).
  Do NOT retry the Agent dispatch. Do NOT call AskUserQuestion.

• Worktree-class branch: Worktree creation is hook-driven and cannot be skipped by omitting a parameter. Use the AskUserQuestion tool to present the user with one option: (c) proceed-current-tier — Skip dispatch, proceed at the current (more expensive) tier. This is the only available recovery path. Question header: Subagent dispatch failed (worktree creation). Proceeding at current tier. Note for the user: "Worktree dispatch failed and no retry mechanism is available — worktree creation is unconditional in this harness. Proceeding at current tier."

• Other-class path (also: worktree-class after user acknowledges c): Do NOT abort the user's invocation. Emit the bare warning (verbatim): [quoin-stage-1: subagent dispatch unavailable; proceeding at current tier] If this path was reached via a worktree-class error, ALSO emit the classification line (second, separate): [quoin-stage-1: error-class=worktree; user-choice=c; proceeding at current tier] Then proceed to §1 at the current tier (fail-OPEN per I-01).

Otherwise (already at or below declared tier, OR prompt has [no-redispatch] sentinel, OR dispatch unavailable): proceed to §1 (skill body).

Session bootstrap

Locate <cwd>/.workflow_artifacts/memory/recent-sessions.md. Read the last 5 records. Format per record: <ISO-timestamp> | <session_id>

Step 1: Parse last 5 records

Use the Bash tool to read recent-sessions.md:

tail -5 "<cwd>/.workflow_artifacts/memory/recent-sessions.md" 2>/dev/null

Case C — File absent or < 2 records: Report: "No session history found yet. recent-sessions.md will be populated as you work. Nothing to revive." STOP.

Case A — All 5 session_ids identical: Report: "Your current session [session_id] is the only recent session. No context revival needed." STOP.

Case B — Multiple distinct session_ids: Deduplicate by session_id, keeping most recent timestamp for each. Cap at 4 sessions (most recent first). Use AskUserQuestion to present the picker:

AskUserQuestion(
  question="Which session do you want to revive?",
  options=[
    {label: "[<timestamp>] <session_id_1>", description: "<task name or context if available>"},
    {label: "[<timestamp>] <session_id_2>", description: "<task name or context if available>"},
    ...  # up to 4 options
  ]
  # implicit "Other" covers cancel
)

If the user selects "Other" or types "cancel": STOP with "No session selected."

Step 2: Locate JSONL for selected session

selected_uuid = the session_id from the user's choice.

Use Bash tool (fail-OPEN):

find "$HOME/.claude/projects" -maxdepth 2 -name "${selected_uuid}.jsonl" 2>/dev/null | head -1

If not found: Report: "JSONL for session [selected_uuid] not found under ~/.claude/projects/. The session may have been pruned. Cannot revive." STOP.

Step 3: Extract checkpoint context and last messages

Run inline Python3 via Bash tool heredoc:

python3 - "$JSONL_PATH" << 'PYEOF'
import json, sys

path = sys.argv[1]
with open(path, encoding='utf-8') as f:
    lines = f.readlines()

entries = []
for l in lines:
    try:
        d = json.loads(l)
        if d.get('type') in ('user', 'assistant'):
            entries.append(d)
    except Exception:
        pass

# Last 20 entries (10 pairs)
recent = entries[-20:]
msg_pairs = []
for d in recent:
    role = d.get('type')
    content = d.get('message', {}).get('content', '')
    if isinstance(content, list):
        text = ' '.join(
            item.get('text', '') for item in content
            if isinstance(item, dict) and item.get('type') == 'text'
        )
    else:
        text = str(content)
    msg_pairs.append(f"[{role}] {text[:500]}")

# Last checkpoint block
checkpoint_summary = "(none found)"
for d in reversed(entries):
    if d.get('type') == 'assistant':
        content = d.get('message', {}).get('content', '')
        if isinstance(content, list):
            text = ' '.join(
                item.get('text', '') for item in content
                if isinstance(item, dict) and item.get('type') == 'text'
            )
        else:
            text = str(content)
        if '## Checkpoint' in text or 'checkpoint saved' in text.lower() or 'checkpoint file' in text.lower():
            start = max(text.lower().find('checkpoint'), 0)
            checkpoint_summary = text[max(0, start-50):start+2000]
            break

print("=== CHECKPOINT SUMMARY ===")
print(checkpoint_summary[:2000])
print("=== RECENT MESSAGES ===")
for p in msg_pairs[-10:]:
    print(p[:500])
PYEOF

Step 4: Present to user

Present the revived context:

Reviving session [selected_uuid].

Last checkpoint context:
<checkpoint_summary or '(none found)'>

Recent conversation tail:
<last ~10 message pairs>

To resume working in this context, type /checkpoint --restore in a fresh session
OR continue here with this context pre-loaded.

Cost recording

Skip — no task context required. (Follows /triage and /capture_insight pattern.)