os-start

name	os-start
description	Load project context and start a session with a compact briefing of recent work and next steps
user_invocable	true

/os-start — Session Start Briefing

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Step 1 — Render menu

Invoke exactly this Bash command:

bash .claude/skills/os-start/menu.sh

Then print the bash stdout verbatim as your text response (Claude Code collapses long bash output by default, so the user won't see it unless you echo it). Add NO preamble, NO commentary — just relay the script output. Then wait for the user to reply with a number.

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Step 2 — Resolve the selection

When the user replies with a number, read projects.md and find the matching project under ## Active. Extract:

• Project name
• **Type:** (project | portfolio)
• **Folders:** path
• **One-liner:**, **Goal:**
• **Welcome:** field if present (e.g. pending)

Branch on Type:

• New project (last menu item) → run /os-new-project, then continue.
• Type: project → write project name to [workspace-root]/.sessions/<session-id> (your Claude Code session ID is injected into your context by the SessionStart hook — use it). If you don't have a session ID in your context, fall back to [workspace-root]/.current-session. If **Welcome:** pending, go to Step 2c before Step 3. Otherwise go to Step 3.
• Type: portfolio → immediately write the portfolio name to [workspace-root]/.sessions/<session-id> (fall back to [workspace-root]/.current-session if no session ID is in your context). Do this before the drill-down so the status bar reflects the portfolio even if the user never selects a specific item (e.g. they jump straight into a different task). The item drill-down in Step 2b then refines this value to [Portfolio Name] / [Item Display Name]. After writing, verify the write landed (the status bar reads this file verbatim — a failed write leaves it showing a stale or (no project) value). Then: if **Welcome:** pending, go to Step 2c before Step 2b. Otherwise go to Step 2b.

Step 2c — Welcome-back render (first return after /os-welcome)

This step only runs when the project's entry has - **Welcome:** pending. It's the second-session aha moment — the cliffhanger payoff for the user who just ran /os-welcome last session and was instructed to quit and come back.

Print:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
  WELCOME BACK
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

You ran /os-start, picked your project, and you're back exactly where you left off. That's the loop.

My biggest win: my context-switching has reduced to seconds. Claude just handles this now.

Use it for a week and it'll be doing some of the lifting for you. Use it for 4 weeks and you won't remember how you worked without it.

---

One last thing.

If this clicked, I'd love 20 minutes with you. Tell me what worked, what broke, what you wish was there. In return, I'll help scope your next OS-Intelligence project: what to bring, how to structure it, what to skip.

Complimentary, no strings: https://calendly.com/simonconway/os-intelligence

Then clear the tag. Edit projects.md to remove the - **Welcome:** pending line from this project's entry — the welcome-back fires once, not every /os-start.

Continue to the normal flow (Step 3 for projects, Step 2b for portfolios). The standard briefing then follows the welcome-back so the user immediately sees the loop in action.

Step 2b — Portfolio drill-down

Read the portfolio's TRACKER.md. By default, show only items with stage pipeline, prep, upcoming, or complete — hide archived. Print:

Which [item name] will you work on?

1. [Item Name] ([stage])
...
N. Add new [item name]

Tip: 0 to see old/archived [item name]s in the list.

• 0 → re-render the menu with all items (including archived), no tip line. Renumber from 1. Wait for selection.
• Add new → run /os-new-item, then continue.
• Existing item → write [Portfolio Name] / [Item Display Name] to [workspace-root]/.sessions/<session-id> (fall back to .current-session if no session ID is in your context). Go to Step 3.

Pluralise the item name naturally in the tip (e.g. "events", "ideas", "opportunities"). If the portfolio has zero archived items, omit the tip line.

---

Step 3 — Load current state

Read [project-root]/context/current-state.md if it exists. This is the primary context source.

For each section, check _Last updated:_:

• 14 days old → flag as stale in the briefing

• still — → flag as not yet populated

If missing: note No current-state.md found. Run /os-save after this session to initialise it. and fall back to Step 4.

For portfolios: also read the selected item's [item-name].md frontmatter for next_action and stage.

---

Step 4 — Most recent session (fallback only)

Only run if current-state.md is missing, or the user explicitly asks for session detail.

Search order: [project]/memory/YYYYMMDD-HHMM.md (newest, exclude -reasoning.md) → [project]/memory/SESSIONS-INDEX.md first row → context-library/memory/context-snapshot/ → context-library/_CURRENT-STATE.md.

When current-state.md exists, do NOT auto-load session files. Just note: Last session: [date] — ask me to load it if you need the detail.

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Step 5 — Output the briefing

Format:

PROJECT BRIEF

## [Project Name]

Description: [from projects.md]
Goal: [from projects.md]
[Portfolio only: Item: [Item Name] — [stage]]

**Current State** · updated [date]
[2-3 sentences from current-state.md Project Position]

**In flight**
- [from current-state.md In Flight]

**Open questions**
- [from current-state.md Open Questions]

Last session: [date] — ask me to load it if you need the detail.

Rules:

• If current-state.md is missing, swap Current State / In flight / Open questions for Most Recent Work / What comes next drawn from the session file.
• Flag stale sections inline: ⚠ Stakeholder Dynamics last updated 21 days ago.
• Empty portfolio TRACKER: No items yet. Run /os-new-item to add your first [item name].
• No session files at all: No previous sessions found. Starting fresh.
• No preamble. Blank line after the briefing, then respond to any user message.