session-recovery

## Context Squad agents run in Copilot CLI sessions that can be interrupted — terminal crashes, network drops, machine restarts, or accidental window closes. When this happens, in-progress work may be left in a partially-completed state: branches with uncommitted changes, issues marked in-progress with no active agent, or checkpoints that were never finalized. Copilot CLI stores session history in a SQLite database called `session_store` (read-only, accessed via the `sql` tool with `database: "session_store"`). This skill teaches agents how to query that store to detect interrupted sessions and resume work. ## Patterns ### 1. Find Recent Sessions Query the `sessions` table filtered by time window. Include the last checkpoint to understand where the session stopped: ```sql SELECT s.id, s.summary, s.cwd, s.branch, s.updated_at, (SELECT title FROM checkpoints WHERE session_id = s.id ORDER BY checkpoint_number DESC LIMIT 1) AS last_checkpoint FROM sessions s WHERE s.updated_at >= datetime('now', '-24 hours') ORDER BY s.updated_at DESC; ``` ### 2. Filter Out Automated Sessions Automated agents (monitors, keep-alive, heartbeat) create high-volume sessions that obscure human-initiated work. Exclude them: ```sql SELECT s.id, s.summary, s.cwd, s.updated_at, (SELECT title FROM checkpoints WHERE session_id = s.id ORDER BY checkpoint_number DESC LIMIT 1) AS last_checkpoint FROM sessions s WHERE s.updated_at >= datetime('now', '-24 hours') AND s.id NOT IN ( SELECT DISTINCT t.session_id FROM turns t WHERE t.turn_index = 0 AND (LOWER(t.user_message) LIKE '%keep-alive%' OR LOWER(t.user_message) LIKE '%heartbeat%') ) ORDER BY s.updated_at DESC; ``` ### 3. Search by Topic (FTS5) Use the `search_index` FTS5 table for keyword search. Expand queries with synonyms since this is keyword-based, not semantic: ```sql SELECT DISTINCT s.id, s.summary, s.cwd, s.updated_at FROM search_index si JOIN sessions s ON si.session_id = s.id WHERE search_index MATCH 'auth OR login OR token OR JWT' AND s.updated_at >= datetime('now', '-48 hours') ORDER BY s.updated_at DESC LIMIT 10; ``` ### 4. Search by Working Directory ```sql SELECT s.id, s.summary, s.updated_at, (SELECT title FROM checkpoints WHERE session_id = s.id ORDER BY checkpoint_number DESC LIMIT 1) AS last_checkpoint FROM sessions s WHERE s.cwd LIKE '%my-project%' AND s.updated_at >= datetime('now', '-48 hours') ORDER BY s.updated_at DESC; ``` ### 5. Get Full Session Context Before Resuming Before resuming, inspect what the session was doing: ```sql -- Conversation turns SELECT turn_index, substr(user_message, 1, 200) AS ask, timestamp FROM turns WHERE session_id = 'SESSION_ID' ORDER BY turn_index; -- Checkpoint progress SELECT checkpoint_number, title, overview FROM checkpoints WHERE session_id = 'SESSION_ID' ORDER BY checkpoint_number; -- Files touched SELECT file_path, tool_name FROM session_files WHERE session_id = 'SESSION_ID'; -- Linked PRs/issues/commits SELECT ref_type, ref_value FROM session_refs WHERE session_id = 'SESSION_ID'; ``` ### 6. Detect Orphaned Issue Work Find sessions that were working on issues but may not have completed: ```sql SELECT DISTINCT s.id, s.branch, s.summary, s.updated_at, sr.ref_type, sr.ref_value FROM sessions s JOIN session_refs sr ON s.id = sr.session_id WHERE sr.ref_type = 'issue' AND s.updated_at >= datetime('now', '-48 hours') ORDER BY s.updated_at DESC; ``` Cross-reference with `gh issue list --label "status:in-progress"` to find issues that are marked in-progress but have no active session. ### 7. Resume a Session Once you have the session ID: ```bash # Resume directly copilot --resume SESSION_ID ``` ## Examples **Recovering from a crash during PR creation:** 1. Query recent sessions filtered by branch name 2. Find the session that was working on the PR 3. Check its last checkpoint — was the code committed? Was the PR created? 4. Resume or manually complete the remaining steps **Finding yesterday's work on a feature:** 1. Use FTS5 search with feature keywords 2. Filter to the relevant working directory 3. Review checkpoint progress to see how far the session got 4. Resume if work remains, or start fresh with the context ## Anti-Patterns - ❌ Searching by partial session IDs — always use full UUIDs - ❌ Resuming sessions that completed successfully — they have no pending work - ❌ Using `MATCH` with special characters without escaping — wrap paths in double quotes - ❌ Skipping the automated-session filter — high-volume automated sessions will flood results - ❌ Assuming FTS5 is semantic search — it's keyword-based; always expand queries with synonyms - ❌ Ignoring checkpoint data — checkpoints show exactly where the session stopped --- > Source: [candoumbe/DataFilters](https://github.com/candoumbe/DataFilters) — distributed by [TomeVault](https://tomevault.io). <!-- tomevault:4.0:skill_md:2026-07-19 -->