| name | pause |
| description | Full break. Saves your mental context so you can stop without losing your place. Fully resets the fatigue clock. |
| when_to_use | User says "pause", "break", "take a break", "stepping away", "I need to stop", or types "/break". Also when breather nudges suggest a break and the user agrees. For quick breaks ("brb", "grabbing coffee"), use /breather:stretch instead. |
| argument-hint | optional reason or "in X mins" for deferred break |
| allowed-tools | Bash Read Write |
Pause - Save Context and Take a Break
The user is taking a break. Your job: make resuming effortless so the break feels free, not costly.
Steps
-
Check for deferred break. If the user said "break in 10 mins" or similar, just acknowledge it: "Got it, I'll remind you in [X] minutes." Do NOT proceed with the full pause flow below.
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Record the break FIRST (before responding) by running:
bash ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/record-break.sh
Do this before writing anything else. The user may walk away after saying "pause."
-
Save a context snapshot to ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA:-~/.local/share/breather}/last-context.md. Write it as a natural paragraph that reconstructs the user's mental state. Not a structured template. It should read like a colleague's note to themselves: what they were doing, the specific point they stopped at (file, function, command), what they were about to do next, and anything unresolved.
Good example:
Working on the nudge delivery rewrite for breather. Finished rewriting check-duration.sh with the suffix/prefix/bypass escalation. check-nudge-delivery.sh now has position-aware detection. Statusline bypass state is done. All three files pass syntax check and are synced to the plugin cache. Next up: setup simplification (wrapper script, informed auto-allow). The brainstorm spec is in docs/brainstorm-setup-ux.md.
Bad example (too structured, hard to mentally reload from):
Task: Nudge delivery rewrite
Files changed: check-duration.sh, check-nudge-delivery.sh, statusline.sh
Status: Complete
Next: Setup simplification
-
Read daily stats by running:
bash "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/daily-stats.sh"
Use today_total_min for break duration suggestion.
-
Suggest a break duration based on daily total:
- Under 50 min today: "5-10 minutes should do it"
- 50-90 min today: "15-20 minutes. Get outside if you can."
- Over 90 min today: "Take a real break. 30 minutes minimum. Walk, eat, look at something that isn't a screen."
-
Respond briefly. No lectures. Something like:
Saved your context. You were [doing X], left off at [Y], next up is [Z].
You've been going for [daily total] today. [Break suggestion].
When you're back, just say "back" or /breather:back.
Keep it warm but short. They're taking a break. Don't make them read a wall of text first.
