| name | start |
| description | Open a working session — orient to where work was left off, run a structured interview on a greenfield repo, check the context gauge to confirm it's really session-start, then recommend planning with context already warm. The opening bookend to /wrap. Use when the user says "let's start", "pick up where we left off", "what were we doing", "start a session", or invokes /start. |
| allowed-tools | Bash, Read, Grep, Glob, TaskList, TaskGet, AskUserQuestion |
Start — open the session
Open a working session by getting oriented first, then handing the operator a warm
runway into planning. This is the on-demand opening bookend to wrap: wrap reads
the context gauge to confirm the session is near its end; start reads the same
gauge to confirm it's near its beginning.
Step 0 — Read the gauge, and guard the beginning
Before anything else, confirm this really is a start:
ways context --json
Starting is a beginning-of-session act. Locate the fill level:
- Early (well below the curves — e.g. under ~30%): the expected state. Proceed.
- Mid/late (half or more of the window spent): dissuade, don't pretend. Opening
fresh work deep into a used window strands it against the next compaction. Say so
plainly, and offer the better move:
/wrap if a piece just finished, or /clear and
a fresh window if switching tasks. Only continue a start here if the operator
insists.
Step 1 — Read the state (where did we leave off?)
Assess in parallel — the opening move depends entirely on what you find:
git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree 2>/dev/null
git status --short
git branch --show-current
git log --oneline -5
Also check for continuity markers: the TaskList (via the tool), any tracking files
under .claude/, and the CLAUDE.md where this was invoked. tracking(meta) is the
discipline here — check for existing tracking before beginning anything.
Step 2 — Branch on what you found
- Work in flight (uncommitted changes, an open branch, live TaskList tasks) → this
is a resume, not a cold start. Summarize where things stand and what the next
concrete step is. Read the TaskList to square your understanding before proposing
work — mutating it is the job of
/wrap and /develop, not start.
- Clean
main, prior history → a fresh piece of work in an established project.
Read CLAUDE.md and recent history for the project's shape; propose candidate
directions grounded in what the repo is.
- Greenfield (empty repo, or no repo) → nothing to pick up. Do not invent a
plausible task. Go to Step 3.
Step 3 — Greenfield: structured interview
When there's nothing to resume, the referent of "let's start" is itself the
uncertainty — name it, don't hunt for it. Interview the operator, structured
(AskUserQuestion where it helps): what are we building, what's the end-state, what
constraints bound it, what's the first load-bearing question. Enough to frame intent —
not a full plan yet.
Step 4 — Recommend planning (warm context, can't self-invoke)
By now the context is warm — state read, intent framed. That's the whole reason the
order is start-then-plan: plan mode should inherit an oriented situation, not a blank
page.
A skill cannot flip plan mode for you — Claude Code forbids skills/hooks from
firing / commands (the same constraint wrap has with /compact). So either run a
lightweight planning pass inline, or recommend the operator enter plan mode now
that the ground is prepared. Don't claim to have entered a mode you can't.
If the work is multi-turn with a checkable end-state, mention /goal and the
goal-author skill as the autonomy path.
Key Principles
- Gauge first — start is a beginning-of-session act; dissuade a mid-session start.
- Read before proposing — the opening move is dictated by the actual state, not a guess.
- Greenfield gets an interview, never an invented task.
- Warm the context, then hand off to planning — prepare, don't pretend to enter plan mode.
Not for
- Doing the development work itself — that's
/develop and the stage skills.
- Mid-session resumption deep into a used window — that's a
/wrap + fresh window, not a start.
See Also
wrap — the closing bookend; same gauge, opposite pole.develop — the loop start opens into.goal-author — composing a /goal condition when the work wants autonomy.context-status — the gauge start reads in Step 0.
