ctx-status

name	ctx-status
description	Show context summary. Use at session start or when unclear about current project state.
allowed-tools	Bash(ctx:*)

Show the current context status: files, token budget, tasks, and recent activity.

When to Use

• At session start to orient before doing work
• When confused about what is being worked on or what context exists
• To check token usage and context health
• When the user asks "what's the state of the project?"

When NOT to Use

• When you already loaded context via /ctx-agent in this session (status is a subset of what agent provides)
• Repeatedly within the same session without changes in between

Usage Examples

/ctx-status
/ctx-status --verbose
/ctx-status --json

Flags

Flag	Short	Default	Purpose
--json		false	Output as JSON (for scripting)
--verbose	-v	false	Include file content previews

What It Shows

The output has three sections:

1. Overview

• Context directory path
• Total file count
• Token estimate (sum across all .md files in the context directory)

2. Files

Each .md file in the context directory with:

Indicator	Meaning
check	File has content (loaded)
circle	File exists but is empty

File-specific summaries:

• CONSTITUTION.md: number of invariants
• TASKS.md: active and completed task counts
• DECISIONS.md: number of decisions
• GLOSSARY.md: number of terms
• Others: "loaded" or "empty"

With --verbose: adds token count, byte size, and a 3-line content preview per file.

3. Recent Activity

The 3 most recently modified files with relative timestamps (e.g., "5 minutes ago", "2 hours ago").

Execution

ctx status

After running, summarize the key points for the user:

• How many active tasks remain
• Whether any context files are empty (might need populating)
• Token budget usage (is context lean or bloated?)
• What was recently modified (gives a sense of momentum)

Interpreting Results

Observation	Suggestion
Many empty files	Context is sparse; populate core files (TASKS, CONVENTIONS)
High token count (>30k)	Consider ctx compact or archiving completed tasks
No recent activity	Context may be stale; check if files need updating
TASKS.md has 0 active	All work done, or tasks need to be added

Quality Checklist

After running status, verify:

• Summarized the output for the user (do not just dump raw output without commentary)
• Flagged any empty core files that should be populated
• Noted token budget if it seems high or low