wrap-up

/wrap-up

What

The session continuity ritual. Sessions are ephemeral; knowledge is permanent. Wrap-up bridges sessions in both directions:

• Session END — capture exactly three things: what was DONE, what is PENDING, and what was LEARNED. Write them to .claude/handoff.md and flow durable learnings into MEMORY.md.
• Session START — load the handoff, memory, and instincts, then present a resume summary so no session starts blind.

When

• End of a working session — "done for today", "that's all", "signing off"
• Before switching projects or after a major milestone
• Implicit endings — "thanks" after completed tasks, "good enough for now": offer the handoff, don't just say goodbye
• Start of a session — "start session", "load handoff", "what were we working on"
• For a mid-session save without ending, use /checkpoint instead

How

Session End

1. Review the session — From git status/diff and the conversation: files touched, tasks completed vs unfinished, decisions made and why, user corrections observed.
2. Check uncommitted changes — If any exist, offer to commit before wrapping.
3. Write the handoff — .claude/handoff.md, using the format below. Single file, always overwritten — only the current state matters. If the existing handoff has pending tasks from someone else, ask before overwriting: merge, overwrite, or skip.
4. Extract learnings — Corrections and discoveries worth keeping go to MEMORY.md (via instinct-system); emerging patterns update .claude/instincts.md (via instinct-system). The handoff's Learned section is the trigger, not the destination — handoffs are ephemeral.
5. Confirm — Summarize the handoff and learnings captured for the user.

Handoff File Format (.claude/handoff.md)

Write it for a stranger with zero context — file paths, rationale, specific next steps. "Continue the refactor" is useless; "Refactor src/Orders/CreateOrder.cs to the Result pattern — see Catalog for the established pattern" is actionable.

# Session Handoff
 
> Generated: 2026-06-12 | Branch: feature/order-validation
 
## Completed
- [x

When multiple developers share the project, add a ## Decisions Made table (Decision | Choice | Rationale) and ## Open Questions.

Learning Extraction Checklist

1. Did the user correct anything? → MEMORY.md via instinct-system
2. Did we discover something non-obvious? → Learned section
3. Did we decide something with rationale? → document the "why"
4. Did a tool/approach fail? → note it so the next session doesn't retry it

Good learning: "EF compiled queries don't work with Include()". Bad learning: "Worked on Orders module" (vague) or "Used TimeProvider" (already a rule).

Session Start

1. Load context — Read .claude/handoff.md (pending work), MEMORY.md (permanent rules), .claude/instincts.md (patterns at 0.7+ confidence). Missing files are fine: note it and start clean — never block on them.
2. Detect the solution — Find .slnx/.sln (current dir, then parents, then children) so Roslyn MCP tools work from the first prompt.
3. Present a resume summary — Last session's work, pending tasks, active rules/instincts count, detected solution. Then ask what to work on — never auto-start pending work.

Example

Related

• /checkpoint — Mid-session save (commit + brief note) without ending the session
• instinct-system — Routes session learnings: patterns become instincts, user corrections become permanent MEMORY.md rules