Closing Ritual

Closing Ritual

Leave the work clean, verified, and handed off — so the next session (you or anyone) resumes in one step and nothing rots between now and then.

This is universal. It is NOT tied to any one project. "Use the closing skill" runs the same on a product repo, a skills folder, a one-off script — because the first move is always: figure out which project this was and gather its documents. You don't carry memory between sessions; the close re-grounds on the real artifacts every time.

Run these in order. Verify each with a command — never claim done from memory. If a step can't be satisfied, name the gap explicitly; do not paper over it.

The checklist

Create a Codex task checklist item per step and work them top to bottom.

1. Locate the project & gather its docs. Establish what you were working in this session: the git repo root (git rev-parse --show-toplevel from where the work happened), or the working dir if it's not a repo. Then collect that project's living documents — whatever it actually has: README, CHANGELOG, docs/, a status/handoff doc (e.g. SOTU/NEXT_SESSION/PROGRESS/TO-DO), ADRs, a domain index (e.g. SKILLS-INDEX.md for the skills folder), punch-lists. Don't assume a doc set — discover it. State the project and the docs you found; this is the ground truth the rest of the close reconciles against.

2. Merge & branch check. For every PR opened this session (in this repo), confirm state is MERGED (gh pr view <n> --json state). Delete merged feature branches. List any still-open PRs and say whose call the merge is. No orphan branches.

3. Tests green. Detect and run this project's test suite (e.g. npm test, pytest, make test, a scripts/ check). Report the real pass count from the output, not a remembered number. If the project has no suite, say so plainly and run whatever verification does exist (scripts, linters, a manual exercise). If anything fails, stop and surface it.

4. Session snapshot — context-keeper. BEFORE reconciling docs, write the append-only flight recorder for THIS project: invoke context-keeper (it defaults to the current repo's .codex/sessions/; it scaffolds the next-numbered file — fill its five sections from this session's real history). The raw record runs first.

5. Docs zero-drift. Reconcile the project's living docs (gathered in step 1) to what the code/state actually is now. Spot-check the claims that changed this session, or spawn a verifier agent for a true zero-drift check; fix any drift. Use the project-agnostic doc-keeper skill (it discovers and reconciles whatever docs the project has); for the Tiger Claw repo use the specialized tiger-doc-keeper (it knows that repo's SOTU/PROGRESS set + doc-CI guards). Leave evergreen process docs (AGENTS.md / GROUND_TRUTH-style) alone.

6. Memory — local AND Jumbo, both, always. 6a. Local: write the session's durable facts to this project's memory files: what shipped, key decisions and why, any new working rule. Convert relative dates to absolute. Add/refresh the one-line pointers in MEMORY.md. Don't save what the repo/git already records. 6b. Jumbo (shared memory): capture the same durable facts to Jumbo using this harness's brent-dev-memory capture tool (MCP memory_capture, or the local capture hook if MCP is absent) — one capture per fact-cluster, not one giant blob. Each capture carries: what shipped with its receipt (sha/tx/UTC), decisions in Brent's own words where he ruled, and any lesson worth other agents knowing. If this session proved an existing Jumbo memory WRONG, supersede it (memory_supersede) so the stale fact is retracted, never left beside the correction. Verify: the capture returns accepted_ids — read them and list them in the close report. If Jumbo is unreachable, say so loudly in the report (RED line) — a silent skip is a quiet state and forbidden. Never store counts that rot; store the query that produces them.

7. Git clean. End on the project's default branch, pulled up to date, no uncommitted changes. Confirm with git status --short --branch. (For a skills/library change, "clean" means backed up too — see its own backup flow, never a direct push to main.)

8. Handoff. Write a short Resume here: where things stand + the single concrete next step. Put it in the project's memory or a NEXT/handoff doc so it's found first.

9. Report. Give the operator one scannable close: the project, what shipped, the verified test count, doc/memory/git state, open PRs (and whose call), and the next step. State "done" only for what a command proved. Name any unverified gap plainly.

Honesty bar

This ritual exists to prevent silent rot and false confidence. A green claim without command output is not done. If you didn't verify it, say so. If a step doesn't apply to this project (no PRs, no test suite, no dashboard docs), mark it N/A with the reason — don't fabricate an artifact to satisfy the step.

Scope

A wrap-up, not new work. Don't start features here. If the close reveals a real problem (failing test, drift, un-merged work), surface it and let the operator decide — fixing it may be its own task, not part of the close.

Codex Runtime

Write current session snapshots only under .codex/sessions/. Treat historical .claude/sessions/ files as read-only evidence; never write new snapshots there.

Never expose or print secret, credential, or token values.

Mandatory dependencies:

• target Git repository
• repository test toolchain

Preflight each dependency using MCP/app capability discovery, CLI availability/version checks, read-only filesystem or Git checks for repositories, and provider auth-status commands without printing secrets, credentials, or tokens. If any mandatory dependency is unavailable, stop and report a concise blocked state naming the missing dependency and the next action needed.