Next

/next — manual NEXT_SESSION read

Use when the user wants to pick up where the last session left off and either the SessionStart hook didn't surface anything, was disabled, or the user wants to re-consult later in the session.

Procedure

1. Find the handoffs. The skill's lib scripts live at the plugin root, two levels up from this SKILL.md. Use the base directory Claude told you about for this skill:

   bun run "<skill-base-dir>/../../lib/handoffs.ts" --cwd "$(pwd)"
   

   The report lists every NEXT_SESSION.md under the project root, newest first, * on the newest and [local] on the one in the current cwd. Read the header line before anything else — it names the count, how far behind the local pointer is when it is not the newest, and how many commits have landed since the newest handoff was written.

2. Read the pointer the report marks *. Not the local one, unless they are the same file. Cwd varies between sessions in one project — an autonomous run in a subdirectory writes its own handoff — and reading the cwd-local file because it was closest is what cost a session real turns on 2026-08-18.

   • If the local file is not the newest, say so in one line before summarizing: which file you read, and how much staler the local one is.

   • If there are no handoffs at all: tell the user nothing is staged and stop. Don't synthesize a follow-up plan from thin air.

   • If the header says commits are behind it, the file describes a repo state that no longer exists. Get the window before summarizing anything:

     bun run "<skill-base-dir>/../../lib/handoffs.ts" --since <the file the report marked `*`>
     

     Commits and files that landed after the pointer was written, plus what is still uncommitted. Lead with what changed, and mark any open thread the window already covers as probably-done rather than reading it out as pending. Age measures the file, not the code: a 2026-08-18 session briefed from an accurately-reported 2h52m-old pointer that 14 commits had already obsoleted, and lost its first few turns to work that was already committed. Sessions end without a wrap routinely — treat a stale pointer as the normal case, not an anomaly.

3. Summarize "Start here" and "Open threads" in 2-3 sentences.

   • Mention the wrap timestamp from the file header so the user knows how stale it is.
   • An item the last session flagged as untested is a hypothesis, not a finding. Present it as one — never as a settled result.

4. Ask the user which thread to pick up.

   • Don't start work yet. Wait for them to choose.

What this skill does NOT do

• Write or modify any file. /next is read-only by design.
• Touch the tooling journal or retro files.

Edge cases

• +Nh after header on a line means the file moved after its own **Last wrapped:** header was written — mid-session reconciles the header does not describe. Trust the content over the header timestamp.
• stamp:edited means the file no longer matches the stamp /wrap wrote — someone hand-edited it since. Worth mentioning; hand-written items are usually the most load-bearing ones. stamp:assistant means it is exactly as the last wrap left it.
• If NEXT_SESSION.md exists but is empty or has no ## Open threads items, treat it as "stale stub" — tell the user it exists but holds nothing actionable.
• If the file is over ~16KB, summarize aggressively rather than reading the whole thing back. Long handoff files are a smell; flag it. Read the "Don't forget" section in full regardless — that section is where hard-won gotchas live, and a 2026-08-16 session spent two days re-deriving a fact staged there.