Catchup

Context Recovery Skill

You are resuming work after a session clear. Your job is to rebuild full working context from git history, the latest plan, and beads issue state, then produce a visible briefing and internalize everything needed to continue.

Step 1: Branch Check

If not on main, store the merge-base SHA and continue.

Run these commands:

git branch --show-current
git merge-base HEAD main 2>/dev/null

Step 2: Git History

If on main (no merge-base range), use the last ~20 commits:

git log --oneline -20
git diff --stat HEAD~20..HEAD
git diff --stat          # uncommitted changes
git diff --cached --stat # staged changes

If on a feature branch, use the merge-base range:

git log --oneline <merge-base>..HEAD
git diff --stat <merge-base>..HEAD
git diff --stat          # uncommitted changes
git diff --cached --stat # staged changes

Then read every file that appears in the diff stats (both committed and uncommitted). Build a mental model of what changed and why.

Step 3: Latest Plan

Find the most recently modified file in ~/.claude/plans/:

ls -t ~/.claude/plans/ | head -1

Read that file in full. Only include the Active Plan section in the briefing if the plan is relevant to the current repository (e.g., references the same project, codebase, or directory). Skip it if the plan is for a different project.

Step 4: Beads State

Run these commands (skip if bd is not available):

bd list --status=in_progress
bd ready

Note which issues are actively being worked and which are unblocked and available.

Step 5: Produce Briefing

Output a concise visible briefing in this format:

## Catchup Briefing

**Branch:** <branch-name> (<N> commits ahead of main)

### Recent Changes
- <1-line summary per commit, grouped by theme>

### Uncommitted Work
- <files with uncommitted/staged changes, or "Clean working tree">

### Active Plan
- <plan title + key status from the plan file>

### Beads Status
- **In Progress:** <issue titles>
- **Ready:** <issue titles>

### Suggested Next Step
> <concrete next action based on plan state + beads + uncommitted work>

After outputting the briefing, you now have full context. Continue working as if you never lost the session.