Rai Session Start

Session Start

Purpose

Load context bundle from CLI, interpret signals, and propose focused work for the session.

Mastery Levels (ShuHaRi)

• Shu: Explain context, progress metrics, and concepts in presentation
• Ha: Explain only new or non-obvious signals
• Ri: Minimal output — context line, focus, signals, "Go."

Context

When to use: At the start of every working session.

When to skip: Continuation of an active session (context already loaded).

Inputs: Developer profile (~/.rai/developer.yaml). If no profile exists, ask for the developer's name and pass --name "Name".

Steps

Step 1: Load Orientation Bundle

rai session start --project . --context

Loads developer profile, session state, and orientation bundle. If graph unavailable: run rai graph build first.

IMPORTANT: This is the ONLY CLI command in this skill. The context bundle output is complete — do NOT invent additional flags (e.g. --section), sub-commands (e.g. rai context load), or follow-up CLI calls to "fetch more". If the bundle mentions available context sections, that information is for display only. All interpretation happens in Step 2 using inference, not additional tool calls.

Step 2: Interpret & Present

1. Check signals (priority order):

   • Next session prompt → guidance from your past self, highest-priority continuity
   • Release/deadline pressure → flag urgency with days remaining
   • Session narrative → review decisions, research, artifacts for continuity
   • Pending decisions or blockers → address first
   • Communication preferences → adapt tone

2. Check MCP health (non-blocking, never alarming):

   • Run rai mcp list to detect registered servers
   • If no servers registered: skip silently (no output)
   • If servers found: run rai mcp health <name> for each
   • Collect status: healthy count, unhealthy count, total
   • If health check fails (missing module, connection error, etc.): report as "not connected" — never show tracebacks or error details to the user. MCP servers are optional integrations, not critical infrastructure

3. Propose session focus from: pending items > current story/phase > deadlines

4. Present (adapt verbosity to developer level):

## Session: YYYY-MM-DD

**Context:** [Release →] [Epic] → [Story], [phase]
**Focus:** [goal]
**MCP:** [{total} servers, all healthy] or [{total} servers, {N} not connected — run /rai-mcp-status]
**Signals:** [any, or "None"]

Omit the MCP: line entirely if no servers are registered.

Output

Quality Checklist

• Orientation bundle loaded successfully
• Signals interpreted in priority order
• Session focus proposed from pending work
• Verbosity adapted to developer ShuHaRi level
• MCP health checked when servers registered (silent skip if none)

References

• Profile: ~/.rai/developer.yaml
• Session state: .raise/rai/session-state.yaml
• MCP: rai mcp list, rai mcp health, /rai-mcp-status
• Complement: /rai-session-close