dogma: Skill for Claude Code

Session Management

This skill enacts the Algorithms Before Tokens axiom from MANIFESTO.md by encoding the full session lifecycle as a deterministic procedure. Session management is governed by AGENTS.md § Agent Communication — every rule in this skill derives from that section. Read AGENTS.md before deviating from any step below.

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1. File Structure

The scratchpad lives in .tmp/ at the workspace root. It is gitignored and never committed.

.tmp/
  <branch-slug>/          # branch name with / replaced by -
    _index.md             # one-line stubs of all closed sessions on this branch
    <YYYY-MM-DD>.md       # one file per session day — the active scratchpad

<branch-slug> examples:

• Branch main → .tmp/main/
• Branch feat/agent-skills → .tmp/feat-agent-skills/
• Branch docs/update-guides → .tmp/docs-update-guides/

The _index.md accumulates single-line stubs for every closed session on the branch. Future sessions read it for fast orientation without opening old files.

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2. Session Start

Context Snapshot Before Reset

Before calling prune_scratchpad.py --init during error recovery, save a snapshot of the current context:

uv run python scripts/prune_scratchpad.py --snapshot

This saves .tmp/<branch>/<date>-snapshot.yaml containing: task_name, task_parameters, timestamp, and active scratchpad section.

After re-entry into the failed task's decision point, compare contexts:

uv run python scripts/compare_context_snapshot.py \
  --snapshot ".tmp/$(git branch --show-current | tr '/' '-')/$(date +%Y-%m-%d)-snapshot.yaml"

If equivalent: true → do not re-attempt. Escalate to user: "My context is identical to the failed attempt. New direction needed."

Encoding point: Research basis: docs/research/orchestrator-autopilot-failure.md § Recommendation 5. Scripts: scripts/prune_scratchpad.py --snapshot, scripts/compare_context_snapshot.py.