session-start

session-start is a skill for Claude Code from jkm-4314/claude-code-skills. It costs 25 tokens per session (1,328 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A session-start procedure that loads a project's guidance, architecture notes, recent session history, roadmap, and coding patterns. It runs only when explicitly requested.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to begin a tracked session by reading available project documentation and preparing the agent to continue existing work.
Why use it?
It gives an agent the relevant project context at the beginning of a work session, reducing repeated setup and missed conventions.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: allowed-tools in frontmatter. Also seen: reads .claude/ paths; mentions CLAUDE.md.

Good fit Use it to begin a tracked session by reading available project documentation…

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Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/jkm-4314/claude-code-skills/session-start
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent
npx skills add jkm-4314/claude-code-skills --skill session-start
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/jkm-4314/claude-code-skills

Made for: Claude Code.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for session-start

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/jkm-4314/claude-code-skills/session-start.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/jkm-4314/claude-code-skills/session-start)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/jkm-4314/claude-code-skills/session-start"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/jkm-4314/claude-code-skills/session-start.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 25 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,328 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00025 $0.01328
Opus 5 $0.00013 $0.00664
Sonnet 5 $0.00005 $0.00266
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00133

Measured 6d ago against content hash e7a1cfa6298d, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-06, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

session-start scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 6d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

session-start/SKILL.md · 121 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 121 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Session Start Protocol

You are initializing a work session. Follow these steps.

Scope note: Do not auto-fire this skill on every new Claude session. It runs only when the user explicitly invokes it. Working outside a formal session is fully supported — if the user doesn't invoke this skill, skip session-tracking entirely.

Override note: This is the generic global version. If this project has a project-level session-start skill (in .claude/skills/session-start/), that version runs instead of this one and may include project-specific app startup logic.

Step 1: Load Context

Read these files in order (skip any that don't exist):

  1. CLAUDE.md — Project conventions and session lifecycle (if present)
  2. .claude/CONTEXT.md — Project architecture, tech stack, current state
  3. .claude/SESSION_LOG.md — Recent sessions (top 2-3 entries are enough)
  4. ROADMAP.md — Progress tracking (skim "Recent Updates" section)
  5. PATTERNS.md or .claude/PATTERNS.md — Code conventions

Reference as needed:

  • .claude/DECISIONS.md — Architectural decisions with rationale
  • .claude/MISTAKES.md — Failed approaches (check before trying something new)

Step 2: Verify Log is Current

Run git log --oneline -5 and cross-reference against the most recent SESSION_LOG.md entry. Flag any commits not reflected in the log — they may need to be folded into today's entry at session end.

Step 3: Check for Today's Session Entry

Read the top of .claude/SESSION_LOG.md.

Dates use MM-DD-YYYY format (e.g., 04-13-2026, not 2026-04-13).

If the top entry's date matches today's date (e.g., today is 04-13-2026 and the top entry starts with ## 04-13-2026 - Session NNN:):

  • Do NOT create a new entry. Today's session is a continuation of an existing entry (same-day multi-agent / context-cleared work appends to one entry per day).
  • Note the existing session number for the Step 6 confirmation.
  • Skip Step 4; continue to Step 5.

If the top entry's date is before today:

  • Determine today's session number by incrementing the most recent session number.
  • Continue to Step 4.

Read the full file on GitHub · 121 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 6d ago First seen · 121 lines · 25 tokens per session scan A e7a1cfa6298d

Subscribe to this mod's changes

session-start is a skill published in the GitHub repository jkm-4314/claude-code-skills (4 stars, last pushed 3mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 25 tokens to every session and 1,328 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.