Recover Workflow Context

Quick Summary

Goal: Restore workflow state and todo items from checkpoint files after context loss or session interruption.

Workflow:

1. Find Checkpoint — Locate latest checkpoint-*.md in reports directory (legacy memory-checkpoint-*.md are also recognized)
2. Read Metadata — Extract JSON block with session ID, active plan, current step, pending todos
3. Restore Todos — Immediately call TaskCreate with pending items from checkpoint
4. Resume Workflow — Continue from the interrupted step using restored context

Key Rules:

• Always restore TaskCreate items before resuming any work
• Check both plans/​reports/ and plan-specific report directories
• Use timestamp to find the checkpoint closest to the interruption

Be skeptical. Apply critical thinking, sequential thinking. Every claim needs traced proof, confidence percentages (Idea should be more than 80%).

Recover Workflow Context

Restore workflow state and todo items from checkpoint files after context compaction or session loss.

Usage

Use this command when:

• Context was compacted and you've lost track of the workflow
• Session was interrupted and needs to resume
• Todo items need to be restored from a checkpoint
• The automatic recovery didn't trigger

Recovery Process

Step 1: Find Latest Checkpoint

Look for checkpoint files in the reports directory:

ls -la plans/​reports/​checkpoint-*.md | tail -5

Or search for all recent checkpoints:

find plans -name "checkpoint-*.md" -mmin -60 | head -5

Step 2: Read Checkpoint File

Read the most recent checkpoint to understand the saved state:

Read the checkpoint file at: plans/​reports/​checkpoint-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS-slug.md

Step 3: Extract Recovery Metadata

The checkpoint file contains a JSON metadata block at the end:

{
  "sessionId": "...",
  "activePlan": "plans/​YYMMDD-slug/",
  "workflowType": "feature",
  "currentStep": "cook",
  "remainingSteps": ["test", "code-review"],
  "pendingTodos": [...]
}

Step 4: Restore Todo Items

IMMEDIATELY call TaskCreate with the pending todos from the checkpoint:

[
    { "content": "[Workflow] /​cook - Implement", "status": "in_progress", "activeForm": "Executing /​cook" },
    { "content": "[Workflow] /​test - Run tests", "status": "pending", "activeForm": "Executing /​test" },
    { "content": "[Workflow] /​code-review - Review code", "status": "pending", "activeForm": "Executing /​code-review" }
]

Step 5: Read Active Plan (if exists)

If activePlan is set in the metadata, read the plan file:

Read: {activePlan}/​plan.md

Step 6: Continue Workflow

Resume from the currentStep identified in the metadata. Execute the remaining workflow steps in order.

Recovery Checklist

• Located most recent checkpoint file
• Read checkpoint content
• Extracted recovery metadata JSON
• Restored todo items via TaskCreate
• Read active plan (if applicable)
• Identified current workflow step
• Ready to continue from interrupted step

Automatic vs Manual Recovery

Checkpoint Locations

Checkpoints are saved to different locations based on context:

1. Active plan exists: {plan-path}/​reports/​checkpoint-*.md
2. No active plan: plans/​reports/​checkpoint-*.md

Legacy memory-checkpoint-*.md files (written before the grammar was unified) are still matched by the resume/​recover globs — back-read is preserved, nothing on disk is orphaned.

Tips

1. Check multiple locations - Plans may have their own reports directories
2. Use timestamp - Checkpoints are timestamped, find the one closest to when you were working
3. Verify todo status - Compare checkpoint todos with current TaskCreate state
4. Read incrementally - Don't try to restore everything at once

Related Commands

• /​checkpoint - Create a manual checkpoint (before expected loss)
• /​compact - Manually trigger context compaction
• /​context - Load project context
• /​watzup - Generate progress summary

Example Recovery Flow

User: /​recover

Claude: Let me find and restore your workflow context.

1. Finding latest checkpoint...
   Found: plans/​reports/​checkpoint-20260110-143025-new-feature.md

2. Reading checkpoint metadata...
   - Workflow: feature
   - Current step: /​cook
   - Remaining: /​test, /​code-review
   - Active plan: plans/​260110-1430-new-feature/

3. Restoring TaskCreate items...
   [Calling TaskCreate with 3 pending items]

4. Reading active plan...
   [Reading plans/​260110-1430-new-feature/​plan.md]

5. Ready to continue from /​cook step.
   Shall I proceed with the implementation?

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[IMPORTANT] Use TaskCreate to break ALL work into small tasks BEFORE starting — including tasks for each file read. This prevents context loss from long files. For simple tasks, AI MUST ATTENTION ask user whether to skip.

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AI Mistake Prevention — Failure modes to avoid on every task:

Check downstream references before deleting. Deleting components causes documentation and code staleness cascades. Map all referencing files before removal. Verify AI-generated content against actual code. AI hallucinates APIs, class names, and method signatures. Always grep to confirm existence before documenting or referencing. Trace full dependency chain after edits. Changing a definition misses downstream variables and consumers derived from it. Always trace the full chain. Trace ALL code paths when verifying correctness. Confirming code exists is not confirming it executes. Always trace early exits, error branches, and conditional skips — not just happy path. When debugging, ask "whose responsibility?" before fixing. Trace whether bug is in caller (wrong data) or callee (wrong handling). Fix at responsible layer — never patch symptom site. Assume existing values are intentional — ask WHY before changing. Before changing any constant, limit, flag, or pattern: read comments, check git blame, examine surrounding code. Verify ALL affected outputs, not just the first. Changes touching multiple stacks require verifying EVERY output. One green check is not all green checks. Holistic-first debugging — resist nearest-attention trap. When investigating any failure, list EVERY precondition first (config, env vars, DB names, endpoints, DI registrations, data preconditions), then verify each against evidence before forming any code-layer hypothesis. Surgical changes — apply the diff test. Bug fix: every changed line must trace directly to the bug. Don't restyle or improve adjacent code. Enhancement task: implement improvements AND announce them explicitly. Surface ambiguity before coding — don't pick silently. If request has multiple interpretations, present each with effort estimate and ask. Never assume all-records, file-based, or more complex path. Keep domain concepts out of generic/​shared/​infrastructure layers. A reusable layer (shared library, framework, infra module) must reference NO consumer-specific domain concept — tenant/​customer/​product IDs, business entities, feature rules. The leak compiles and runs, so it passes review silently while coupling the "reusable" layer to one consumer. Push domain fields/​logic down into the consumer via subclass or composition.

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Critical Thinking Mindset — Apply critical thinking, sequential thinking. Every claim needs traced proof, confidence >80% to act. Anti-hallucination: Never present guess as fact — cite sources for every claim, admit uncertainty freely, self-check output for errors, cross-reference independently, stay skeptical of own confidence — certainty without evidence root of all hallucination.

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MUST ATTENTION apply critical thinking — every claim needs traced proof, confidence >80% to act. Anti-hallucination: never present guess as fact.

<!-- /​SYNC:critical-thinking-mindset:reminder --> <!-- SYNC:ai-mistake-prevention:reminder -->

MUST ATTENTION apply AI mistake prevention — holistic-first debugging, fix at responsible layer, surface ambiguity before coding, re-read files after compaction.

<!-- /​SYNC:ai-mistake-prevention:reminder -->

Closing Reminders

IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION break work into small todo tasks using TaskCreate BEFORE starting IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION search codebase for 3+ similar patterns before creating new code IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION cite file:line evidence for every claim (confidence >80% to act) IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION add a final review todo task to verify work quality

[TASK-PLANNING] Before acting, analyze task scope and systematically break it into small todo tasks and sub-tasks using TaskCreate.