Context Recovery Skill

Context Recovery Skill

You have the ability to recover working context from the journal to restore continuity after context loss.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill automatically and proactively when:

1. After /​clear command

   • User cleared conversation history
   • Need to restore what they were working on
   • Should happen immediately without asking

2. Session start questions

   • "What was I working on?"
   • "Where did we leave off?"
   • "What did I do yesterday?"
   • "Catch me up"

3. Context seems lost

   • User references past work you don't have context for
   • Conversation appears to resume mid-task
   • User seems to expect you to remember something

4. Beginning of new work

   • User wants to continue previous project
   • Need to understand recent changes
   • Planning next steps based on past work

How to Recover Context

Step 1: Fetch recent entries

journal_list_recent(
  limit=10  # Adjust based on need
)

Step 2: Analyze and summarize

• Identify the most recent project
• Determine what was accomplished
• Note any in-progress work
• Highlight blockers or open questions

Step 3: Present concisely Show the user:

• What they were working on (project/​feature)
• What was completed recently
• What might be next
• Key context or decisions

Presentation Format

**Recent Work Context**

You were working on [project name], focusing on [main task].

Recent accomplishments:
- [Most recent significant work]
- [Previous work]
- [Earlier work]

Last activity: [What happened most recently]

Ready to continue? [Natural follow-up question]

Examples

Example 1: After /​clear

[User runs /​clear command]
→ journal_list_recent(limit=10)
→ "You were working on my-api, implementing OAuth2 authentication.
   Last thing was configuring JWT token expiration.
   Ready to continue with the auth flow?"

Example 2: Session start

User: "What was I doing yesterday?"
→ journal_time_query(time_expression="yesterday")
→ "Yesterday you worked on:
   - Fixed cache memory leak in api-service
   - Started implementing Redis integration
   - Reviewed and merged 2 PRs
   Want to continue with the Redis work?"

Example 3: Project context

User: "Let's continue with the mobile app"
→ journal_list_recent(project="mobile-app", limit=15)
→ "For mobile-app, you recently:
   - Implemented push notifications
   - Fixed iOS crash on startup
   - Updated dependencies
   All tests passing. What's next?"

Example 4: Lost context reference

User: "Update that authentication thing we did"
→ journal_search(query="authentication", limit=5)
→ "Found your OAuth2 implementation from [date]:
   [Brief summary of what was done]
   What updates are needed?"

Advanced Recovery

Time-based recovery:

journal_time_query(
  time_expression="last week",
  query="optional search term"
)

Search-based recovery:

journal_search(
  query="specific feature or technology",
  limit=10
)

Project statistics:

journal_stats()  # Get overview of all work

Best Practices

1. Be proactive: Don't wait for user to ask
2. Be concise: Summarize, don't dump raw entries
3. Be relevant: Focus on most recent/​important work
4. Be actionable: Suggest next steps
5. Be smart: Use time queries when appropriate

What to Avoid

Don't:

• Show raw entry dumps (always summarize)
• Overwhelm with too much history
• Recover context when not needed
• Ask if they want context (just provide it)
• Forget to check project filters

Integration with Other Skills

Combine with:

• journal-capture: After recovering context and completing new work
• find-related-work: When user needs deeper history on a specific topic