Brief Pause

brief-pause — checkpoint this session for a clean continuation

You are writing a markdown file that captures the current state of this session so a fresh Claude Code session can pick up without losing context.

Where to save

~/.claude/projects//briefs/brief-.md

Compute the paths yourself — no shell needed for the slug:

• ` = current working directory with every / replaced by - (e.g. cwd /Users/you/code/myapp → slug -Users-you-code-myapp`). You already know the cwd from your environment.
• briefs dir = /.claude/projects//briefs (absolute, your real home path).

You do need one shell call — the timestamp, since Claude has no clock:

date +%Y-%m-%d-%H%M%S   # local time — keeps the filename stamp consistent with the log stamp

The filename is brief-.md. Write it with the Write tool (it creates the briefs dir if missing) — don't shell out to create the file.

Before writing — capture git state (if this is a git repo)

Run git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree 2>/dev/null first. If it's a git repo:

• If there are uncommitted changes, offer to commit them at a logical checkpoint before pausing — git history is the exact record the next session reads; the brief only points at it. Don't force it, but a clean working tree + a referenced SHA range beats a brief describing uncommitted WIP.
• Capture the SHA range since the last brief so the next session can git log/git diff it: git log --oneline -10. Put the relevant range in Done (e.g. "since 6e9d902").
• Note anything not committed (intentional WIP) explicitly under Open.

What to write

Keep it tight — aim for ~25-40 lines. Distill, don't dump.

# Brief — 

**Flavor**: pause
**Created**: 
**Project**: 
**Read first**: `CLAUDE.md`, then [the SPECIFIC docs this work touches — scan the repo and name them; e.g. `docs/sync-design.md`, a spec, a feature README. Don't leave this as a bare `CLAUDE.md` placeholder.]

## Situation

## Done
- 
- 

## Do next
- 
- 

## Open
- 

## Verify before continuing
- 

After writing

1. Append the log entry via the shared helper (owns the format + trim + file pruning — don't hand-format the line). Pass the absolute briefs dir and the file you just wrote:

``bash ~/.claude/skills/_brief-shared/append-log.sh "" pause "" "" ``

1. Print the file path to the user.
2. One-line hint: "Open a fresh Claude Code session here and say /brief-resume to continue."

What NOT to include

• Don't dump the entire chat history — distill.
• Don't include reasoning chains, deliberation, or alternatives that were rejected.
• Don't include secrets / tokens / API keys — leave placeholders.
• Don't restate things the next session will discover from CLAUDE.md or other read-first docs.
• Don't recommend things you haven't actually verified.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: useaitechdad
• Source: useaitechdad/agent-skills
• License: Apache-2.0

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.