context-save
The facts
Its description
Save working context. (gstack) Triggers: save progress; save state; save my work; context save
The description the agent reads to decide when to use it. Phrases the author says should start it.
When it starts
A person asks to save their current working state or progress so a later session can pick it up, or types the /context-save command. The description and triggers are all about capturing session state, not doing work.
Things a person might say (the model's guesses)
- “save my progress before I switch branches”
- “context save”
- “save state, I'm stopping for the day”
A model's summary of when it is used.
Tools it may use, or may not
allowed-tools: Bash, Read, Write, Glob, Grep, AskUserQuestion
Tools it may use while it runs without asking you first.
Runs scripts
bin/gstack-skill-start, scripts/question-registry.ts, bin/gstack-question-preference, bin/gstack-question-log, bin/gstack-skill-end (first 5 of 15 lines)
Scripts the text names. Found by matching words, so treat them as pointers.
Stops for a person
4 lines stop to ask a person
Lines that stop and wait for a person before going on. Found by matching words, so treat them as pointers.
What it leads to
- hands off to context-restore line 323
Other skills this one hands off to, calls, requires or offers instead, as a model read them.
What leads to it
- context-restore hands off to this only when no checkpoint was found context-restore/transcripts.md, line 135
- gstack hands off to this PROACTIVE all, or user names it gstack, line 225
Other skills that hand off to this one, call it, require it or offer it instead, as a model read them.
Licence
MIT, from LICENSE
The terms its author shares it under, which let it be shown here.
Other files in this skill (1) Close
The text
Most marks come from matching words in the file, so treat them as pointers.
<!-- AUTO-GENERATED from SKILL.md.tmpl — do not edit directly --> <!-- Regenerate: bun run gen:skill-docs -->
Raw lines 1 to 21Boilerplate, lines 22 to 78. The same text appears in 45 other files here. Close
Telemetry (run last)
After workflow completion, log telemetry with ONE command. OUTCOME is success/error/abort/unknown; SESSION_ID and TEL_START are the values the preamble's skill-start output echoed. It also drains the artifacts-sync queue (the former skill-end sync step — do not run gstack-brain-sync separately).
PLAN MODE EXCEPTION — ALWAYS RUN: This writes telemetry to $GSTACK_STATE_ROOT/analytics/, matching preamble analytics writes.
~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-skill-end --skill "context-save" --outcome OUTCOME \
--session-id "SESSION_ID" --tel-start "TEL_START" --used-browse USED_BROWSE \
--error-message "ERROR_MESSAGE" --failed-step "FAILED_STEP" 2>/dev/null || trueReplace OUTCOME and USED_BROWSE (yes/no) before running; substitute SESSION_ID/TEL_START from the skill-start echoes. ERROR_MESSAGE/FAILED_STEP are "" unless outcome is error. If the command is missing (stale install), skip telemetry — it never blocks the workflow.
/context-save — Save Working Context
You are a Staff Engineer who keeps meticulous session notes. Your job is to capture the full working context — what's being done, what decisions were made, what's left — so that any future session (even on a different branch or workspace) can resume without losing a beat via /context-restore.
HARD GATE: Do NOT implement code changes. This skill captures state only.
Raw lines 79 to 110
Detect command
Parse the user's input to determine the mode:
/context-saveor/context-save <title>→ Save/context-save list→ List
If the user provides a title after the command (e.g., /context-save auth refactor), use it as the title. Otherwise, infer a title from the current work.
If the user types /context-save resume or /context-save restore, tell them: "Use /context-restore to resume — restoring is a separate skill."
Raw lines 111 to 125
Save flow
Raw lines 126 to 127Step 1: Gather state
GSTACK_STATE_ROOT=$(~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-paths --get GSTACK_STATE_ROOT); : "${GSTACK_STATE_ROOT:?gstack-paths failed; reinstall with ./setup or /gstack-upgrade}"
SLUG=$(~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-slug --get SLUG 2>/dev/null) && mkdir -p "$GSTACK_STATE_ROOT/projects/$SLUG" && echo "PROJECT_DIR: $GSTACK_STATE_ROOT/projects/$SLUG"Collect the current working state:
echo "=== BRANCH ==="
git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD 2>/dev/null
echo "=== STATUS ==="
git status --short 2>/dev/null
echo "=== DIFF STAT ==="
git diff --stat 2>/dev/null
echo "=== STAGED DIFF STAT ==="
git diff --cached --stat 2>/dev/null
echo "=== RECENT LOG ==="
git log --oneline -10 2>/dev/nullRaw lines 128 to 149Step 2: Summarize context
Using the gathered state plus your conversation history, produce a summary covering:
- What's being worked on — the high-level goal or feature
- Decisions made — architectural choices, trade-offs, approaches chosen and why
- Remaining work — concrete next steps, in priority order, each marked with how this session knows it (see the provenance table below)
- Notes — anything a future session needs to know (gotchas, blocked items, open questions, things that were tried and didn't work)
Remaining Work provenance. Every item starts with the status Open. and never with a completion token such as [done] or [executed]. Then pick its trailing marker by the first rule that applies:
| # | The item is... | Marker | Use when this session... |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | a writing step (migration, sync, insert, import, a dialog that writes), with or without a concrete path | (target state checked) | inspected the target's schema or state (for example the unique key) |
(code read) | read the writer but not the target | ||
(path assumed) | inferred the write without reading either | ||
| 2 | otherwise, names a concrete path: a runnable command, CLI flag or switch, config key or value, or file or directory path | (path run) | executed it and observed the outcome; state the outcome in the item (exit 0, failed: <reason>) |
(path read) | read the code or file but did not execute it | ||
(path assumed) | inferred it without running or reading it, however confident | ||
| 3 | anything else | none | (Open. alone) |
Writing steps have their own markers because whether a write is safe to repeat depends on the target's state, not on the code that writes. Examples: Open. Run the suite with CONFIG=staging. (path run) exit 0 and Open. Switch B reads config Y. (path assumed).
Markers stay English literals. /context-restore sorts on the exact strings (path run), (path read), (path assumed), (target state checked), and (code read). Never translate them, even when the rest of the checkpoint is in another language. After drafting Remaining Work, scan each item that should have a marker: if it ends in a parenthesised token that is not one of those five, or has no marker when the table requires one, rewrite that item before writing the file (preferred), or add a Remaining Work item that names the bad line so restore puts it under Verify first.
Decisions Made and file claims. Provenance above covers Remaining Work only. Any statement in Decisions Made about the contents of a concrete file (item counts, line counts, section names) must be backed by a grep/wc/Read in this turn, or rewritten with an honest (path assumed) note in Remaining Work that restore will verify first. Do not record an unchecked file claim as fact.
If the user provided a title, use it. Otherwise, infer a concise title (3-6 words) from the work being done.
Raw lines 150 to 197Step 3: Compute session duration
Try to determine how long this session has been active:
if [ -n "$_TEL_START" ]; then
START_EPOCH="$_TEL_START"
elif [ -n "$PPID" ]; then
_LSTART=$(ps -o lstart= -p "$PPID" 2>/dev/null)
# BSD date (macOS) parses with -jf; GNU date (Linux) with -d. Never parse an
# empty start: GNU date -d "" means today at midnight.
[ -n "$_LSTART" ] && START_EPOCH=$(date -jf "%c" "$_LSTART" "+%s" 2>/dev/null || date -d "$_LSTART" "+%s" 2>/dev/null || echo "")
fi
if [ -n "$START_EPOCH" ]; then
NOW=$(date +%s)
DURATION=$((NOW - START_EPOCH))
echo "SESSION_DURATION_S=$DURATION"
else
echo "SESSION_DURATION_S=unknown"
fiIf the duration cannot be determined, omit the session_duration_s field from the saved file.
Step 4: Write saved-context file
Compute the path in bash (NOT in the LLM prompt) so user-supplied titles can't inject shell metacharacters into any subsequent command. The sanitizer is an allowlist: only a-z 0-9 - . survive.
GSTACK_STATE_ROOT=$(~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-paths --get GSTACK_STATE_ROOT); : "${GSTACK_STATE_ROOT:?gstack-paths failed; reinstall with ./setup or /gstack-upgrade}"
SLUG=$(~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-slug --get SLUG 2>/dev/null) && mkdir -p "$GSTACK_STATE_ROOT/projects/$SLUG" && echo "PROJECT_DIR: $GSTACK_STATE_ROOT/projects/$SLUG"
GSTACK_STATE_ROOT=$(~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-paths --get GSTACK_STATE_ROOT); : "${GSTACK_STATE_ROOT:?gstack-paths failed; reinstall with ./setup or /gstack-upgrade}"
CHECKPOINT_DIR="$GSTACK_STATE_ROOT/projects/$SLUG/checkpoints"
mkdir -p "$CHECKPOINT_DIR"
TIMESTAMP=$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)
# Bash-side title sanitize. Pass the raw title via TITLE_RAW when running this block.
# Example: TITLE_RAW="wintermute progress" bash -c '...'
RAW="${TITLE_RAW:-untitled}"
# Lowercase, collapse whitespace to hyphens, strip to allowlist, cap length.
TITLE_SLUG=$(printf '%s' "$RAW" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' | tr -s ' \t' '-' | tr -cd 'a-z0-9.-' | cut -c1-60)
TITLE_SLUG="${TITLE_SLUG:-untitled}"
# Collision-safe filename: if ${TIMESTAMP}-${SLUG}.md already exists (same-second
# double save with same title), append a short random suffix. Filenames are
# append-only — never overwrite.
FILE="${CHECKPOINT_DIR}/${TIMESTAMP}-${TITLE_SLUG}.md"
if [ -e "$FILE" ]; then
SUFFIX=$(LC_ALL=C tr -dc 'a-z0-9' < /dev/urandom 2>/dev/null | head -c 4 || printf '%04x' "$$")
FILE="${CHECKPOINT_DIR}/${TIMESTAMP}-${TITLE_SLUG}-${SUFFIX}.md"
fi
echo "CHECKPOINT_DIR=$CHECKPOINT_DIR"
echo "TIMESTAMP=$TIMESTAMP"
echo "FILE=$FILE"The on-disk directory name is checkpoints/ (not contexts/) — this is a legacy path kept so existing saved files remain loadable. Users never see it.
Write the file to the $FILE path printed above (use the exact string — do not reconstruct it in the LLM layer).
The file format:
---
status: in-progress
branch: {current branch name}
timestamp: {ISO-8601 timestamp, e.g. 2026-04-18T14:30:00-07:00}
session_duration_s: {computed duration, omit if unknown}
files_modified:
- path/to/file1
- path/to/file2
---
## Working on: {title}
### Summary
{1-3 sentences describing the high-level goal and current progress}
### Decisions Made
{Bulleted list of architectural choices, trade-offs, and reasoning}
### Remaining Work
{Numbered list of concrete next steps, in priority order. Each item starts with `Open.` and ends with its provenance marker from Step 2, or no marker under rule 3.}
### Notes
{Gotchas, blocked items, open questions, things tried that didn't work}The files_modified list comes from git status --short (both staged and unstaged modified files). Use relative paths from the repo root. Do not write remote:, project_root:, worktree: or head: yourself; the stamp step below adds them.
Then stamp the project identity. Several projects can share one checkpoints directory, so /context-restore needs to know which project wrote each file. The helper adds remote: (canonical origin: lowercased host, no credentials, port or .git), project_root:, in a linked worktree worktree:, and head: (the commit this save describes, so /context-restore can tell when work landed after it) to the frontmatter. When the session started in another directory that files elsewhere (a non-git parent of this repo), it also leaves a pointer there so /context-restore in that directory finds this save:
FILE="<the FILE path printed above>"
~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-slug --stamp-checkpoint "$FILE" && echo "STAMPED"
[ -z "${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR:-}" ] || ~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-slug --point-from "$CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR" "$FILE" 2>/dev/null || trueAfter writing, confirm to the user:
CONTEXT SAVED
════════════════════════════════════════
Title: {title}
Branch: {branch}
File: {path to saved file}
Modified: {N} files
Duration: {duration or "unknown"}
════════════════════════════════════════
Restore later with /context-restore.Raw lines 223 to 327
List flow
Raw lines 328 to 329Step 1: Gather saved contexts
GSTACK_STATE_ROOT=$(~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-paths --get GSTACK_STATE_ROOT); : "${GSTACK_STATE_ROOT:?gstack-paths failed; reinstall with ./setup or /gstack-upgrade}"
SLUG=$(~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-slug --get SLUG 2>/dev/null) && mkdir -p "$GSTACK_STATE_ROOT/projects/$SLUG" && echo "PROJECT_DIR: $GSTACK_STATE_ROOT/projects/$SLUG"
GSTACK_STATE_ROOT=$(~/.claude/skills/gstack/bin/gstack-paths --get GSTACK_STATE_ROOT); : "${GSTACK_STATE_ROOT:?gstack-paths failed; reinstall with ./setup or /gstack-upgrade}"
CHECKPOINT_DIR="$GSTACK_STATE_ROOT/projects/$SLUG/checkpoints"
if [ -d "$CHECKPOINT_DIR" ]; then
echo "CHECKPOINT_DIR=$CHECKPOINT_DIR"
# Use find + sort instead of ls -1t: filename YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS prefix is the
# canonical order (stable across copies/rsync; mtime is not), and empty-result
# behavior is clean (no files → no output, no "lists cwd" fallback).
find "$CHECKPOINT_DIR" -maxdepth 1 -name "*.md" -type f 2>/dev/null | sort -r
else
echo "NO_CHECKPOINTS"
fiRaw lines 330 to 347Step 2: Display table
Default behavior: Show saved contexts for the current branch only.
If the user passes --all (e.g., /context-save list --all), show contexts from all branches.
Read the frontmatter of each file to extract status, branch, and timestamp. Parse the title from the filename (the part after the timestamp).
Present as a table:
SAVED CONTEXTS ({branch} branch)
════════════════════════════════════════
# Date Title Status
─ ────────── ─────────────────────── ───────────
1 2026-04-18 auth-refactor in-progress
2 2026-04-17 api-pagination completed
3 2026-04-15 db-migration-setup in-progress
════════════════════════════════════════If --all is used, add a Branch column:
SAVED CONTEXTS (all branches)
════════════════════════════════════════
# Date Title Branch Status
─ ────────── ─────────────────────── ────────────────── ───────────
1 2026-04-18 auth-refactor feat/auth in-progress
2 2026-04-17 api-pagination main completed
3 2026-04-15 db-migration-setup feat/db-migration in-progress
════════════════════════════════════════If there are no saved contexts, tell the user: "No saved contexts yet. Run /context-save to save your current working state."
Raw lines 348 to 388
Important Rules
- Never modify code. This skill only reads state and writes the context file.
- Always include the branch name in frontmatter — critical for cross-branch
/context-restore. - Saved files are append-only. Never overwrite or delete existing files. Each save creates a new file.
- Infer, don't interrogate. Use git state and conversation context to fill in the file. Only use AskUserQuestion if the title genuinely cannot be inferred.
- This is a gstack skill, not a Claude Code built-in. When the user types
/context-save, invoke this skill via the Skill tool.
From garrytan/gstack at 3f79d81, 2026-11-01. Skills read by DeepSeek V4.1 Flash on 2026-11-04. Summary and techniques by Claude Opus 5.5 on 2026-11-06.