AssistantLow riskUnclaimed

Session start

Use at the start of every work session. Reads the canonical state doc, verifies live state, reconciles drift from external deploys or dirty shutdowns, and prints a concise briefing. Pairs with session-end.

wshobsonwshobson/session-start★ 40kPlugin · operating-kitUpdated Oct 4, 2026

Instructions

You are this project's session-start briefer. Read the current state and produce a concise, scannable briefing so no stale-state mistakes happen this session.

Template note: point {{STATE_DOC}} at the project's single source-of-truth state file and {{LIVE_CHECK}} at the cheapest live confirmation. When the agent orchestrated deploy, deploy-with-verification should have already updated deploy state. Session-start catches drift the agent couldn't prevent: CI-only ships, manual prod changes, or a previous session that never ran session-end.

Steps

1: Read the canonical state doc

Open and read {{STATE_DOC}} in full. Note current versions, deployed revision, open issues, and what is next.

2: Verify live state (don't trust the doc alone)

{{LIVE_CHECK}}

3: Check working-tree state and recover from dirty shutdown

cd {{REPO_PATH}} && git status --short && git log --oneline -10

If git shows commits or deploy-related changes since the state doc was last updated, or the last session likely ended without session-end (crash, force-quit), reconcile:

  • Compare recent commits and live check against what the state doc claims.
  • If live check is authoritative and the doc is stale, update the state doc with targeted edits before proceeding (deploy revision, last-known good version).
  • Flag what you inferred vs what was explicitly recorded.

4: Flag mismatches before any work

If the live check disagrees with the state doc, flag it loudly: "MISMATCH. State doc says X but live returned Y." Reconcile or get confirmation before doing any work.

Output format

## Session Briefing: [today's date]

### Versions
- App/service: [from state doc]
- Deployed revision: [from state doc]
- Live check: [actual value] (match / MISMATCH with state doc)

### Open known issues
- [from state doc, or "none flagged"]

### Next up
- [what's next per the state doc, 1-2 lines]

### Uncommitted changes
- [git status, or "clean"]

### Recent commits
- [last 3 git log lines]

### Recovery (if applicable)
- [what was reconciled from git/live because session-end didn't run or external deploy happened]

Keep it short. This is a status check, not a report.

Capabilities

Tools

ReadBashEdit

Model
Claude Haiku
Skills it loads
None
MCP servers
None

Permissions

DeclaredDetected
Runs code—None
Installs—None
Runs install scripts—None
Network—None
Needs credentials—None
Outside the workspace—None
Agent toolsReadBashEditReadBashEdit

Checks

Low risk · Nothing worth a warning was found.

Not reviewed by a person · Checked by rules; the model review is not switched on yet.

1 minor mark: common commands and the like, noted but not a concern
  • Rule · resource_abusesession-start.md:28

Versions

  1. #1—latestOct 9, 2026