continue-task

Purpose

The counterpart to $wrap. When a previous session ended with $wrap, this skill reads the structured state file and rebuilds context in seconds instead of minutes.

Before (observed pattern):

User: "继续上次的工作"
Agent: [reads git log, guesses what was happening, asks 3 questions, reads 5 files] — 3-8 minutes

After:

User: $continue-task
Agent: [reads active-task.json + context.md, presents summary] — 10 seconds
  "上次你在 active-clipboard-state 分支做 PR8 (pull store-only LWW),
   已完成 PR1-7, 下一步是加双节点 e2e 测试。继续？"

When to trigger

• $continue-task — resume from state file
• User says "继续上次的", "pick up where I left off", "resume the task"
• At the start of a new session when the user references prior work

Workflow

Step 1 — Find and read state file

PROJECT_KEY=$(pwd | sed 's|^/||; s|/|-|g')
STATE_DIR="${CODEX_HOME:-$HOME/.codex}/project-state/${PROJECT_KEY}"
STATE_FILE="${STATE_DIR}/active-task.json"
CONTEXT_FILE="${STATE_DIR}/active-task-context.md"

If the state file does not exist:

No active task found for this project.
Last $wrap state file not found at: <path>

Options:
  A) Check git log and branch state to reconstruct context
  B) Start fresh

If the state file exists, read both files.

Step 2 — Validate state freshness

Check if the state is stale:

# Is the branch still current?
CURRENT_BRANCH=$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)
STATE_BRANCH=$(jq -r '.branch' "$STATE_FILE")

# Has the branch moved since state was written?
STATE_TIME=$(jq -r '.created_at' "$STATE_FILE")

# Is there a PR and what's its status?
PR_NUMBER=$(jq -r '.pr.number // empty' "$STATE_FILE")
if [ -n "$PR_NUMBER" ]; then
  gh pr view "$PR_NUMBER" --json state --jq '.state' 2>/dev/null
fi

Staleness conditions:

• State is more than 7 days old → warn, but still usable
• Branch was deleted or merged → state is stale, report and offer to clean up
• PR was closed/merged → task may be done, confirm with user
• Current branch differs from state branch → ask which to use

Step 3 — Present context summary

Render a concise briefing:

📋 Active task: Implement ActiveClipboardState for cross-device LWW register
   Branch: active-clipboard-state
   PR: #1117 (open, 2 checks pending)
   Last wrapped: 2026-06-20 08:49

   ✅ Done:
     • PR1-PR6: core state machine, reconcile, sync
     • PR7: mobile cutover

   ➡️ Next:
     • PR8: pull store-only LWW starvation workaround
     • Add dual-node e2e test for PR8

   📁 Key context:
     • .planning/2026-06-19-issue-1017-active-clipboard.md
     • docs/architecture/active-clipboard-state.md

If there's an active debug state:

   🔍 Debug session in progress:
     Symptom: Windows restore → Mac sync delay ~3.4s

     Ruled out:
       ✗ #1017 logic bug (disproven: timing issue, not state bug)
       ✗ relay latency (disproven: direct conn established)

     Current hypothesis: iroh candidate address filtering not excluding Tailscale 100.x
     Next step: grep CIDR constants in node.rs, check filter function

Step 4 — Offer actions

What would you like to do?
  A) Continue from where we left off (start with next steps)
  B) Review the changes made so far (git diff, PR status)
  C) Start a different task (archive this state)
  D) Read the full context document first

On choice A:

• If the branch differs from current, offer to switch: git switch <state_branch>
• Read the context references listed in the state file
• Begin working on the first item in task.next

On choice B:

git log main..HEAD --oneline
git diff main...HEAD --stat
gh pr view <number> --json statusCheckRollup,reviews 2>/dev/null

On choice C:

• Rename the state file to archived-task-<date>.json
• Start fresh

On choice D:

• Read and present the full active-task-context.md

Step 5 — Load context references

For each file in context_refs, check if it exists and is relevant:

for ref in $(jq -r '.context_refs[]' "$STATE_FILE"); do
  if [ -f "$ref" ]; then
    echo "Reading: $ref"
    # Read the file to load context
  else
    echo "⚠️ Referenced file not found: $ref (may have been moved or deleted)"
  fi
done

Step 6 — Clear state on completion

When the resumed task is completed (user confirms or $wrap is called again with a new task), the old state is naturally overwritten.

If the user explicitly says "this task is done" or "任务完成了":

# Archive the state
mv "$STATE_FILE" "${STATE_DIR}/archived-task-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M).json"
mv "$CONTEXT_FILE" "${STATE_DIR}/archived-task-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M)-context.md" 2>/dev/null

Handling edge cases

No state file, but user wants to continue

Fall back to git-based reconstruction:

git log --oneline -10
git status
git branch -v
gh pr list --author @me --json number,title,headRefName --jq '.[]' 2>/dev/null

Present what can be inferred and ask the user to fill in gaps.

State file from a different branch

If the user switched branches between sessions:

⚠️ State file references branch 'active-clipboard-state',
   but you're currently on 'main'.

   A) Switch to active-clipboard-state and continue
   B) Stay on main, ignore the state file
   C) Show me what's in the state file first

Multiple projects with state files

If the user works on multiple projects (uniclipboard, uc-website, uniclipboard-android), each has its own state file under its own project key. No conflict.

Parallel branches in the same project (worktrees)

Each worktree has a different pwd and therefore a different project key. State files are naturally isolated.

Interaction with other skills

Skill	How it interacts
$wrap	Creates the state file that $continue-task reads
$handoff	Produces prose-only document; $continue-task cannot consume it (but the context.md from $wrap is similar)
Codex resume	Resumes a prior Codex conversation; $continue-task restores explicit task-level state across conversations
$pr-greenlight	Can be the "next step" suggested by the state file
$error-diagnose-fix	Debug state section helps this skill avoid retrying ruled-out hypotheses

Anti-patterns

• Reading the state file but then ignoring it and asking the user "what are you working on?"
• Loading all context references even when the user only wants to do a quick commit
• Treating a stale state file (7+ days old) as current without warning
• Not checking if the branch still exists before suggesting to switch
• Spending 5 minutes "analyzing" the state when a 10-second summary suffices