Close Session

Save progress, update memory, regenerate navigation, and ensure system integrity.

Purpose

The close-session skill is the most critical system skill. It ensures nothing is ever lost by:

• Reading and updating project progress from steps.md checkboxes
• Validating workspace-map.md accuracy (auto-detect mismatches)
• Updating memory with decisions and patterns
• Cleaning temporary files from root folder
• Creating historical session reports
• Displaying comprehensive summary

CRITICAL: This skill is AUTO-TRIGGERED by all other skills and projects (not user-dependent!).

Execution Sequence

1. Initialize TodoWrite with all 10 steps (MANDATORY – prevents skipped steps)
2. Load workflow.md
3. Execute steps 1-10 sequentially
4. Mark each step complete in TodoWrite as you finish it

Critical Rules

1. TodoWrite is MANDATORY: Initialize at start with all 10 steps – prevents forgetting critical steps
2. PLANNING phase projects: Skip task completion (Step 2/2.5)
3. IN_PROGRESS phase projects: Auto-complete if execution signals detected
4. Session reports: Create in 01-memory/session-reports/
5. Summary display: ≤5 lines per orchestrator.md rule

Key Features

Automatic & Interactive Task Completion

Smart task completion with automatic detection:

• Automatic Bulk Complete: If project work completed this session, auto-marks all tasks
• Manual Bulk Option: If auto-detect missed it, offers bulk-complete during review
• Interactive Review: Shows first 10 unchecked tasks for manual selection
• User selects by number (“1, 3, 5”), “all”, “bulk complete”, or “none”
• Updates tasks.md automatically (via Edit tool or bulk-complete script)
• Recalculates progress after any changes

Temp File Cleanup

Interactive cleanup with user choices:

• Scans root folder for temp files
• Asks what to do with each: keep, delete, or skip
• Moves preserved files to project outputs/
• Reports cleanup summary

Session Reporting

Creates historical record:

• Generates session report in 01-memory/session-reports/
• Includes work completed, progress, decisions, patterns
• Provides context for next session

Progress Tracking

Auto-calculates from checkboxes:

• Counts total tasks (all - [ ] and - [x])
• Counts completed tasks (only - [x])
• Determines status (PLANNING/IN_PROGRESS/COMPLETE)
• Identifies next task

Auto-Trigger Support

Called automatically by other skills:

• create-project
• validate-system
• Any skill completion

Memory Preservation

THE critical persistence mechanism:

• Creates session reports
• Cleans temp files

Without this skill, context does NOT persist across sessions!

Workflow Overview

Complete workflow with all 9 steps: See workflow.md

Steps (from workflow.md):

1. Read project state (skip if no IN_PROGRESS projects)
2. Review task completion (skip if PLANNING phase)
3. Update maps
4. Get timestamp
5. Update memory
6. Clean temp files (delete .md files not in system folders)
7. Create session report
8. Display summary (≤5 lines)
9. Mark complete
10. Instruct fresh session

Integration

Auto-Trigger Format

When called by other skills:

Auto-triggering close-session skill...

[Full workflow executes]

Session saved! ✅
[Summary displays]

User-Trigger Format

When user says “done for now”:

Closing your session...

[Full workflow executes]

Session saved! ✅
[Summary displays]

All Skills Must End With

Every skill and project workflow should conclude with:

### Final Step: Close Session
Auto-trigger close-session skill to save progress

This ensures:

• Progress is saved
• Maps are updated
• Session is recorded
• Nothing is lost

Error Handling

For complete error scenarios and solutions, see error-handling.md

Common Scenarios:

No active project → Skip project steps, continue with maps and cleanup

Missing tasks.md → Report in summary, suggest validate-system

Corrupted memory → Rebuild from scan, report issue

Map generation fails → Keep old maps, report error, suggest retry

User doesn’t respond → Default to “skip” for temp files

Critical Notes

Memory Preservation

This skill is the ONLY way to:

• Create historical session reports
• Clean temporary files from workspace

Context Persistence

Without this skill running at session end:

• Progress updates are lost
• Navigation maps become stale
• No historical record is created
• Temp files accumulate

Never skip this skill – it’s the foundation of context preservation!

Workflow Philosophy

This skill embodies the Nexus philosophy:

• Memory preservation: Nothing is ever lost
• Context awareness: Full system state captured
• Progressive disclosure: Load what you need, when you need it
• User collaboration: Interactive choices for important decisions

Resources

references/

• workflow.md: Complete 9-step workflow (with TOC)
• error-handling.md: All error scenarios and solutions

Integration with bulk-complete Skill

This skill uses the bulk-complete system skill for efficient task completion:

Step 2 & 2.5: Auto-runs bulk-complete when project work is done

python 00-system/skills/bulk-complete/scripts/bulk-complete.py --project [ID] --all --no-confirm

See bulk-complete/SKILL.md for standalone usage, all options, and test coverage details.

Remember: This is THE most important system skill. Every session MUST end with close-session to preserve context!