Session Close

Deprecated. This skill is superseded by [[skills/context-capsule/SKILL.md|/context-capsule]] (docs/two-verb-lifecycle.md). New installs should reach for /context-capsule; this file stays for anyone still invoking /close by habit during the transition.

Run the aigent-OS end-of-session memory commit inline. The close must be idempotent: rerunning it after a partial failure must not duplicate ledger entries, capsules, or session summaries.

All operator-owned durable state lives under vault/. Framework indexes such as memory/SKILL_LEDGER.md remain outside the vault and are not session memory.

Hardened compatibility contract

The active two-verb lifecycle does not run a second close ceremony, but manual /close keeps the same shared postconditions as nightly:

• exact already-authored decision outcomes append only through daemons/nightly-decision-outcome.mjs, with a unique decision/interval match and compare-and-swap;
• bounded Session Log or Active Priorities trimming runs only through skills/context-hygiene/SKILL.md, archives before removal, and must end in CONTEXT_HYGIENE PASS;
• Dream synthesis follows skills/dream/SKILL.md and must end in DREAM_CONTRACT PASS;
• cognitive changes follow skills/cognitive-update/SKILL.md and must end in COGNITIVE_CONTRACT PASS;
• missing canonical input is failure, not "nothing to do";
• judgment-bearing measurement entries are staged through skills/nightly-ledger-capture/SKILL.md.

These helpers use local memory, Git, stderr, and the SessionStart surface. No external coordination service is required.

Step 0: discipline audit

Run these checks before writing the daily note.

Gate A: honesty ledger

If the session included non-trivial work, completed-task claims, multi-file edits, or consequential decisions and vault/memory/HONESTY_LEDGER.md was not updated:

1. Run /honesty-check on the most consequential work block.
2. Append one structured entry covering verified, inferred, guessed, tradeoffs, stopped short, cost implications, self-rating, and resolution.
3. Continue only after the entry is durable.

Gate B: trust-decay capture

If consequential work was described as fixed, verified, tested, deployed, complete, shipped, ready, running, merged, or passing and vault/memory/TRUST_DECAY.md was not updated, append one to three open Phase 1 claims. Do not convert confident language into evidence after the fact.

Gate C: failure corpus

If /diagnose established a verified cause, append it to vault/memory/FAILURE_MODES.md unless an equivalent entry already exists.

Gate D: decision outcomes

If the operator answered a decision-aging prompt, use the dedicated writer before closing:

node daemons/nightly-decision-outcome.mjs --root "$AIGENT_ROOT" \
  --as-of <YYYY-MM-DD> --decision-date <YYYY-MM-DD> \
  --decision-title "<exact heading>" --interval <30|60|90> \
  --outcome "<enum>" --operator-text "<exact enum>" \
  --operator-source "<durable direct operator ref>" \
  --expected-file-sha "<pre-read sha256>"

Ambiguous, not-yet-due, already-recorded, or raced correspondence is staged instead of guessed.

Gate E: weekly measurement

On Friday, include one line summarizing honesty entries, trust-decay captures, failure modes, and decision outcomes for the week. Zero activity after a non-trivial week is a signal that the measurement loop did not fire.

Step 0.5: somatic integrations

Review staged memory

Read vault/memory/MEMORY_CANDIDATES.md. If staged candidates exist, run /digest. Promotion remains human-gated; a close may record deferral but must not silently promote candidates.

Create a context capsule when needed

Create vault/memory/capsules/<capsule_id>.md when any of these are true:

• Context pressure is medium or higher.
• More than five delegations remain open.
• A non-trivial task shipped.
• The operator explicitly requested a capsule.

Use the context-capsule schema, set status: active, and connect resumed sessions with parent_capsule_id. If a previous capsule is still active, demote it to resumed before making the new one active.

Update vault/memory/BODY_STATE.json at state.last_capsule only after the capsule file is durable.

Skip capsule creation when there is no meaningful state to preserve.

Step 1: identify durable changes

Update only files whose owned state changed. Typical sessions touch two to six notes.

Location	Update when
vault/memory/SESSION_LOG.md	Always, with one idempotent entry per session
vault/memory/DECISION_LOG.md	A lasting, non-obvious decision was made
vault/memory/ACTIVE_PRIORITIES.md	Priority, mode, blocker, or completion changed
vault/memory/DELEGATION_TRACKER.md	A delegation opened, moved, blocked, or closed
vault/projects/*.md	Project state materially changed
vault/agents/*.md	Agent scope or capability changed
vault/people/*.md	A person or role changed
vault/concepts/*.md	Durable doctrine or a reusable technique changed
vault/memory/PRODUCT_STATE.md	Its map-of-content links changed
vault/memory/BUSINESS_CONTEXT.md	Material business context changed
vault/memory/PEOPLE_AND_ROLES.md	Its map-of-content links changed
vault/memory/BOTTLENECK_PATTERNS.md	A repeated bottleneck appeared or resolved
vault/memory/IDEA_QUEUE.md	A useful idea should survive the session

Create new notes with YAML frontmatter and relevant wikilinks. Do not manufacture notes merely to make the close look busy.

Step 2: apply edits

For each file:

1. Read the current version.
2. Make the smallest accurate change.
3. Preserve user-authored material.
4. Add relevant wikilinks.
5. Avoid duplicate local entry keys, claim IDs, fact IDs, and capsule IDs.

Step 3: daily note

Create or update vault/daily/YYYY-MM-DD.md:

---
title: "YYYY-MM-DD"
tags:
  - daily
date: YYYY-MM-DD
---

# YYYY-MM-DD

## Session Work
- Work completed, linked to notes touched

## Decisions
- Lasting decisions

## Comms
- Material communication state

## Open Threads
- Unresolved work and owners

## Links
Previous: [[YYYY-MM-DD]]

Preserve an existing ## Session Captures section written by hooks. Merge session prose around it rather than overwriting it.

Step 4: session log

Add one entry near the top of vault/memory/SESSION_LOG.md:

## YYYY-MM-DD - session topic

**Objective:** one line

**Completed:**
- completed work or None

**Decisions:**
- durable decision or None

**Open threads:**
- unresolved item or None

**Next action:** action and owner

See [[YYYY-MM-DD]].

Use the current session's stable local key for idempotency. If the same entry already exists, update it instead of appending another block. Keep five detailed recent entries and collapse older entries into the archive.

Step 4.5: synthesis and bounded context hygiene

Run the shared Dream protocol in skills/dream/SKILL.md. Capture an operating-system temp pre-write snapshot and require literal DREAM_CONTRACT PASS; a caller-supplied candidate count is not evidence.

Then run:

node "$AIGENT_ROOT/daemons/nightly-context-hygiene.mjs" --root "$AIGENT_ROOT"

If it reports red, use skills/context-hygiene/SKILL.md to archive whole dated blocks before trimming, then re-run the checker. Refuse unfamiliar shapes and compare-and-swap races.

Step 5: rebuild memory heat

Run:

node "$AIGENT_ROOT/daemons/memory-heat/compute-heat.js"

The output belongs at vault/memory/HEAT_INDEX.json. Surface failures; do not hide them behind unconditional 2>/dev/null.

Step 6: usage sync

Run, when present:

bash "$AIGENT_ROOT/daemons/sync-usage.sh"

A missing optional daemon is a skip, not a successful run.

Step 6.5: temporal facts

Append concrete, verifiable state changes to vault/memory/facts/facts.jsonl. Facts need provenance, confidence, validity dates, and a stable ID. When a new fact contradicts an old one, close the old validity window and connect it with superseded_by before appending the replacement.

Skip this step when no verifiable fact changed.

Step 7: optional integration validation

Only update an integration validation ledger when that integration was configured and used. Do not claim an optional MCP, plugin, or connector was validated merely because its documentation exists in the repo.

For remindb, use vault/memory/REMINDB_VALIDATION.md and record whether a memory tool ran and whether a defined failure occurred.

Step 7.5: system check

Run:

bash "$AIGENT_ROOT/daemons/system-check.sh"

• PASS: include one concise line.
• FAIL: include the failure lines and continue closing.
• INFO: report the count and durable log location.

The audit does not block memory persistence, but failures must not be described as success.

Step 7.75: conservative cognitive update

Execute skills/cognitive-update/SKILL.md. It may touch only the four files in that skill's ownership fence. Require literal COGNITIVE_CONTRACT PASS. Zero qualifying updates are valid when the skipped count and source scope are recorded.

Step 8: recompute runtime state

After all vault writes:

python3 "$AIGENT_ROOT/daemons/runtime/update-active-state.py"

Read vault/memory/runtime/ACTIVE_STATE.json and include active reflexes in the close summary when they require action.

Step 9: output a brief commit summary

Report:

• Notes updated and why.
• Notes created.
• Checks that failed or were skipped.
• The single most important next-session pickup.

Do not list every file that was merely read.

Step 10: stamp the close

Write the current UTC ISO timestamp to .aigent/last-close only after the durable memory writes complete:

mkdir -p .aigent
date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ > .aigent/last-close

On PowerShell:

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force .aigent | Out-Null
(Get-Date -AsUTC).ToString('yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ssZ') | Set-Content .aigent\last-close

If any required write failed, do not advance the close marker. State exactly which artifact remains incomplete so the next /open can recover it.