Session

If neither is given, that's fine — treat it as a general session start.

Determine:

• Day type: weekday (Mon–Fri) vs. weekend
• Time of day: morning (before noon) / afternoon / evening
• First session?: check if notebook/daily/{TODAY}.md has a ## Plan section already

Start

1. Environment scan (always)

Run concurrently:

• aya status -f json — system health, alerts, reminders, watches. If aya is not installed, skip.
• aya context — quick workspace snapshot (active projects, todo count, inbox size, last daily note). Use as baseline for deeper scans. If deeper scans contradict, trust the deeper scan.
• aya inbox --as <label> -f json — pending relay packets. Read instance_label from .workspace.yml for the --as value. If aya is not configured, skip.

2. First session of the day → full briefing

If today's daily note has no ## Plan section yet (or doesn't exist), run the full briefing. This is the only time signals are pulled automatically.

Adapt depth based on context:

2a. Carry-overs

Check yesterday's (and recent) daily notes. Extract:

• Items marked in-progress that don't appear as done in later notes (carry-overs)
• Items marked done (momentum — what's been accomplished recently)
• Patterns: recurring topics, things that keep showing up without resolution

If carry-overs exist, treat those as the top of Tier 1 — do not re-derive:

Carrying from {YESTERDAY}: {item} — {context}

Read notebook/AGENTS.md to understand repo structure and active project paths.

2b. Open tasks

Read the workspace's task tracking file (e.g. notebook/inbox.md, a todos.md, or whatever the workspace uses). Capture unchecked items. Note any sitting more than a week.

Group as:

• Actionable now — clear next step, no blockers
• Waiting / blocked — needs input, dependency, or a purchase
• Stale — sitting unchecked with no recent context

2c. Project status scan

Read .workspace.yml for directories.projects (default: projects/). Scan each project's status.md:

• Current phase and blockers
• Last committed change via git log -1 --format='%ai' -- {file} (also check filesystem mtime — uncommitted edits count as "touched")
• Flag >7 days since last commit or edit as stale
• Flag active/planning projects as priority candidates
• Note blockers, open questions, or next steps

2d. External signals

Pull the delta since the last daily note:

Tickets:  assigned tickets + comments on active tickets
GitHub:   PR review requests, CI failures, comments on open PRs
Slack:    direct mentions + active project channels (if connected)
Calendar: today's events, conflicts, prep needed (if connected)

Surface any aya alerts, watches, or due items from the status check.

Skip gracefully if integrations are not available.

2e. Synthesize the briefing

Produce the briefing. Omit sections with no data — don't show empty tables.

### Session Briefing — {YYYY-MM-DD} {day of week}

**Snapshot**: {N} tasks open · {N} projects active · {N} stale · {N} aya packets pending

---

#### Tier 1 — Act now
Items that are carry-overs, blocked, or time-sensitive.

| # | Item | Source | Why now |

---

#### Tier 2 — Advance today
In-flight work that can make meaningful progress this session.

| # | Item | Source | Context |

---

#### Tier 3 — On radar
Open but no immediate pressure.

| # | Item | Source | Notes |

---

#### Stale projects
Projects not touched in >7 days.

| Project | Last touched | Status |

---

#### Today's calendar
(if available)

---

#### Pending aya packets
(if any)

Prioritization logic (applied in order):

1. Carry-overs from previous sessions — unfinished business
2. Anything blocking a deploy, PR, or another person
3. Items with real deadlines
4. Active projects with clear next steps
5. Tasks sitting >7 days — decide or drop
6. Quick wins — small items that can clear in <15 minutes

Keep it fast — orientation, not a report. Three tiers, bullet points.

2f. Save to daily note

If notebook/daily/{TODAY}.md doesn't exist, create it:

# {YYYY-MM-DD}

## Plan
{tier 1 and tier 2 items as a checklist}

## Progress
{empty}

## Notes
{empty}

If it exists, append under a ## Briefing section without disturbing existing content.

After the briefing, skip to §5 (posture) if a type was declared, otherwise ask:

"What do you want to pick up first?"

3. Subsequent session → context load

If today's daily note already has a ## Plan section, skip the full briefing. Summarize what's already in the plan rather than rebuilding.

If a project or focus was named, load the minimum useful context:

1. projects/<name>/status.md — current state, blockers, next actions
2. projects/<name>/README.md — frontmatter (ticket key, repos, run env)
3. If code_dir is set and branch matters — git status, git log --oneline -5

Surface a one-paragraph situation report: where the project is, what's blocking, what the obvious next action is.

4. Offer to go deeper (progressive research)

After the situation report, assess whether there are signals worth investigating: open PRs, unread ticket comments, recent commits, aya packets. If so, offer one level deeper — don't just do it.

Level 1 (always): status.md + README loaded → situation report
Level 2 (offer):  "PR #22 has no review yet. Want me to pull the full diff?"
Level 3 (offer):  "Two pending config changes. Want me to trace the drift?"
Level 4 (offer):  "I can spawn parallel agents for a complete picture — 2-3 min."

One sentence per offer. Wait for yes before going deeper. Stop when the user says "good enough" or starts working.

A research session type triggers Level 3–4 depth automatically.

5. Set session posture

If no type was declared, don't force one — just proceed naturally.

State the posture briefly, then stop talking and let the user work.

6. Log the session start

Append to notebook/daily/{TODAY}.md under ## Progress:

- **HH:MM** — Session: {type} / {focus} — [one line of intent]

Use date +'%H:%M %Z' for the timestamp. Never use <current_datetime>.

Close

Reached via /session end.

1. Log what happened

Write a progress log entry — what changed, what shipped, what matters. Use date +'%H:%M %Z' for the timestamp. Max 2 lines.

- **HH:MM** — [what happened, ticket/PR refs if relevant]

2. One question

Ask immediately after writing the entry:

Done for the day, or more sessions coming?

More sessions coming → lightweight close:

Note carry-overs from this block:

**Carry-over:** [one line — what to pick up next]

Done. No recap, no summary, no ceremony.

Done for the day → full reconcile:

1. Plan vs actual — read ## Plan from today's daily note. Note what hit, what slipped, why (one line each).

2. Carry-overs — anything unfinished that needs tomorrow. Flag if blocking.

3. Knowledge harvest — ask:

   "Anything from today worth capturing in notebook/knowledge/?" If yes, invoke the /session-learnings skill. If the user declines or says "nothing new," move on — don't force it. This is the structured step that prevents hard-won context from evaporating into git blame.

4. Tomorrow's stub — create notebook/daily/{YYYY-MM-DD}.md for tomorrow. Add frontmatter + ## Plan stub with carry-overs already populated.

5. Status updates — for any project that advanced today, update projects/<name>/status.md: current state, blockers, next 3 actions.

Notes

• Skip steps that don't apply — no project named means skip §3 and §4
• A research session type triggers Level 3–4 depth automatically
• If the user says "just orient me quickly" — stop after §3, no offers
• --day on /session end forces the full reconcile without asking
• Session posture persists until /session end or a new /session
• If today's plan already exists and the user says "brief me" or "catch me up" — summarize the existing plan, don't rebuild
• /session with no arguments on first-of-day is the daily briefing

Aliases

This skill also runs for:

• "good morning", "what's on today", "start of day"
• "brief me", "catch me up", "what did I miss"
• "starting a session", "let's do a focus session"
• "going into brainstorm mode", "I'm about to work on X"
• "wrapping up", "done for the day", "closing out"