Checkpointing — Full Session Recording and Pattern Discovery
Record all session activity and discover reusable patterns. Run everything, every time.
What It Does (Every Time)
/checkpointing
↓
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ 1. Collect Everything │
│ ├── git log (commits, file changes, line stats) │
│ ├── CLI logs (Codex/Gemini consultations) │
│ ├── Agent Teams activity (tasks, teammates, messages) │
│ └── Design decisions (.claude/docs/DESIGN.md changes) │
│ │
│ 2. Generate Checkpoint │
│ → .claude/checkpoints/YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS.md │
│ │
│ 3. Update Session History │
│ → CLAUDE.md (cross-session persistence) │
│ │
│ 4. Discover Skill Patterns │
│ → Subagent analyzes checkpoint │
│ → Suggests reusable skills │
│ → User reviews and approves │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘Usage
# Everything. No flags needed.
/checkpointing
# Optional: only look at recent work
/checkpointing --since "2026-02-08"What Gets Captured
Git Activity
- Commits (hash, message, date)
- File changes (created, modified, deleted + line counts)
- Branch information
CLI Consultations
- Codex consultations (prompt, success/failure)
- Gemini multimodal tasks (prompt, success/failure)
Agent Teams Activity
- Team composition (Lead + Teammates, roles)
- Shared task list state (completed, in-progress, pending)
- File ownership per teammate
- Communication patterns (who messaged whom, about what)
- Team effectiveness signals (tasks completed vs stuck, file conflicts)
Teammate Work Logs
- Each Teammate's work log from
.claude/logs/agent-teams/{team-name}/{teammate}.md - Contains: Summary, Tasks Completed, Files Modified, Key Decisions, Communication with Teammates, Issues Encountered
- Written by each Teammate upon completing all assigned tasks
- Only present when Agent Teams were used (
/startproject,/team-implement,/team-review)
Design Decisions
- Changes to
.claude/docs/DESIGN.mdsince last checkpoint - New entries in Key Decisions table
Checkpoint Format
# Checkpoint: 2026-02-08 15:30:00 UTC
## Summary
- **Commits**: 12
- **Files changed**: 15 (10 modified, 4 created, 1 deleted)
- **Codex consultations**: 3
- **Gemini multimodal**: 2
- **Agent Teams sessions**: 1 (3 teammates)
- **Tasks completed**: 8/10
## Git History
### Commits
- `abc1234` feat: redesign startproject for Opus 4.6
- `def5678` feat: add team-implement skill
...
### File Changes
**Created:**
- `.claude/skills/team-implement/SKILL.md` (+180)
...
**Modified:**
- `CLAUDE.md` (+40, -25)
...
## CLI Consultations
### Codex (3 consultations)
- ✓ Design: Architecture for Agent Teams integration
- ✓ Debug: Task dependency resolution
- ✗ Review: (timeout)
### Gemini (2 multimodal tasks)
- ✓ Extract: API spec from design document PDF
- ✓ Analyze: Architecture diagram from whiteboard photo
## Agent Teams Activity
### Team: project-planning
**Composition:**
- Lead: Claude (orchestration)
- Researcher: Opus-powered (external research)
- Architect: Codex-powered (design decisions)
**Task List:**
- [x] Research library options (Researcher)
- [x] Design module architecture (Architect)
- [x] Validate API constraints (Researcher)
- [x] Finalize implementation plan (Architect)
**Communication Patterns:**
- Researcher → Architect: 3 messages (library constraints)
- Architect → Researcher: 2 messages (additional research requests)
**Effectiveness:**
- All tasks completed
- No file conflicts
- 2 design iterations triggered by research findings
## Teammate Work Logs
### Team: project-planning
#### researcher
*Source: `.claude/logs/agent-teams/project-planning/researcher.md`*
# Work Log: Researcher
## Summary
Researched httpx library constraints and API patterns for the new API client module.
## Tasks Completed
- [x] Research libraries: httpx supports HTTP/2 via h2 dependency
- [x] Find documentation: httpx connection pool defaults to 100
## Communication with Teammates
- → Architect: httpx connection pool limit of 100, HTTP/2 requires h2
- ← Architect: Requested HTTP/2 multiplexing research
#### architect
*Source: `.claude/logs/agent-teams/project-planning/architect.md`*
# Work Log: Architect
## Summary
Designed API client module architecture with HTTP/2 support.
## Design Decisions
- Use httpx[http2] for multiplexed connections: reduces latency for parallel requests
## Codex Consultations
- Connection pool sizing strategy: Codex recommended dynamic pool based on load
## Communication with Teammates
- → Researcher: Request HTTP/2 multiplexing research
- ← Researcher: httpx supports HTTP/2 via h2
## Design Decisions (New)
- Agent Teams for Research ↔ Design (bidirectional)
- Gemini specialized for multimodal processing only
## Skill Pattern Suggestions
### Pattern 1: Research-Design Iteration (Confidence: 0.85)
**Evidence:** Researcher and Architect exchanged findings 5 times, each
exchange refined the design. This back-and-forth is a repeatable pattern.
**Suggested skill:** Already captured as /startproject Phase 2.
### Pattern 2: Parallel File-Isolated Implementation (Confidence: 0.75)
**Evidence:** 3 implementers worked on separate modules with zero conflicts.
Module boundaries were defined by directory ownership.
**Suggested skill:** Already captured as /team-implement.
---
*Generated by checkpointing skill*Session History Update
Each checkpoint also appends a concise summary to CLAUDE.md:
## Session History
### 2026-02-08
- 12 commits, 15 files changed
- Codex: 3 consultations (design, debug, review)
- Gemini: 2 multimodal tasks (PDF extraction, diagram analysis)
- Agent Teams: 1 session (3 teammates, 8/10 tasks completed)
- New skills: /team-implement, /team-review
- Key decisions: Agent Teams for parallel work, Gemini role narrowedThis persists across sessions — new sessions load CLAUDE.md and see what happened before.
Skill Pattern Discovery
The checkpoint is automatically analyzed to find reusable patterns:
What it looks for:
- Sequences of commits forming logical workflows
- File change patterns (e.g., test + implementation together)
- CLI consultation sequences (research → design → implement)
- Agent Teams coordination patterns (team composition, task sizing)
- Multi-step operations that could be templated
Output: Skill suggestions with confidence scores. High-confidence patterns (>= 0.8) that don't match existing skills are presented to the user for approval.
Execution Flow
/checkpointing
│
├─ 1. Run checkpoint.py (collects git + CLI + teams data)
│ → Generates .claude/checkpoints/YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS.md
│
├─ 2. Update CLAUDE.md with session summary
│
└─ 3. Spawn subagent for skill pattern analysis
→ Reads checkpoint file
→ Identifies reusable patterns
→ Reports suggestions to user
→ User approves → new skills created in .claude/skills/When to Run
| Timing | Why |
|---|---|
| Before session ends | Record all activity, hand off to next session |
After /team-implement completes | Capture team activity patterns |
After /team-review completes | Capture review patterns |
| After major design decisions | Persist the decision context |
| When you notice recurring patterns | Opportunity to discover new skills |
Notes
- Checkpoints accumulate in
.claude/checkpoints/(already in.gitignore) - Log files themselves are not modified (read-only)
- Skill suggestions must always be reviewed by the user before adoption
- Agent Teams data is collected from
~/.claude/teams/and~/.claude/tasks/