Resume — Pick Up Where I Left Off

The "I just got here — what's happening?" command. Reconstructs the pipeline position from disk, loads only the active group's state and the frontier (next) spec in full, lists failed approaches not to retry, and presents the next action. Read-only — never writes approval records.

Inputs

• approvals/master.json + the one active group-{N}.json (max two approval files)
• .genesis/project-state.md (active feature + mode)
• units.json (lowfield)
• tried.json (failed approaches), filtered to the frontier spec
• The most recent journal entry under journal/ (for absence sizing)
• git status (uncommitted work)

Process

1. Determine the feature (argument, else the active feature from project-state.md; if several, ask).
2. Read approval state: build a map of approved phases, complete groups, implemented specs.
3. Find the frontier — the first unapproved item in pipeline order: master phases (brainstorm → feature → specify → clarify → northstar), then groups in order, within a group its specs in order, then per-group audits A1–A5, then the F-pass.
4. Check for partial work at the frontier: implementation files present but no approval, uncommitted git changes, logged failed approaches.
5. Load context efficiently: distilled summaries for completed groups/specs, full content only for the frontier spec.
6. Present the tried log for the frontier spec ("Do NOT retry: {approach} — failed because {reason}").
7. Compose an absence-aware briefing sized by time since the last journal entry (<4h brief, 4–24h one sentence, 1–7 days 3–5 sentences, 7+ days full), state the tier and why, then present the next action.

Output

RESUME: <feature>
Feature phase: <status> (<phases> approved)
Groups: N/total complete
Active group: N (<title>)   Active spec: <spec-id> (<title>)
Status: clean|partial — <detail>
Tried: N approaches logged (<summary>)
Next: <next pipeline action>

Mode differences

Brownfield adds a scope reminder (files in scope) and regression notes. Lowfield adds a unit-progress summary and the next unit action.

Natural language triggers

- "resume"
- "where did I leave off"
- "what's next"
- "catch me up"