/pickup — Pick up from a prior putdown

The user just started a fresh session and wants to continue from where the previous session ended. There is a putdown file (a handoff note) waiting for you.

Renamed from /resume on 2026-06-12 (paired with /checkpoint → /putdown) because those names shadow Claude Code built-ins. On 2026-06-13 the handoff files also moved from .checkpoints/ → .putdowns/. A stray .checkpoints/ folder, if you see one, predates the move — read it the same way.

Step 0 — Sync check (CLI↔web handoff)

If the CWD is a git repo with a remote, run git fetch origin then git rev-list --count HEAD..@{u} before anything else. If origin is ahead, work happened on another surface (most likely Claude Code on the web): tell the user and offer to git pull before resuming — the newest putdown may be inside the pulled .putdowns/ folder. If fetch fails (offline, no remote), say so in one line and continue with local putdowns only.

Step 1 — Find the candidate putdown(s)

The current project's slug is the basename of the CWD. Putdowns live in two places: the local ~/.claude/putdowns/<project-slug>/ dir and the repo's own .putdowns/ folder (synced via git so web sessions can read and write them).

List all putdowns for this project from both locations, newest first, and grab the current time so you can label them accurately later:

ls -t ~/.claude/putdowns/$(basename "$PWD")/*.md "$PWD"/.putdowns/*.md 2>/dev/null; date

If the same <YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM>.md filename appears in both locations, treat it as ONE putdown and prefer the in-repo copy — it may carry edits pushed from the other surface.

Hold onto the date output — you'll subtract from it in Step 1a to produce relative-time labels. The system reminder gives you today's date but not the current clock time, so without date you'll guess and get it wrong (e.g. labeling a 5-minute-old putdown as "2h ago").

Branch on the count:

• 0 files — no putdown matched. Check ~/.claude/putdowns/ to list all available project subfolders, in case the user is in a different CWD than when they made the putdown (e.g. they ran /putdown from <workspace-root>/my-app but ran /pickup from <workspace-root>/my-app/src). Tell the user no putdown was found for this project, list what is available, and ask which to load (or to start fresh).
• 1 file — load it directly. Skip Step 1a and proceed to Step 2 with that file.
• 2+ files — go to Step 1a to let the user pick. (The user sometimes runs parallel VS Code conversations rooted in the same project folder, so the most recent file is not always the one they want.)

Step 1a — Present the picker (only when 2+ putdowns exist)

For each of the 4 most recent candidate files, extract:

• Timestamp from the filename (2026-04-27-0933.md → 2026-04-27 09:33) plus a relative-time hint like "5m ago", "2h ago", or "yesterday". Compute the delta against the date output you captured in Step 1 — don't eyeball it. A file from earlier today is hours ago only if the clock time actually differs by hours.
• Session goal — the text after **Session goal (this conversation)**: in the file header. Truncate to ~60 chars.
• First sentence of ## Where we are right now — used for the option's description. Truncate to ~140 chars.

A quick way to grab the metadata cheaply is head -n 25 "$PUTDOWN_FILE" and then parse the relevant lines.

Call AskUserQuestion with:

• question: "Which putdown do you want to load?"
• header: "Load which?"
• multiSelect: false
• options: one per putdown, newest first. For each option:
  • label: "<relative-time> — <session-goal truncated>" (e.g. "2h ago — Pipeline seed flag bug"). Append " (Recommended)" to the first option only — it's the newest, which is the same as today's default behavior.
  • description: first sentence of "Where we are right now". If that section can't be parsed, use "(no summary available)".

If a candidate file is missing both the Session goal line and the Where we are right now section (corrupt or hand-edited), still include it in the picker but use the bare filename timestamp as the label and "(no summary available)" as the description — don't fail the whole picker over one malformed file.

If there are 5 or more putdowns, show only the 4 newest in the picker, and print one line of chat above the picker like: "Showing the 4 most recent of N putdowns — pick 'Other' to specify an older timestamp." The harness's auto-provided "Other" option lets the user paste an older timestamp (e.g. 2026-03-12-0901) if they really want one.

Once the user picks, use the chosen file as the putdown for the rest of the flow and continue to Step 2.

Step 2 — Read the putdown and recent state

In parallel:

• Read the putdown file in full
• pwd to confirm CWD
• git status and git log --oneline -5 to see if anything changed since the putdown was written
• Read the project CLAUDE.md if one exists
• Read the user's auto-memory MEMORY.md index (already loaded by the harness, but re-confirm)

If git state has drifted significantly from what the putdown described (e.g. new commits, files modified outside what was listed), flag this to the user — the world may have moved since the putdown.

Step 3 — Brief the user

Reply with a tight summary so the user can confirm you've loaded the right context. Structure:

Resumed from: <putdown file path> (<how long ago it was written>)
<If a picker was shown: append " — chosen from N available putdowns in this project">

**Where we left off:** <one sentence>

**Next up:** <the first 1-3 next steps from the putdown>

**Blockers waiting on you:** <list, or "none">

<If git state has drifted: a "⚠️ Note:" line about what changed since the putdown.>

Then stop and wait for the user to confirm or redirect. Do NOT auto-execute the next steps. The user may want to adjust direction, skip a step, or hand off to a subagent. Once they confirm, proceed.

Step 4 — Once confirmed, execute

Pick up the work. Use TodoWrite to track the "Immediate next steps" list from the putdown. Honor the "What NOT to redo" section — do not re-attempt approaches the previous session ruled out.

Notes on judgment

• One putdown at a time. Do not auto-merge multiple putdowns. When 2+ exist, present the Step 1a picker and load only the user's choice.
• Trust the putdown, but verify file references. If it says "edit foo.py:142", confirm that file/line still exists before acting on it (rename/refactor may have happened).
• If the putdown is stale (say, more than a few days old) and significant changes have happened on disk, ask the user whether to use it or start fresh.
• Don't recreate the previous session's chat. You're picking up the work, not roleplaying the prior conversation. Be forward-looking.