Keeping a record: working across many sessions

Description and use

A system for preserving and restoring context across Claude Code sessions: naming convention, index, automated hooks, and metadata enable easy continuation without losing information.

Problem

Maintaining continuity across multiple Claude Code sessions without losing decisions or context.

Outcome

A robust, repeatable workflow that preserves session continuity, enabling the author to write posts and manage work across many sessions without losing context.

Workflow

• Define a naming format YYYYMMDD-VNN_name for each session.
• Create an index file docs/sessions.md with a Markdown table of sessions.
• Add a closing hook script that updates end time and status when Claude finishes.
• Determine the session UUID by selecting the most recent file in Claude’s internal sessions directory.
• Create a per-session file with metadata header and fixed sections (goal, decisions, work done, next steps).
• Implement list_sessions.py to read headers and display sessions ordered by activity.
• Add a start hook that injects data (tickets, long‑open sessions, alerts) and prompts to resume or start a new session.
• Move the closing hook into each project’s folder so it travels with the project.
• Apply the same template across all projects to keep naming and structure consistent.
• Iteratively patch and refine the system as new edge cases arise.

Evidence

A naming format, YYYYMMDD-VNN_nombre: the date, a counter that restarts at V01 every day, and a goal in two or three words.

Source

An index, docs/sessions.md, a Markdown table.

Source

A closing hook —a script Claude Code runs on its own every time the model finishes responding— that updates the end time and the status.

Source

list_sessions.py appeared, which reads those headers and shows the sessions ordered by activity.

Source