Pause and Resume

Temporarily disable wm operations without uninstalling or removing configuration.

Platform Support:

• ✅ Claude Code - Full support (hooks respect pause state)
• ✅ Codex - Full support (manual extractions respect pause state)

When to Use

Pause Extract

• Sensitive work: Working on confidential code that shouldn't be extracted
• Personal debugging: Troubleshooting without knowledge capture
• Temporary privacy: Preventing certain conversations from being recorded

Pause Compile

• Simple tasks: Skip context injection for trivial work (faster, lower cost)
• Testing isolation: Want to work without historical context
• Debugging wm: Isolate issues by disabling injection

Pause Both

• Extended break: Disabling wm entirely for a period
• Project handoff: Pausing before transferring to someone else
• Performance testing: Measuring impact of wm on session speed/cost

Usage

# Pause both operations
wm pause

# Pause only extraction
wm pause extract

# Pause only compilation
wm pause compile

# Resume both operations
wm resume

# Resume only extraction
wm resume extract

# Resume only compilation
wm resume compile

# Check current status
wm status

How It Works

Pause/resume modifies .wm/pause_state.json:

{
  "extract_paused": false,
  "compile_paused": false
}

Hook behavior when paused:

• Extract paused: Stop hook gracefully exits without extraction
• Compile paused: UserPromptSubmit hook returns empty context

No configuration files are modified. No data is lost. Just a flag.

Status Check

wm status

Active (normal):

Working Memory Status
=====================

Extract:  active
Compile:  active

All operations running normally.

Paused:

Working Memory Status
=====================

Extract:  PAUSED
Compile:  active

Extract is paused. Run 'wm resume extract' to re-enable.

Common Scenarios

Scenario 1: Sensitive Code Review

# Working on security-critical code
wm pause extract

# Work on sensitive changes
# ... conversation happens ...

# Done with sensitive work
wm resume extract

Scenario 2: Quick Fix Without Context

# Need fast fix, don't need historical context
wm pause compile

# Make quick change
# ... conversation is faster, no context injected ...

# Resume normal operation
wm resume compile

Scenario 3: Complete Pause

# Taking break from project
wm pause

# ... time passes ...

# Resuming project work
wm resume

Integration with Other Operations

Pause + Distill

If you paused extract for a while and missed knowledge capture:

# Check status
wm status
# Extract: PAUSED (for last 2 weeks)

# Resume
wm resume extract

# Catch up with batch extraction
wm distill

Pause + Dive Prep

Dive prep works even if compile is paused:

# Compile is paused
wm status
# Compile: PAUSED

# Dive prep still gathers context
/dive-prep --intent fix

# Creates .wm/dive_context.md (independent of pause state)

State Persistence

Pause state persists across:

• Sessions (stays paused in new Claude Code sessions)
• Restarts (survives Claude Code restart)
• Directory changes (tied to project .wm/ directory)

To fully reset:

rm .wm/pause_state.json
# Operations resume automatically

Best Practices

• Default to active: Only pause when you have a specific reason
• Resume after sensitive work: Don't forget to resume when done
• Check status regularly: Run wm status if unsure
• Document reasons: If pausing long-term, note why (in .wm/README or similar)

Agent Usage

As an agent, you might invoke pause/resume when:

• User mentions working on sensitive/confidential code → suggest wm pause extract
• User asks for faster responses on trivial task → suggest wm pause compile
• User is debugging wm behavior → suggest isolating with pause
• User finished sensitive work → remind to wm resume

Example dialogue:

User: "I need to work on some confidential API keys, don't want this captured"

Agent: "I'll pause wm extraction so this session isn't recorded."

wm pause extract

[... work on sensitive code ...]

Agent: "Done with the confidential work. Resuming wm extraction."

wm resume extract