brief

Session Brief

Provide a concise executive summary of recent session activity. Designed for morning check-ins, phone/channel consumption, and quick status updates.

Always-On Delivery Rule

If config.always_on is true and channels are configured, send all operator-facing output via the configured channel — the terminal is unmonitored in always-on mode. In interactive mode, output to terminal. This applies to all flags below.

Flags

--morning (routine mode)

Delivery: After composing the brief, deliver it to the operator (see Always-On Delivery Rule above).

Emphasize forward-looking content:

• Read .claude-code-hermit/cost-summary.md for cost context. Include: "Yesterday: $X.XX across N sessions" from the trend table.
• Pending proposals needing review
• OPERATOR.md priorities
• If config.always_on is true: what happened overnight (activity since evening routine)
• If config.always_on is false: frame as "here's where things stand" rather than "what happened overnight"
• What's queued (NEXT-TASK.md, open proposals)
• If auto-memory seems sparse (new instance, fresh machine), read the latest S-NNN-REPORT.md for context recovery

After composing the morning brief, check state/micro-proposals.json → pending for entries with status: "pending":

• If one or more pending entries with follow_up_count of 0: append each as a final line: MP-YYYYMMDD-N (tier N): [question] — Reply "MP-YYYYMMDD-N yes" or "MP-YYYYMMDD-N no". (Bare yes/no accepted when only one pending.)
• For any entry with follow_up_count of 1: append with softer framing: "Still waiting on MP-YYYYMMDD-N: [question] — ignore again to drop it". Increment follow_up_count to 2.
• For any entry with follow_up_count >= 2: read question first, then set status: "expired", remove from pending. Append micro-resolved event via append-metrics.js with "action":"expired","question":"<question>". Do not resurrect unless fresh evidence accumulates from scratch.
• If no pending entries: brief ends without a decision prompt.

--evening (routine mode)

Delivery: After composing the brief, deliver it to the operator (see Always-On Delivery Rule above).

Emphasize backward-looking content:

• Sessions completed today (scan S-NNN reports with today's date in frontmatter date field, or ## Summary for pre-Observatory reports, plus current SHELL.md progress log)
• Read .claude-code-hermit/cost-summary.md for today's cost. If the summary is stale (its frontmatter updated date is not today), the cost-tracker will regenerate it on the next interaction — use the trend table's today entry or fall back to scanning reports.
• Key findings or patterns noticed
• What to look at tomorrow
• After generating summary: if SHELL.md Status is in_progress or has progress entries since last report, note it in the brief (e.g., "Session still open — run /session-close to archive.") and let the operator close explicitly. Idle transitions are owned by the session skill and session-mgr; brief does not trigger them.

No flag (default)

Current behavior — general purpose summary as described below.

Plan

1. Check if .claude-code-hermit/sessions/SHELL.md exists:
   • If Status is in_progress: summarize the active task (existing behavior below)
   • If Status is idle (session between tasks): format as:

     [Brief] YYYY-MM-DD | idle | N tasks completed
     Session: since [start date]
     Last: [latest Session Summary entry] — [status]
     Cumulative: $X.XX across N tasks
     Status: Idle — ready for what's next
     

     Then check for auto-detected proposals (step after Output Format) and return.
2. If no active session: find the most recent .claude-code-hermit/sessions/S-*-REPORT.md (sort by filename, take the highest number):
   • If found: summarize that report
3. If neither exists: respond "No session history yet. Run /claude-code-hermit:session to start."

Output Format

Keep the output to 5 lines, plus an optional 6th line for pending proposals (see Rules below):

[Brief] YYYY-MM-DD | [tags if present]
Working on: one-line description
Status: completed/partial/blocked (X/Y tasks) | $cost spent
Done: step1, step2, step3
Next: description of next action (or "Session complete" if all done)

Rules

• Never exceed 6 lines total (5 content lines + optional proposal line) — this is designed for phone/channel consumption
• Use the session's date, not today's date
• Include tags in the header only if they exist
• For the "Done" line: list completed task subjects from TaskList, comma-separated. If too many, show first 3 and "+ N more"
• For the "Next" line: show the first pending or in_progress task from TaskList. If blocked, show "Blocked: reason"
• If summarizing a completed report: "Next" becomes the report's "Next Start Point" content
• After composing the 5-line output: scan .claude-code-hermit/proposals/ for files with source: auto-detected and status: proposed (read from YAML frontmatter if present, fall back to bullet metadata). If any exist, append a 6th line: Proposals: N auto-detected proposal(s) pending review

Daily Summary Format

When invoked with "brief today", "daily summary", or "what happened today":

Scan all session reports archived today (match date in YAML frontmatter, or Date in ## Summary for pre-Observatory reports) plus the current SHELL.md progress log. Read .claude-code-hermit/cost-summary.md for aggregated cost data. Format as a day-level summary covering: work done, cost, and proposals created/resolved.