compressing-context

To compress a chat session, the conversation state is captured into a session-summary.md file. This summary records the current state, decisions, and next steps, allowing a new chat to resume exactly where the previous one left off.

A session summary is a markdown snapshot of your conversation context, decisions, and blockers. You need one when a session spans planning, research, and coding, or when you ask to resume your work later.

Generating a session summary resolves a plan slug from the .github/plans directory or derives one from the topic. It then creates the slug directory and outputs the summary file at .github/plans/{slug}/session-summary.md.

Yes, session compression works without a pre-existing slug. If a plan slug is not found in .github/plans, the compression process derives one from the current topic and creates the required directory structure automatically.

The best way to save context is running a compression workflow that generates a session-summary.md. This ensures a complete snapshot of your progress, implementation plan references, and discoveries is saved for your next session.

A compressed session summary includes the current project state, decisions made, discoveries, blockers encountered, and next steps. It also satisfies references to the implementation plan and progress within the .github/plans structure.