Cross-Session Knowledge and Coherence — Detail & Examples

Part of Context Management · overview: domain-5.html

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A worked multi-day resumption example, and what's actually worth persisting between sessions versus what's re-derivable.

5.3aExternalizing state on purpose

WORKED EXAMPLE · RESUMING A MULTI-DAY TASK

SCENARIOAn agent is 2 days into a multi-week codebase migration, and the session is about to end for the day.

Before ending, the agent writes a summary artifact: which files are migrated, which are in progress, which decisions were made and why (e.g. "chose library X over Y because of licensing").
The next day's session starts fresh, with no memory of yesterday's conversation.
It loads yesterday's summary artifact first, before doing any new work, re-establishing the same understanding of state it had at the end of the previous session.

Key point:Coherent resumption isn't automatic — it only works because the right state was deliberately written down before the session ended.

Capture decisions, not just progress

Progress alone ("12 of 40 files migrated") tells the next session what but not why — it's missing the reasoning that would prevent re-litigating the same decision.
Persisting the reasoning behind non-obvious choices is usually more valuable than persisting raw status, because status is often re-derivable (just check the files) while reasoning isn't.
A summary that's too short to capture constraints and decisions defeats the purpose just as much as no summary at all.

Claude Certified Architect — Study NotesDWG 5.3