Checkpoint

checkpoint

You are running the checkpoint skill. Your job is to look back over the current conversation and make sure that any ephemeral knowledge (things only in chat, not yet in any file) is persisted to disk before the user runs /clear or /compact.

After this skill runs, the conversation is safe to clear. Nothing load-bearing for future chapters is lost when the chat is discarded.

When to invoke

• The user says "checkpoint" / "sync state" / "save before compact".
• Before the user runs /compact (the user can invoke this skill first to guarantee no loss).
• Whenever you (the agent) notice the conversation has accumulated voice observations, style decisions, or open threads that haven't been written down.
• Automatically as a sub-step of update-canon (chapter lock-in).

Hard rules

• Idempotent. If nothing new has accumulated since the last checkpoint, do not write garbage to the files. Say so and finish.
• Only persist what's truly ephemeral. Plot decisions belong in setup.md. Canon facts belong in canon/*. Seeds belong in plan/seeds.md. This skill captures only:
  • Voice / POV observations (how a character sounds in prose).
  • Style rules the author stated (not your inferences).
  • Open discussion threads that didn't resolve.
• Do not invent observations. Only persist what was actually said or actually noticed. If you didn't make a clear observation about Yedra's voice, do not invent one to look thorough.
• Append, do not overwrite. Append entries to existing sections, do not rewrite the whole file. Date-stamp each new entry.

Steps

1. Ensure files exist and review what's there

python3 .claude/skills/checkpoint/scripts/checkpoint.py \
    --series-slug <slug> --book-number <N> --report

This creates notes/voice.md, notes/style-rules.md, and notes/open-questions.md if absent (idempotent — never overwrites existing content), and prints the current content of each so you can see what's already captured. The date stamp for new entries is printed at the end.

2. Scan the conversation for ephemeral knowledge

Walk back through what's happened in this conversation. Look for, in this order:

2a. Voice / POV observations

Any concrete observation about how a POV character sounds in prose that came up while you were writing. Examples:

• "Bruno tends to use verbs of labor (clavar, doblar) where I'd default to thinking verbs."
• "Vela's interior monologue should stay shorter than Bruno's — she's not a ruminating character."
• "Avoid the phrase 'a ojos vista' — used twice already, becoming a tic."

If you have these, append them to the appropriate ## POV: <name> section of voice.md (create the section if absent), or to the ## Recurring patterns to watch / avoid section. Date-stamp: - (YYYY-MM-DD, ch N) observation text.

2b. Author-declared style rules

Statements the author made in chat that prescribe how prose should be written. Examples:

• Author said: "menos monólogo interior" → rule.
• Author said: "no describas cosas bonitas porque sí" → rule.
• Author said: "Bruno habla con frases cortas" → rule (also fits voice.md).

Do NOT include your own inferences. Only what the author explicitly stated. Append to the ## Unfolded section of style-rules.md (the capture buffer that close-act folds into style.md). Date-stamp. Process rules (word count, expand) belong to the skills, not here.

2c. Open questions / unresolved threads

Things that came up in conversation but weren't resolved. Examples:

• "We discussed the mentor reformista's voice but never finalized."
• "Author wanted to revisit the cap 5 transition once cap 4 is done."
• "Question about whether Yedra's lost relative is hermana or hija."

Append to open-questions.md under ## Pendientes with context and date. If something was discussed AND resolved, move it under ## Resueltos with strike-through (~~text~~).

3. If nothing new, say so

If after the scan you have no new entries to add, do not write to any file. Print:

✓ Checkpoint complete — no new ephemeral state to persist.
  Safe to /compact or /clear.

4. If you added entries, summarize what you wrote

Print, in this format:

✓ Checkpoint complete.

Added:
- voice.md: 2 entries (POV: Bruno, recurring patterns)
- style-rules.md: 1 entry (General)
- open-questions.md: 1 pendiente

Safe to /compact or /clear.

5. Final signal

End the response with the explicit signal:

Safe to /compact or /clear.

This tells the author the conversation can be discarded without loss.

What this skill does NOT do

• Does not modify setup.md, canon/*, plan/*, or chapter files.
• Does not extract plot, character, or world facts (those belong in canon and setup).
• Does not run /clear or /compact — those are user-level commands that only the user can execute. The skill prepares for them; the user triggers them.
• Does not consolidate or stabilize the notes files. That's close-act's job at the end of each act.