Get up to speed

Get Up to Speed

Quickly build situational awareness for a branch/ticket so work can continue without re-reading everything.

Preferences

On startup, use the Read tool to load ~/.claude/skills/get-up-to-speed/preferences.md. If it doesn't exist, use defaults.

Context

On startup, use Bash to detect: current git branch, repo root, and git remote URL. Skip any that fail.

Command routing

Check $ARGUMENTS:

• help → display help then stop
• config → interactive setup then stop
• reset → delete preferences file, confirm, stop
• AIS-XXXX — if argument looks like a Linear issue ID, use it as the ticket
• anything else — treat as extra context to include in the summary
• empty — auto-detect ticket from branch name

Help

Get Up to Speed — Situational summary of branch, git history, and ticket

Usage:
  /get-up-to-speed                      Auto-detect ticket from branch name
  /get-up-to-speed AIS-1043             Specify a ticket explicitly
  /get-up-to-speed "extra context"      Add context for the summary
  /get-up-to-speed config               Set preferences
  /get-up-to-speed reset                Clear preferences
  /get-up-to-speed help                 This help

Examples:
  /get-up-to-speed                      Summarize current branch + ticket
  /get-up-to-speed AIS-810              Summarize with a specific ticket
  /get-up-to-speed "focus on the settings panel changes"

Current preferences:
  (read from preferences.md)

Config

Use AskUserQuestion to collect:

• Q1: Summary depth — "Brief" (last 10 commits, ticket title) or "Detailed" (last 30 commits, ticket description, comments, plan file)
• Q2: Auto-read plan files — Yes/No — whether to check .claude/plans/ for active plans

Save to ~/.claude/skills/get-up-to-speed/preferences.md.

Reset

Delete ~/.claude/skills/get-up-to-speed/preferences.md and confirm: "Preferences cleared. Using defaults."

First-time detection

If no preferences file exists, proceed with defaults:

• Summary depth: Detailed
• Auto-read plan files: Yes

Workflow

1. Detect branch and ticket

Use Bash to get:

git branch --show-current
git remote get-url origin

Extract the Linear ticket ID from the branch name. Pattern: */ais-{number}-* → AIS-{number}.

If $ARGUMENTS contains an AIS-XXXX pattern, use that instead.

If no ticket ID found, note it and continue without Linear data.

2. Gather git state

Run these in parallel:

• Recent commits — git log --oneline -20 (or -30 for detailed mode)
• Uncommitted changes — git status --short
• Diff stats — git diff --stat (unstaged) and git diff --cached --stat (staged)
• Branch divergence — git log --oneline main..HEAD to see what's unique to this branch
• Latest commit details — git log -1 --format="%H%n%s%n%b" for the most recent commit message and body

3. Fetch Linear ticket

If a ticket ID was found, use the Linear MCP tools:

1. Get the issue — mcp__claude_ai_Linear__get_issue with the issue ID
2. Get recent comments — mcp__claude_ai_Linear__list_comments for the issue

Extract: title, status, description summary, assignee, project, and last 3-5 comments.

If Linear tools aren't available or the call fails, skip gracefully.

4. Check for plan files

If auto-read plans is enabled, check for active plan files:

ls -t .claude/plans/*.md 2>/dev/null | head -3

If a plan file exists, read it and note its status (complete, in-progress, pending).

5. Check memory and project context

Read these if they exist (skip if not found):

• Project CLAUDE.md — scan for relevant sections
• Auto-memory MEMORY.md — check for notes related to the current branch or ticket

Don't dump the full contents — just extract what's relevant to the current branch/ticket.

6. Read extra context

If $ARGUMENTS contained extra context (not a ticket ID, not a subcommand), incorporate it as a focus area for the summary.

7. Synthesize and present

Output a structured summary in this format:

## Up to Speed: [branch-name]

**Ticket:** [AIS-XXXX — Title] ([Status])
**Project:** [Project name]
**Branch:** `branch-name` — [N commits ahead of main]

### What's been done
- [Bullet summary of completed work from commits + ticket description]
- [Group related commits into logical chunks, not 1:1 commit list]

### Current state
- [Uncommitted changes if any]
- [What the last few commits were doing — the trajectory]
- [Active plan file summary if exists]

### What's pending
- [Open items from ticket description/checklist]
- [Unresolved comments from Linear]
- [Any items flagged in plan as not yet started]

### Key files touched
- [List of most-changed files from git log, grouped by feature area]

### Context notes
- [Relevant memory entries]
- [Extra context from arguments]
- [Any warnings: merge conflicts, stale branch, failing checks, etc.]

Keep it concise — this is a briefing, not a novel. Focus on what someone needs to know to start working RIGHT NOW.

Principles

• Read-only — never modify files, branches, or tickets. Only observe and report.
• Fast over thorough — better to give a useful summary in 15 seconds than a perfect one in 2 minutes. Skip slow operations.
• Graceful degradation — if Linear is unavailable, git is weird, or files are missing, skip that section and note it. Never fail completely.
• Group, don't list — synthesize commits into logical work chunks ("built the settings panel with 6 sections") instead of listing every commit message.
• Highlight blockers — if there are uncommitted changes, merge conflicts, or the branch is behind main, call it out prominently.