pause
Use to freeze current session state with rich resumption context. "Pause this", "save my place", "I need to step away". Different from native task tracking — captures full thinking state, not just todos.
What this skill does
# pause
Session-state freeze. Saves the full context needed to resume cleanly later — including not just todos but the half-formed thoughts, the dead ends explored, the constraints discovered.
## What gets paused
1. **Open question** — what we were trying to figure out
2. **Progress** — what's done
3. **Active hypothesis** — what we currently believe
4. **Dead ends** — what we tried and why it didn't work
5. **Constraints** — discovered or stated
6. **Next concrete step** — what should happen first on resume
7. **Memory pin** — high-priority capture so resumption finds it
## Method
1. **Snapshot conversation.** Last ~20 turns, distilled.
2. **Distil the seven items above** in a structured `pause.json` at `.siftcoder/checkpoints/pause-<ts>.json`.
3. **Memory capture** with `kind: pause`, `priority: high`. Pin so it surfaces on next session.
4. **Final summary** to user — quick recap so they know what was saved.
## Output shape
Written to `.siftcoder/checkpoints/pause-<ts>.json`:
```json
{
"id": "pause-<ts>",
"createdAt": "<ISO>",
"openQuestion": "...",
"progress": ["...", "..."],
"hypothesis": "...",
"deadEnds": [
{ "tried": "...", "result": "..." }
],
"constraints": ["..."],
"nextStep": "...",
"memoryId": "summary:..."
}
```
User-facing:
```
Paused at: <ts>
Open question: <one line>
Progress so far:
✓ <item>
✓ <item>
Currently believing: <hypothesis>
Resume with: /siftcoder:continue <id>
or /siftcoder:continue (most recent)
```
## Rules
- **Capture dead ends explicitly.** Otherwise resumption re-explores them.
- **Constraint capture is mandatory.** "Cannot use X because Y" is what's hardest to recover from memory alone.
- **Memory pin priority high.** Routine summaries are low-priority; pauses are high.
- **Single concrete next step.** Not a list — one specific action to start on resume.
## Anti-patterns
- Pause that just says "continue from where we left off" (no info)
- Listing 10 next-steps (paralyses on resume)
- Forgetting dead ends (high-cost rediscovery)
- Long prose summary nobody reads on resume
## When NOT to use
- Trivial work (just remember it)
- End of project (use `/handoff` instead — different shape)
- Session that's a scratch exploration — losing it is fine
## Subagent dispatch
- None — pause is a synthesis of current conversation
- Memory MCP for the pin
## Value over native task tracking
Native task tracking captures todos. Pause captures **why** the todos exist — hypothesis, dead ends, constraints. The thinking-state IS the value.
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