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Skill

/refresh

Start a clean Claude session with only the context the next task needs, instead of /compact. Captures the goal of your next session, points to the right files (never copies them), and outputs a self-contained prompt to paste into a fresh chat. Use when: "refresh", "refresh

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benai-skills
77152 skills17 agents1 hook4 MCP

Claude Code

$ npx -y skills add naveedharri/benai-skills --skill refresh --agent claude-code

SKILL.md

refresh.SKILL.md
version: 0.5.0
name: refresh
description: |
  Start a clean Claude session with only the context the next task needs, instead of /compact.
  Captures the goal of your next session, points to the right files (never copies them),
  and outputs a self-contained prompt to paste into a fresh chat.
  Use when: "refresh", "refresh context", "fresh start", "my chat got sloppy",
  "start a new chat with context", "hand off this session", outputs degrading, drifting off task.
  Three levels: lite (quick reset), full (default handoff), ultra (full briefing).
  NOT for: summarizing in place (that's /compact), or saving permanent notes.
disable-model-invocation: true
argument-hint: "lite | full | ultra"
allowed-tools: Read, Glob, Grep, Write

Refresh

Long sessions rot: the window fills with stale back-and-forth and outputs get worse. `/compact` summarizes the mess in place and keeps going in the *same* polluted window. Refresh does the opposite. It captures the goal of your next session, points to the right files, and hands you a clean prompt to paste into a fresh chat. Rebuild, not summarize.

UX Rules

1. Ask exactly one question: the goal. Don't interrogate. 2. **Wait for the answer. Stop your turn after asking.** Do not generate the prompt, a draft, or a "default / in the meantime" handoff before the user replies with the goal. The only exception: the user already stated the goal in the trigger, in which case skip the question and proceed. 3. Reference files by **path only**, never copy file content, **but only when the data lives in a file the next session can open.** The fresh session cannot read this chat. So never hand it a pointer to data that has no retrievable home, see the persistence check in the workflow. 4. Be concise. The output is a prompt the user pastes, not a report. No preamble around it. 5. Default level is `full` when none is given.

Levels

  • **lite**: quick reset, no scan. Goal, next 3 steps, open decisions, and bare file paths. A sticky note.
  • **full** (default): handoff doc. Everything in lite, plus what's done, key decisions, and file pointers each with a one-line "why it matters".
  • **ultra**: full briefing. Everything in full, plus dead-ends to avoid, paths to any relevant data or log files, and suggested skills for the next session to run.

Workflow

1. **Get the goal.** Ask "What's the goal of your next session?" then **end your turn and wait**. Do not run any step below until the user answers. Skip this step only if the goal was already stated in the trigger. 2. **Decide where the handoff is going (critical).** A handoff is only useful if its reader can reach the files it references. Figure out the destination:

  • **Stays here** — you, same machine, continuing in a fresh chat in the same project. Local absolute paths are fine. This is the default.
  • **Travels** — it will leave this machine/context: shared with a teammate, sent to another PC, emailed, or even saved by you into an unrelated folder away from the referenced files. Here local paths break, the reader does not have them.
  • **How to decide:** if the goal says share / send / hand off to someone / for [a person] / another machine / email it, OR the handoff will be saved somewhere that doesn't sit alongside the referenced files, treat it as **travels**. If genuinely unclear, ask once: "Is this for you to continue here, or to send somewhere else (teammate / another machine / a different folder)?"
  • **In travels mode, the handoff must be portable** (see step 4): no absolute sender-local paths; every referenced file is either embedded, bundled, or pointed at a source the reader also has.

3. **Scan (full / ultra).** Once you have the goal, work over the conversation already in context and the files it referenced. Lite skips this. 4. **Check every referenced thing is reachable by the reader (critical).** For every piece of work the next session needs, ask: is it saved somewhere that session can open AND that survives into a fresh environment?

  • **A "home" must be persistent.** Three tiers:
  • **Persistent disk** (the user's real/mounted project folder, e.g. `/Users/.../Projects/...`) → survives. Reference the path.
  • **Remote server** (e.g. a Higgsfield `media_id`, a URL) → survives. Reference the id/URL instead of copying.
  • **Ephemeral** (a sandbox scratchpad like `outputs/`, a `/tmp` path, or data that lives only in this chat) → does **not** survive. A pointer here is worthless next session.
  • **In a sandbox (e.g. Claude Cowork), the scratchpad is wiped every session.** Only the mounted real-disk folder and remote servers persist. So:
  • If a needed asset lives only in the scratchpad or only in this chat → **copy it to the persistent project folder first** (or, for remote-regenerable assets, reference the remote id), then point to the new persistent path.
  • If there is no filesystem at all (e.g. claude.ai web) → **embed** the finalized data inline under "Carried-over data" below.
  • **If it TRAVELS (share / another machine / a different folder), persistence is not enough, it must be portable.** The reader does not have your disk, so a `/Users/<you>/...` path is useless to them. For each referenced file:
  • **In a shared source the reader also has** (shared Git repo, Relay/shared vault, shared Google Drive, Notion, a URL) → reference the *shared* identifier (repo-relative path, vault name + path, the link). **Strip your absolute local prefix.**
  • **Local-only** → make it self-contained: **embed** the file's full content inline (best for small/critical files like a single voice profile), or **bundle** the needed files into the handoff folder and reference them by their relative location ("the attached `ben-voice.md`").
  • **Never emit an absolute sender-local path in travels mode.**
  • **Tell the user which you did** ("the anchor only existed in the sandbox, so I copied it to `Resources/.../reference-anchor.png`" / "it's going to a teammat
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Questions about refresh.

Which coding agents can use refresh?
refresh installs in Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot, OpenCode and Windsurf with the skills CLI, using each agent's flag shown on this page. Flowy's auto-invocation, which fires a skill when your prompt matches, runs in Claude Code only.