/summarize

name: summarize
description: >
  Mid-session context capture and proactive decision/pattern capture. Use when: significant
  progress made but session continues, approaching context limits, switching topics, checkpoint
  learnings, significant decisions made, patterns emerge, or session is winding down.
  Lighter than a full session summary — captures progress and continues.
allowed-tools: [Bash, Read, Write, Edit, Glob, Grep]

Summarize (Mid-Session)

Capture context, learnings, and progress without ending the session. Write a checkpoint, then continue.

When to Use

• Significant milestone reached but more work ahead
• Switching to a different topic within the same session
• Context getting close to its limit — checkpoint before compaction
• After completing a multi-step task, before starting the next
• Patterns or decisions have emerged that should be recorded

**Not** for session-ending summaries — use a full session summary for that.

Proactive Capture Triggers

Fire a capture immediately when any of these occur:

| Trigger | Action | |---|---| | **Decision made** | Record decision + rationale + alternatives considered | | **Pattern discovered** | Note the pattern with "when to use" conditions | | **Significant work completed** | Capture what was done + outcome | | **Problem solved** | Record approach + what worked / what didn't | | **Session winding down** | Offer to run a full session summary or auto-capture key points | | **Topic switch** | Quick checkpoint before context shifts |

**Session wind-down signals**: "thanks", "that's it", "done for now", long pause after significant work, context switch to unrelated topic, time indicators ("gotta go", "wrapping up").

What's Worth Capturing

**Always**: architectural decisions, technology choices with rationale, bug root causes + fixes, performance optimizations, security considerations, integration patterns.

**When significant**: refactoring approaches, test strategies, debugging techniques, file organization decisions, naming conventions.

**Skip**: routine edits, typo fixes, standard boilerplate, obvious patterns already documented.

Key Principles

• **Fast > thorough**: This is a checkpoint, not a dissertation. Keep it brief enough to

preserve momentum.

• **File-first**: Write to `./notes/checkpoints/` so checkpoints survive context resets.
• **Continue after**: This skill does NOT end the session.
• **Compound**: Multiple checkpoints per session is fine — they build a trail.
• **Searchable**: Use clear prefixes (CHECKPOINT, PATTERN, DECISION, LESSON) for future grep.
• **Silent capture**: Don't interrupt flow. Capture at natural breaks, not mid-thought.

Anti-Patterns

• Writing a full session summary mid-session (use a full session summary)
• Spending longer on the checkpoint than the work needs
• Only commenting in-line without writing a retrievable file
• Generic summaries without specifics ("worked on stuff")
• Over-capturing: not every line of code matters

See [checkpoint-format.md](checkpoint-format.md) for detailed checkpoint template, memory type distinction, decision/pattern/lesson capture templates, a delegated-capture example through the plugin's MCP server, and the quality guide.

Relevant Source Files

• `lionagi/cli/_runs.py` — run persistence at `~/.lionagi/runs/{run_id}/`
• `lionagi/cli/_logging.py` — structured logging conventions used in CLI sessions
• `lionagi/mcp/server.py`, `lionagi/mcp/verbs.py` — `agent.submit` / `job.output`, the MCP

path for delegating a capture to a sub-agent and reading back its saved artifacts

• `lionagi/cli/agent.py` — `li agent`, the checkout-local equivalent; it persists runs without

a flag