Session Preservation¶
Skills used: PORTAL + ECHO
The workflow that eliminates "where was I?" from your vocabulary.
The Problem¶
You had a productive session. You made decisions, built features, hit your stride. Then you closed the terminal. Next session, you spend 15 minutes re-explaining context that Claude already knew an hour ago.
Multiply that by every session, every day, every project.
That's hours of your life, gone.
The Solution¶
End of Session¶
Before closing, two commands:
ECHO captures the decisions you made and why. PORTAL captures everything else — what you were working on, which files you touched, what's next.
Takes 30 seconds. Saves 15 minutes tomorrow.
Start of Session¶
Claude reads the portal, integrates the context, and gives you a summary:
Restored context from yesterday. You were working on the auth middleware, decided to use refresh token rotation with httpOnly cookies. Next up: token revocation endpoint and integration tests. Files touched: src/auth/tokens.ts, src/middleware/auth.ts.
You're back in flow. No re-explaining. No warmup. Just work.
Need a Decision Refresher?¶
Decision: ECHO-4K2M — Refresh tokens rotate on every use (one-time). Reasoning: Prevents token theft replay attacks. Alternatives considered: long-lived refresh tokens (rejected — security risk), session-based auth (rejected — doesn't work for mobile). Confidence: 85%.
The Ritual¶
Make this a habit:
| When | What | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Session start | /portal open [last-portal] |
Restore context |
| After big decisions | /echo create [name] |
Capture reasoning |
| Before closing | /portal create eod |
Save everything |
That's it. Three touchpoints per session. The compound effect over weeks is enormous — you build a history of decisions, a chain of context, a record of your engineering journey.
Advanced: Named Portals for Branches¶
Instead of generic eod portals, name them after what you're working on:
Now you can jump between workstreams:
/portal open auth-middleware # Resume auth work
# ... do some work ...
/portal create auth-middleware # Update the portal
/portal open api-redesign # Switch to API work
Each workstream has its own preserved context. Switch freely without losing anything.
Tips¶
Portal before branching
About to git checkout a different branch? Portal first. Different branches often mean different mental contexts.
Echo the non-obvious
Don't echo decisions that are obvious from the code. Echo the ones where future-you will wonder "why not the other way?"
Weekly cleanup
Old portals pile up. Once a week: /portal list, close the ones you'll never open again.