/mpm-pause

Pause the current session and save all work state for later resume.

What This Does

When invoked, this skill:

1. Captures current work state (todos, git status, context summary)
2. Creates session file at .claude-mpm/sessions/session-{timestamp}.md
3. Updates .claude-mpm/sessions/LATEST-SESSION.txt pointer
4. Optionally commits session state to git
5. Shows user the session file path for later resume

Usage

/mpm-pause [optional message describing current work]

Examples:

/mpm-pause
/mpm-pause Working on authentication refactor, about to test login flow
/mpm-pause Need to context switch to urgent bug fix

Implementation

Execute the following Python code to pause the session:

from pathlib import Path
from claude_mpm.services.cli.session_pause_manager import SessionPauseManager

# Optional: Get message from user's command
# If user provided message after /mpm-pause, extract it
# Otherwise, message = None

# Create session pause manager
manager = SessionPauseManager(project_path=Path.cwd())

# Create pause session
session_id = manager.create_pause_session(
    message=message,  # Optional context message
    skip_commit=False,  # Will commit to git if in a repo
    export_path=None,  # No additional export needed
)

# Report success to user
print(f"✅ Session paused successfully!")
print(f"")
print(f"Session ID: {session_id}")
print(f"Session files:")
print(f"  - .claude-mpm/sessions/{session_id}.md (human-readable)")
print(f"  - .claude-mpm/sessions/{session_id}.json (machine-readable)")
print(f"  - .claude-mpm/sessions/{session_id}.yaml (config format)")
print(f"")
print(f"Quick resume:")
print(f"  /mpm-resume")
print(f"")
print(f"View session context:")
print(f"  cat .claude-mpm/sessions/LATEST-SESSION.txt")
print(f"  cat .claude-mpm/sessions/{session_id}.md")

What Gets Saved

Session State:

• Session ID and timestamp
• Current working directory
• Git branch, recent commits, and file status
• Primary task and current phase
• Context message (if provided)
• TaskList state (pending/in-progress tasks from Claude Code)

Resume Instructions:

• Quick-start commands
• Validation commands
• Files to review

File Formats:

• .md - Human-readable markdown (for reading)
• .json - Machine-readable (for tooling)
• .yaml - Human-readable config (for editing)

Session File Location

All session files are stored in:

.claude-mpm/sessions/
├── LATEST-SESSION.txt          # Pointer to most recent session
├── session-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.md
├── session-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.json
└── session-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.yaml

Token Budget

Token usage: ~5-10k tokens to execute (2-5% of context budget)

Benefit: Saves all remaining context for future resume, allowing you to:

• Context switch to urgent tasks
• Take a break and resume later
• Archive current work state before major changes

Resume Later

To resume this session:

/mpm-resume

Or manually:

cat .claude-mpm/sessions/LATEST-SESSION.txt
cat .claude-mpm/sessions/session-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.md

Git Integration

If in a git repository, the session will be automatically committed with message:

session: pause at YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS

Session ID: session-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS
Context: [your optional message]

Use Cases

Context switching:

/mpm-pause Switching to urgent production bug

End of work session:

/mpm-pause Completed API refactor, ready for testing tomorrow

Before major changes:

/mpm-pause Saving state before attempting risky refactor

When approaching context limit:

/mpm-pause Hit 150k tokens, starting fresh session

Related Commands

• /mpm-resume - Resume from most recent paused session
• /mpm-init resume - Alternative resume command
• See docs/features/session-auto-resume.md for auto-pause behavior

Notes

• Session files are project-local (not synced across machines)
• Git commit is optional (automatically skipped if not a repo)
• LATEST-SESSION.txt always points to most recent session
• Session format compatible with auto-pause feature (70% context trigger)