closeout

/closeout — Session Close-Out Ritual

When to invoke

• User explicitly says: /closeout, "close out", "wrap up", "end the session"
• Before any non-trivial git push (the close-out should precede the push)
• When the session has produced 3+ files, plans, or atoms and the user is signaling end

Six-step protocol

Step 1 — Inventory session outputs

Run, in parallel where possible:

# What files did this session create or modify?
git status --short

# What plans were authored in this session?
ls -t ~/.Codex/plans/*.md 2>/dev/null | head -10

# What's the current branch and where does it stand vs origin?
git branch --show-current
git log @{u}.. 2>/dev/null || echo "(no upstream tracking)"

Surface a brief inventory table to the user:

• N files modified, M created
• K plans authored this session
• L commits ahead of origin

Step 2 — Walk back through plans

For each plan authored this session (filter ~/.Codex/plans/*.md by mtime within session window):

For each plan, classify it as one of:

• EXECUTED: contains DONE-NNN reference. No action.
• IN-PROGRESS: contains IRF-XXX-NNN reference but no DONE-NNN. Update its frontmatter to confirm continued status.
• ABANDONED: no closure reference, no follow-on commits. Move to ~/.Codex/plans/abandoned/ with a brief abandonment-reason.

Ask the user for ambiguous cases. Do NOT bulk-classify without confirmation — the home-scope AGENTS.md rule "Atoms are permanent — never batch-close" applies to plans-as-artifacts too.

Step 3 — Walk back through atoms (if applicable)

If data/prompt-registry/prompt-atoms.json was touched this session, identify atoms that were closed in this session and confirm their status field is updated.

If not (most sessions), skip.

Step 4 — Verify git state

Cross-check:

• Working tree is clean (no uncommitted changes meant for this session)
• Local main is in sync with origin (or branch tracks correctly)
• No stray exports/temp files in workspace root (ls /Users/4jp/Workspace/*.txt should be empty)

If stray exports exist (the auto-named 2026-MM-DD-NNNNNN-this-session-being-continued-from-a-previous-c.txt pattern), move them to ~/Documents/session-exports/ or delete if duplicative.

Step 4.5 — Verify CLAUDE.md autogen freshness (hall-monitor gate)

If the active repo has a CLAUDE.md carrying <!-- ORGANVM:AUTO:START --> / <!-- ORGANVM:AUTO:END --> sentinels, run the gate:

~/.local/bin/claude-md-autogen-gate

If it exits non-zero, the autogen tail is older than 7 days. Refuse to mark the session as DONE. Refresh first:

organvm context sync --write     # autogen sections only
# or
organvm refresh                  # full 10-step pipeline

Then re-stage CLAUDE.md and commit (the claude-md-autogen-freshness pre-commit hook will re-verify), and re-run the gate.

Bypass only with explicit user authorization:

AUTOGEN_FRESHNESS_THRESHOLD_DAYS=999 ~/.local/bin/claude-md-autogen-gate

Pairs with the pre-commit hook (claude-md-autogen-freshness); together they catch staleness at both the commit boundary and the session boundary. Root-cause precedent: 32-day autogen-tail staleness traced on 2026-05-16 to organvm refresh step 6 soft-failing on system-system--system: invalid tier 'sovereign' (closed via schema + validator lockstep edit; see GH 4444J99/domus-semper-palingenesis#30, IRF-DOM-048).

Step 5 — Update active-handoff (if exists)

If .conductor/active-handoff.md exists in any active repo, update it with:

• What this session accomplished
• What's locked / not-yet-attempted
• What the next session should pick up

This is the cross-session continuity gate.

Step 6 — Write CLOSEOUT_SUMMARY.md

Produce a session-close-out summary at ~/.Codex/plans/closeout-{date}.md with:

# Session Close-Out — {date}

## Outputs
- {N} files created, {M} modified
- {K} plans authored: {filenames}
- {L} commits made (SHAs): {sha-list}

## Closure marks
- EXECUTED plans (DONE-NNN refs): {list}
- IN-PROGRESS plans (IRF refs): {list}
- ABANDONED plans (moved): {list}

## Pending
- Uncommitted changes: {if any}
- Unpushed commits: {if any}
- Active handoff: {path if exists}

## Hand-off note for next session
{one-paragraph context for resumability}

Rules to honor

• Never batch-close atoms or plans without explicit user confirmation. Per Universal Rule (memory rule #53): atoms are permanent, never batch-close.
• Never delete plan files. Move to abandoned/ instead, preserving the history (per the plan-discipline section of the home AGENTS.md).
• Never push as part of closeout unless user has explicitly authorized push for this session. Closeout's job is to prepare for push, not perform it.
• If the session produced no notable artifacts, say so and exit cleanly. Closeout is fast on quiet sessions.

Why this exists

Per docs/evaluation/self-review-2026-05-05/stale-plans-and-orphan-commits.md:

90.4% of plans are ORPHANED. Of 427 plans in ~/.Codex/plans/, 386 contain neither a DONE-NNN nor IRF reference. Only 20 (4.7%) are EXECUTED, 21 (4.9%) are IN-PROGRESS.

The orphan rate is a direct artifact of the absence of a close-out ritual. This skill is the ritual.

The cost of skipping is invisible bookkeeping debt: plans accumulate, atoms stay open against doctrine that already encodes them, the system can't programmatically answer "what was done?". The cost of doing it is ~3-5 minutes per session.

Related

• docs/evaluation/SELF-REVIEW-MASTER-2026-05-05.md — Pathology #4: plan-author cadence vastly exceeds plan-execution cadence (21:1)
• docs/evaluation/self-review-2026-05-05/stale-plans-and-orphan-commits.md — full data behind the 90.4% orphan rate
• Universal Rule #2: "Nothing local only" — close-out is what makes "nothing local only" achievable per session