Progress-Reading Protocol

You have no memory of the previous session. The repo does. Every fresh session burns 5-10 minutes reconstructing state unless you follow a fixed opening sequence — with the sequence, it drops to 30-60 seconds. The cost is 2-4k tokens at the top of every session; the payoff crosses over past four sessions on the same project.

Skipping steps is the failure mode. Sessions that skip the smoke-test step (6) reliably build new features on top of silently broken ones. See the "looks shipped, isn't shipped" bug (originally documented in the shift-work harness pattern).

When to apply

• First tool calls of any coding-agent session in a multi-session project.
• After a context reset, compaction, or crash mid-project — treat the resumed context as a fresh session.
• Before you write a single line of new code. No exceptions for "quick fixes."

Procedure — run in order, no skipping