recall

Before work starts or continues, rebuild where it stands, and give back a short brief. Read only what the topic needs, then stop.

Fast path: when the message of the user already holds the state, use it and skip the session search. The state is paths, the branch, and the change in progress.

1. Fix the scope, and say it back in one line. The window is the last 7 days, unless the user names another. Add the topic when one is named. The project is this working directory. Read the sessions of another project only when the user asks. "All" stays all. Never reduce it to the latest few without saying so.
2. Find the sessions: the .jsonl files directly under ~/.pi/agent/sessions/--<path>--/. <path> is the working directory without its leading /, with each / changed to -. When the sessionDir setting or PI_CODING_AGENT_SESSION_DIR is set, the sessions of every project are directly in that folder. Then keep the sessions whose first line, the session header, has this working directory as its cwd. Sort the sessions by modification time (ls -t). Leave out the current session ($PI_SESSION_FILE), and the subdirectories, which hold subagent runs.
3. Search before you read. Grep each session for the topic, then read only the lines that match. Each line is one JSON entry. message entries hold the turns of the user and the agent. compaction and branch_summary entries hold summaries that pi already wrote. When the matching lines total more than about 2,000, split the sessions across scout subagents. Each subagent returns one block for each session. The block gives the topic, the user's goal, decisions, open threads, the user's corrections, and artifacts. Artifacts are branches, PRs, commits, and tickets. Tag each block with its session id.
4. When the topic names a feature, file, area, or bug, also run the history path of the research skill. Ask what the current state is, what was tried and did not work, and what users still report.
5. Check every branch, PR, commit, and ticket that the search found against the live state, with git and gh. Read what an agent did from its session entries: the commands that it ran, and the errors that it hit. Never infer it.
6. Write the brief in four sections. Where it stands has five bullets at most. Threads has one line for each thread. Each line starts with exactly one tag: [in flight <branch>], [open PR #N], [merged #N], [reverted #N], [done, uncommitted], or [planned]. Problems has five items at most: the problems that recur. Include complaints that users still make, and any fix that landed and was reverted later. Next move is one concrete action.

Rules:

• Stay on the topic. A thread next to it goes in only when it blocks this one. When the brief is longer than one screen, cut detail before you cut threads.
• Cite every finding: a session by its id, and the history by its source (commit, PR, or ticket).
• Recall only reads. It changes no file, branch, or ticket.
• Redact secrets found in a session. Replace a token, key, password, or connection string with a placeholder.