Catch-Up Skill

Purpose

Provides comprehensive context about recent work in the homelab repository. This ensures continuity across sessions and helps answer questions about what's been done recently.

When to Use

• User asks: "What have we been working on?"
• User asks: "Catch me up" or "What's the current state?"
• User asks: "Review recent sessions"
• When context is needed about previous decisions or implementations
• At the start of a new session when user seems to be continuing previous work

File Structure

.claude/notes/
├── CURRENT.md              # Last 3-5 sessions + current state (ALWAYS readable)
├── REFERENCE.md            # Stable: gotchas, patterns, architecture
└── sessions/               # Archived sessions (grep for historical lookups)
    ├── 2025-12-26-monitoring-stack-fixes.md
    ├── 2025-12-27-velero-alertmanager.md
    └── ...

Instructions

1. Read CURRENT.md (Primary Context)

File: /Users/imcbeth/homelab/.claude/notes/CURRENT.md

This file is designed to always be readable (under token limits) and contains:

• Current state summary
• Last 3-5 sessions with full detail
• Session archive index

2. Extract Key Information

From CURRENT.md, identify:

• Current State: What's deployed, pending work, blockers
• Recent Sessions: Last 3-5 sessions with completed work, PRs, issues resolved
• Next Steps: Phase priorities from TODO.md

3. For Historical Lookups

If user asks about specific historical topics (e.g., "What did we do with Velero?"):

# Search archived sessions
grep -r "Velero" .claude/notes/sessions/

4. For Patterns/Gotchas

If user needs reference information:

File: /Users/imcbeth/homelab/.claude/notes/REFERENCE.md

Contains:

• Known gotchas and solutions table
• Common patterns (multi-source ArgoCD, Kustomization, Sealed Secrets)
• Sync wave order
• Architecture diagrams

Output Format

Provide a concise but comprehensive summary:

## Recent Work Summary

**Current State:**
- [What's deployed and working]
- [Phase priorities]

**Last 3 Sessions:**
1. [Date] - [Session Name]: [Key accomplishments]
2. [Date] - [Session Name]: [Key accomplishments]
3. [Date] - [Session Name]: [Key accomplishments]

**Important Context:**
- [Key decisions/architecture notes]

**Next Steps:**
- [Priorities from TODO.md]

Examples

User: "What have we been working on?" Action: Read CURRENT.md, summarize last 3-5 sessions with focus on accomplishments and current state

User: "What monitoring changes did we make?" Action: Read CURRENT.md, grep sessions/ for "monitoring", provide focused technical context

User: "Catch me up" Action: Read CURRENT.md, provide comprehensive summary of recent work, current state, and next steps

User: "What are the known gotchas for this repo?" Action: Read REFERENCE.md, summarize the gotchas table

Notes

• CURRENT.md is designed to always be readable in one Read call
• Use grep on sessions/ only when historical context is needed
• REFERENCE.md is stable and rarely needs to be read in full
• Include PR numbers and status for easy reference
• Highlight any user action items that are pending