Continue Codex Work

September 23, 2026 · View on GitHub

Continue means finish the still-unfulfilled business task. Reading history is a mandatory evidence phase, not the deliverable.

Entry gate: external takeover, not native resume

Current situationAction
Codex itself natively resumed this same conversation, and the restored turns or compaction state are already in the current contextDo not invoke this Skill or read-codex-history. Continue directly from the retained context, then verify current workspace and external state before changing anything.
A new/different Agent context must take over an earlier Codex rollout, or the user identifies another Session ID whose continuity is not already present hereUse this Skill. Step 1's verified history receipt remains mandatory.

A restart is not enough to choose the second row. The deciding fact is whether the current conversation is the host-restored continuation of the same Session, not whether a Codex process was restarted.

Step 1: Obtain a verified Codex read receipt

Invoke daymade-claude-code:read-codex-history for the exact Session ID and request the full chronological Session evidence briefing. If the ID is unknown, use that Skill's inventory or bounded search first.

The receipt must state:

  • prompt-ledger, state-index, and rollout sources used;
  • selected session_meta.id and whether it exactly matches the requested ID;
  • root-to-child fork lineage and exact inherited byte boundaries;
  • selected and inherited chronological user/assistant turns;
  • compacted context, latest plan, end reason, unresolved calls, files, and gaps.

Fail closed on a mismatched rollout, missing child rollout, ambiguous physical copy, missing parent, broken byte boundary, or continuation cue with no recoverable parent objective. Never continue from the “closest” file.

Step 2: Rebuild the continuation contract

Before the first project-changing tool call, fill this internal contract from the read receipt and current-state verification:

FieldEvidence required
Original business outcomeEarliest still-governing human request across inherited and selected timelines
Current explicit requestLatest human request that is not only a continuation cue
Already completedCurrent independent verification, not old Agent narration
Still unfulfilledRequested result without completion evidence
User corrections / do-not-repeatHuman messages rejecting a route, assumption, or output
Proven assets and successful routesExisting code, documents, Skills, outputs, commands, and prior successful experiments
Next direct actionOne action whose success visibly reduces the unfulfilled business result

If the child contains only “继续,” “continue,” or /fork, inherit the task from the verified parent snapshot. A local cue is not a standalone goal.

Step 3: Reconcile with current reality

  1. Read the current target project's AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md.
  2. Confirm cwd, branch, working tree, relevant files, and external state.
  3. Verify that recorded patches, commits, pushes, downloads, jobs, or Agent outputs actually landed; rollouts record attempted actions too.
  4. Retrieve and reuse prior successful assets before creating a replacement.
  5. For transient failures such as usage limits or service errors, verify whether the original process later resumed and finished before duplicating work.

Step 4: Execute the business task

Perform the next direct action and close its feedback loop. Reviews, Skill work, infrastructure cleanup, format polish, and extra safety machinery remain subordinate unless they directly unblock the original result or the user explicitly promoted them.

Before every material branch, ask: “If this succeeds, which original unfulfilled result becomes smaller?” No answer means the branch is not continuation work.

Do not run codex resume or codex --continue. Do not overwrite unrelated changes.

Step 5: Report against the contract

  • Recovered goal: exact Session lineage and original business outcome.
  • Executed: actions and independent verification.
  • Now complete: contract rows actually closed.
  • Remaining: unresolved rows and exact blockers.
  • Not repeated: relevant rejected routes deliberately avoided.

Context recovery, parser success, a green review, or a finished subprocess is not by itself successful continuation. The user's business result is the completion unit.