How do I know what I was working on?

Question

After restarting a Claude session (or starting a fresh one in an existing worktree), how do I find out what this environment was last working on and get back to it quickly?

Answer

Two commands: compass journal where to read the last recorded context, then compass task start to clock back on.

Step 1 — read the last journal entry

./projects/ores.compass/compass.sh journal where

Example output:

📓 ores.compass — last entry (2026-06-02 09:39)

Story:  Clarify versioning strategy  [EC20475A-E7B4-4DFB-8E55-4B8DA6B36202]
Task:   Scaffold version 2 doc       [EDAE4567-CA33-45A0-8FBF-6A8D062E3DC0]
State:  STARTED
Branch: feature/scaffold-version-2-doc
PR:     none

If no journal exists yet:

No .journal.org found. Run 'compass task start <slug>' when you pick up a task.

Use compass where to see what is in-flight in the sprint and pick up a task.

Step 2 — clock back on

./projects/ores.compass/compass.sh task start <task-slug>

This switches to the task's branch, ensures state is STARTED, and appends a fresh journal entry so context is recorded for the next restart.

Checking all environments (overlap detection)

Before picking up new work, check whether another worktree is already on the same story:

./projects/ores.compass/compass.sh fleet

Tested by

Manual smoke test: run compass journal where in a worktree that has previously called compass task start.