Run one command when you finish for the day. Session Close walks your NOW.md and INDEX.md, updates only what changed, and leaves the rest untouched, so you open tomorrow to a vault that already knows where you are.
← All Claude SkillsYou finish a work session and the details are fresh: what you decided, what got unblocked, what is queued next. A day later most of it has faded. Session Close captures it in the two files that hold your live state, updating only what moved this session. Copy the two blocks below and give them to your Claude.
Step 1. Copy the skill block below.
Step 2. Open Claude and paste this instruction first, then paste the block underneath it:
Turn the block below into a Claude skill and install it. Create the skill file exactly as written. Then personalize it with smart defaults from what you know about me: my business, my voice, my current priorities, and where I keep my work. Confirm when it is installed and tell me how to run it.
--- name: session-close description: Walks NOW.md and INDEX.md at the end of a work session and updates only what changed. Use when you say you are done, wrapping up, closing out, finishing for the day, moving on, or type /session-close. --- # Session Close End-of-session protocol for your Human Stack. Run this before you shut down so your vault stays current and tomorrow-you has somewhere to land. This skill works whether your ignition file is AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md. It leaves those files alone. It only updates the two files that hold the moving parts of your vault. ## Checklist Walk through these two checks in order. Skip a category silently if nothing changed there during the session. ### 1. NOW.md NOW.md holds the moving parts of your work right now. It lives wherever you keep it in your vault. Read it first. Then update only the parts that actually shifted this session: - **Priorities.** Update if focus changed. - **Recent Decisions.** Add new decisions with today's date. - **Blocked.** Update if a blocker resolved, or add new blockers that appeared. - **Upcoming.** Add new work that got queued. If nothing on NOW.md is stale, leave it alone. ### 2. INDEX.md INDEX.md is your routing table. It lives wherever you keep it in your vault. It tells future-you (and Claude) which systems file to load for which task. Most sessions will leave it untouched. Update only when: - A new system file was created this session (add an entry pointing to it). - A system file's purpose meaningfully shifted (rewrite its line). - The routing logic itself got refined (you noticed a better way to organise the table). If none of that happened, skip this step. ## Example A typical end-of-day run looks like this. **You say:** "I am wrapping up for today." **What Claude does:** 1. Opens NOW.md. Two things shifted this session: a new decision (Q3 pricing strategy locked) and a blocker that resolved (legal review cleared). Adds the decision to Recent Decisions with today's date. Removes the resolved blocker from the Blocked section. 2. Opens INDEX.md. No system files were created or refined this session. Skips silently. **What Claude reports back:** - Updated NOW.md: 1 new decision, 1 blocker resolved. - Skipped INDEX.md: no system changes this session. The report stays short and factual. You already know the work. You just need to confirm what landed where. ## Rules - Read each file before updating. Never overwrite recent changes. - No em dashes in any content you write. Use commas, periods, or parentheses. - Plain language. Write the way you talk. - Skip categories silently when nothing changed for them. - At the end, report which files were updated so you know what changed. ## What this skill does not do This is the slim version. As your practice deepens you may add: - Long-term memory (use Claude Desktop's built-in Memory feature, or maintain a vault MEMORY.md) - Project CONTEXT.md updates when project state shifts - A daily journal note with Session Notes at the bottom - Insight capture for reusable ideas - A PARKED.md for deferred items Add those when you are ready. The two checks above are the core.
Claude reads the block, builds the skill file, and installs it. From then on, you just run the skill in any conversation. No folders to find, no code to write.
Every week you see what's working, build it live, and put it to work in your business.
Here's the shape of what this skill hands you when it runs. Copy it, use it, keep moving.
You don't need to hold any of this in your head. That's the skill's job. If you're curious what it's doing for you, here's the idea underneath it.
Your memory of a work session is sharpest the moment it ends, and it fades fast. Session Close catches the details while they are still fresh and files them where tomorrow-you looks first. The state of your work stays current without you holding it in your head. You close the laptop knowing nothing important slipped.
Your whole live picture lives in NOW.md and INDEX.md. Session Close walks both every time you close out, so the moving parts and the routing both stay honest.
Priorities, recent decisions, current blockers, and upcoming work. This is the file that changes almost every session, and it is the first place tomorrow-you lands.
It maps each kind of task to the systems file that handles it. Session Close updates it only when a new system file appeared or an existing one changed its job.
The skill reads each file in full before touching a line, so recent work stays safe and updates land on top of what is already there.
When a category has nothing new, the skill passes over it in silence and writes only where something actually moved. The close report tells you what landed.
Session Close walks two files, NOW.md and INDEX.md. NOW.md holds your live priorities, recent decisions, current blockers, and upcoming work. INDEX.md is your routing table that points to the right systems file for each task. It updates only the parts that actually shifted this session and leaves everything else alone.
NOW.md holds the moving parts of your work right now, so it changes almost every session. INDEX.md is a routing table that maps tasks to the systems files that handle them, so it changes rarely. Session Close touches NOW.md often and touches INDEX.md only when a system file was created or its purpose shifted.
No. The skill reads each file in full before it writes anything, then updates only the lines that changed this session. When a category has nothing new, it passes over that category in silence. At the end it reports which files were updated so you can see exactly what landed where.