/closeout — Session Close-Out Ritual

When to invoke

User explicitly says: /closeout, "close out", "wrap up", "end the session"
Before any non-trivial git push (the close-out should precede the push)
When the session has produced 3+ files, plans, or atoms and the user is signaling end

Six-step protocol

Step 1 — Inventory session outputs

Run, in parallel where possible:

# What files did this session create or modify?
git status --short

# What plans were authored in this session?
ls -t ~/.Codex/plans/*.md 2>/dev/null | head -10

# What's the current branch and where does it stand vs origin?
git branch --show-current
git log @{u}.. 2>/dev/null || echo "(no upstream tracking)"

Surface a brief inventory table to the user:

N files modified, M created
K plans authored this session
L commits ahead of origin

Step 2 — Walk back through plans

For each plan authored this session (filter ~/.Codex/plans/*.md by mtime within session window):

For each plan, classify it as one of:

EXECUTED: contains DONE-NNN reference. No action.
IN-PROGRESS: contains IRF-XXX-NNN reference but no DONE-NNN. Update its frontmatter to confirm continued status.
ABANDONED: no closure reference, no follow-on commits. Move to ~/.Codex/plans/abandoned/ with a brief abandonment-reason.

Ask the user for ambiguous cases. Do NOT bulk-classify without confirmation — the home-scope AGENTS.md rule "Atoms are permanent — never batch-close" applies to plans-as-artifacts too.

Step 3 — Walk back through atoms (if applicable)

If data/prompt-registry/prompt-atoms.json was touched this session, identify atoms that were closed in this session and confirm their status field is updated.

If not (most sessions), skip.

Step 4 — Verify git state

Cross-check:

Working tree is clean (no uncommitted changes meant for this session)
Local main is in sync with origin (or branch tracks correctly)
No stray exports/temp files in workspace root (ls /Users/4jp/Workspace/*.txt should be empty)

If stray exports exist (the auto-named 2026-MM-DD-NNNNNN-this-session-being-continued-from-a-previous-c.txt pattern), move them to ~/Documents/session-exports/ or delete if duplicative.

Step 4.5 — Verify CLAUDE.md autogen freshness (hall-monitor gate)

If the active repo has a CLAUDE.md carrying  /  sentinels, run the gate:

~/.local/bin/claude-md-autogen-gate

If it exits non-zero, the autogen tail is older than 7 days. Refuse to mark the session as DONE. Refresh first:

organvm context sync --write     # autogen sections only
# or
organvm refresh                  # full 10-step pipeline

Then re-stage CLAUDE.md and commit (the claude-md-autogen-freshness pre-commit hook will re-verify), and re-run the gate.

Bypass only with explicit user authorization:

AUTOGEN_FRESHNESS_THRESHOLD_DAYS=999 ~/.local/bin/claude-md-autogen-gate

Pairs with the pre-commit hook (claude-md-autogen-freshness); together they catch staleness at both the commit boundary and the session boundary. Root-cause precedent: 32-day autogen-tail staleness traced on 2026-05-16 to organvm refresh step 6 soft-failing on system-system--system: invalid tier 'sovereign' (closed via schema + validator lockstep edit; see GH 4444J99/domus-semper-palingenesis#30, IRF-DOM-048).

Step 5 — Update active-handoff (if exists)

If .conductor/active-handoff.md exists in any active repo, update it with:

What this session accomplished
What's locked / not-yet-attempted
What the next session should pick up

This is the cross-session continuity gate.

Step 6 — Write CLOSEOUT_SUMMARY.md

Produce a session-close-out summary at ~/.Codex/plans/closeout-{date}.md with:

# Session Close-Out — {date}

## Outputs
- {N} files created, {M} modified
- {K} plans authored: {filenames}
- {L} commits made (SHAs): {sha-list}

## Closure marks
- EXECUTED plans (DONE-NNN refs): {list}
- IN-PROGRESS plans (IRF refs): {list}
- ABANDONED plans (moved): {list}

## Pending
- Uncommitted changes: {if any}
- Unpushed commits: {if any}
- Active handoff: {path if exists}

## Hand-off note for next session
{one-paragraph context for resumability}

Rules to honor

Never batch-close atoms or plans without explicit user confirmation. Per Universal Rule (memory rule #53): atoms are permanent, never batch-close.
Never delete plan files. Move to abandoned/ instead, preserving the history (per the plan-discipline section of the home AGENTS.md).
Never push as part of closeout unless user has explicitly authorized push for this session. Closeout's job is to prepare for push, not perform it.
If the session produced no notable artifacts, say so and exit cleanly. Closeout is fast on quiet sessions.

Why this exists

Per docs/evaluation/self-review-2026-05-05/stale-plans-and-orphan-commits.md:

90.4% of plans are ORPHANED. Of 427 plans in ~/.Codex/plans/, 386 contain neither a DONE-NNN nor IRF reference. Only 20 (4.7%) are EXECUTED, 21 (4.9%) are IN-PROGRESS.

The orphan rate is a direct artifact of the absence of a close-out ritual. This skill is the ritual.

The cost of skipping is invisible bookkeeping debt: plans accumulate, atoms stay open against doctrine that already encodes them, the system can't programmatically answer "what was done?". The cost of doing it is ~3-5 minutes per session.

docs/evaluation/SELF-REVIEW-MASTER-2026-05-05.md — Pathology #4: plan-author cadence vastly exceeds plan-execution cadence (21:1)
docs/evaluation/self-review-2026-05-05/stale-plans-and-orphan-commits.md — full data behind the 90.4% orphan rate
Universal Rule #2: "Nothing local only" — close-out is what makes "nothing local only" achievable per session

closeout