Recovery mode

2 min readReferenceUpdated 2026-05-19

What you'll find here

The bounded continuity view a resuming agent receives — the latest handoff, available case files, receipts, open contradictions, and active instruction constraints for a project or task.

Continuity aid, not policy.

Recovery mode does not resolve contradictions, promote facts, or replace policy checks. A non-clean recovery session tells the agent what must be reviewed before continuing.

Contracts

Contract

Records

Fields

craik.run_delta

delta

Previous and current handoff ids · case file ids · receipt ids · open contradiction ids · active promoted instruction constraint ids · stable list of change items.

craik.recovery_session

resume state

Links to a run delta and classifies the resume state.

Resume statuses

Status	Meaning
clean_resume	A latest handoff exists and no blocking changed state was found.
changed_state	A handoff exists, but open contradictions or active instruction constraints require review.
missing_prior_context	No prior handoff is available for the requested scope.

Non-clean sessions name the work.

Non-clean recovery sessions must include required_actions so an agent does not silently continue through missing or changed context.

Boundaries

Recovery summaries are derived from already-persisted local store records. They do not query remote GitHub state, inspect the working tree, or fetch Stigmem facts by themselves. Callers should refresh those inputs separately, persist the resulting receipts or contradictions, and then rebuild recovery mode.

What's next

ReferenceRun delta viewThe operator-facing delta surface.ReferenceExit disciplineHow handoffs and recovery interact.ReferenceSchema referenceThe run_delta / recovery_session shapes.