/save
/save captures where you are in the middle of a session. Claude writes a checkpoint file that describes the session, updates the records of the projects you worked on and gives you a short reference you can paste into a new conversation with /resume.
/save stays the same when PRIMA Project Management is installed. PRIMA Project Management writes automatic checkpoints during a session, and those sit alongside /save without replacing it.
When to Use It
Section titled “When to Use It”Use /save whenever you want a deliberate save point, without ending the session. Three common moments are listed below.
- Before the conversation gets long enough to reach Claude’s context limit.
- Before you switch to a different task or project.
- Before a long or complex operation, so you can return to a known state.
/save does not commit or push. To record the session and sync it, use /night or /sync.
How to Run It
Section titled “How to Run It”- Type
/savein the message box at the bottom of the Claude Code panel and press Enter. - Copy the
/resumereference that Claude gives you at the end. - Paste that reference into a new conversation when you want to continue.
What It Does
Section titled “What It Does”- Takes a timestamp. Claude reads the current time as
HH:MM. It uses this time in the checkpoint file name and in the reference it gives you. - Writes a checkpoint. Claude writes a file to
~/Documents/Agent Outputs/[project-id]/, named with the date and time, for example2026-10-14-1040-session-checkpoint.md. If a checkpoint file already exists for today, Claude adds to it. The folder sits in your Documents folder, outside the workspace. - Updates project records. Claude matches the session’s work to projects in
.claude/state/state.jsonby name, folder path and description. It backs up the file before the update and validates it afterwards. When no project matches the work, Claude skips this step. - Returns the reference. Claude prints a short block with the time, the topics and the projects updated, and nothing else.
What the Checkpoint Contains
Section titled “What the Checkpoint Contains”If your workspace has the rule file .claude/rules/context-checkpoint.md, which PRIMA Project Management installs, Claude follows the format in that file. In a base workspace, the checkpoint contains five things.
- A summary of what you worked on this session.
- The key decisions made.
- The files modified.
- Unfinished work.
- The next action.
What It Changes in Your Project Records
Section titled “What It Changes in Your Project Records”| Field | What Claude writes |
|---|---|
lastAction |
A brief description of the last action completed this session |
stoppedAt |
Where the work stopped, written so you can resume without rereading files. Set to empty when the work is complete |
status |
Changed only when there is a reason, for example from paused back to in-progress |
Claude also adds a new entry to the session history at the top of state.json, with today’s date and a one or two sentence summary. The list holds the current calendar month, and archive-history.sh moves every entry from an earlier month into the archive file for that month in .claude/state/history/.
Claude leaves every other field alone, including the project’s name, ID, category and milestones.
After the update, Claude runs the validation script. Any warning it prints appears in full on a Validator line in the reference, and a clean run shows Validator: no warnings. State Files and Validation lists the warnings and what each one checks.
What It Reads and Writes
Section titled “What It Reads and Writes”| File | Read or write |
|---|---|
~/Documents/Agent Outputs/[project-id]/ |
A checkpoint file is written or added to |
.claude/state/state.json |
Read, then written for each project worked on |
.claude/state/backups/ |
A backup is written before the update, using Infrastructure/Scripts/prima/backup-state.sh |
.claude/rules/context-checkpoint.md |
Read when present |
Example
Section titled “Example”/save**Session saved — 10:40**
Topics: Drafted the agenda and speaker list for the spring workshopProjects updated: P012Validator: no warnings
Use `/resume P012` to continue in a new session. Add HH:MM for additional context.When you worked on several projects, the reference names the project with the most work. When Claude cannot match the work to any project, the reference uses the time instead, as in /resume 10:40.