[FEATURE] first-class session handoff + per-session token budgets for unattended runs
Resolved 💬 2 comments Opened May 28, 2026 by R-W-C Closed Jun 29, 2026
Preflight Checklist
- [x] I have searched existing requests and this feature hasn't been requested yet
- [x] This is a single feature request (not multiple features)
Problem Statement
Claude Code gives great primitives (CLAUDE.md, slash commands, memory, auto-compaction) but leaves two recurring needs to be hand-assembled by each user:
- Session continuity. When a session ends, useful state (what's done, what's next, open decisions) lives only in the transcript. The next session starts cold or drags the whole history forward. Most users never build a handoff ritual, so they silently lose context between sessions.
- Cost/context guardrails for agentic use. For "leave it running on a task," there's no proactive per-session token budget, no hard ceiling, and only a thin readout of how much context is left. Spend and context can run away on autonomous runs before the user notices.
Proposed Solution
- Built-in session handoff. An optional, first-class handoff artifact a session can write on exit and the next session reads on start — treated as a proposal to verify, not a command, and invalidated/flagged when the repo state has moved on (e.g. stamped with the commit it was written at).
- Per-session budgets. Configurable soft + hard limits (token and/or cost) per session or task, with graceful degradation and a clear "X% of budget / context used" readout, rather than account-level caps only. Especially needed as workflows move toward unattended/agentic runs.
Alternative Solutions
_No response_
Priority
High - Significant impact on productivity
Feature Category
Other
Use Case Example
_No response_
Additional Context
_No response_
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