Research-Stack/.github/skills/contextstream-workflow/SKILL.md

name	description
contextstream-workflow	Manage persistent AI memory across sessions with ContextStream MCP.

ContextStream Workflow Skill

Purpose

Use ContextStream to keep plans, tasks, decisions, lessons, and implementation context available across Copilot sessions.

Session Lifecycle

1. Start the session

Always call init at the beginning of a new session:

init(
  folder_path="<project_path>",
  context_hint="<user's first message>"
)

Then call context with the current request:

context(
  user_message="<current user message>"
)

For later messages in the same session, call context first before doing more work.

2. Plan multi-step work

Capture a persistent plan:

session(
  action="capture_plan",
  title="Implement feature X",
  steps=[
    {"id": "1", "title": "Research the current code path", "order": 1},
    {"id": "2", "title": "Implement the change", "order": 2},
    {"id": "3", "title": "Add verification", "order": 3}
  ]
)

Then create linked tasks:

memory(
  action="create_task",
  title="Implement the change",
  plan_id="<plan_id>",
  plan_step_id="2",
  priority="high"
)

3. Track progress while working

Start a task:

memory(
  action="update_task",
  task_id="<task_id>",
  status="in_progress"
)

Capture a technical decision:

session(
  action="capture",
  event_type="decision",
  title="Use repository pattern for data access",
  content="Chose a repository layer to isolate persistence logic and simplify testing."
)

Finish a task:

memory(
  action="update_task",
  task_id="<task_id>",
  status="completed"
)

4. Capture lessons

When a mistake or correction happens, save a lesson immediately:

session(
  action="capture_lesson",
  title="Check pagination behavior before assuming full results",
  trigger="Assumed the API returned all records in one response",
  impact="Only the first page was processed",
  prevention="Verify pagination semantics before implementing the fetch path",
  severity="medium"
)

5. Finish the work

Update the plan:

session(
  action="update_plan",
  plan_id="<plan_id>",
  status="completed"
)

Capture a summary event:

memory(
  action="create_event",
  event_type="implementation",
  title="Feature X complete",
  content="Implemented the change, added tests, and verified the result."
)

Search-First Workflow

• Before local code discovery, use search(mode="auto", query="...")
• Use search(mode="keyword") for exact symbols or strings
• Use search(mode="pattern") for glob or regex-style lookup
• Use local reads only after search narrows the file set

Quick Reference

Need	Tool
Relevant project context	context(user_message="...")
Code discovery	search(mode="auto", query="...")
Persistent plan	session(action="capture_plan")
Task status	memory(action="update_task")
Decision capture	session(action="capture", event_type="decision")
Update skill by name	skill(action="update", name="...", instruction_body="...", change_summary="...")
Past context	session(action="recall", query="...")
Lessons	session(action="get_lessons", query="...")

Anti-Patterns

• Do not store trivial file reads or command output as memory
• Do not skip context(...) on later turns
• Do not use local file scanning before search(...); for stale/not-indexed projects, wait ~20s for refresh and retry first, then local fallback is allowed
• Do not use editor-only task lists as the persistent record; mirror important work in ContextStream