startsession
Initiate development sessions by retrieving active projects, high-priority tasks, and milestones. Tracks progress, dependencies, and recent work for effective context setting in software development.
Instructions
A powerful session initialization tool for software development contextual work. This tool starts a new development session and provides a comprehensive overview of the current development landscape. It retrieves recent sessions, active projects, high-priority tasks, and upcoming milestones to help focus the work effectively.
When to use this tool:
Beginning a new development work session
Establishing context before diving into specific development work
Key features:
Generates a unique session identifier for tracking activity
Retrieves and displays recent development sessions
Shows active software development projects (based on has_status relations)
Highlights high-priority tasks (based on has_priority relations)
Lists upcoming project milestones with progress tracking
Displays task dependencies and sequencing information
Parameters explained:
No parameters required - the tool automatically retrieves all relevant context
Return information:
Session ID: A unique identifier for this development session (format: dev_timestamp_randomstring)
Recent Development Sessions: Up to 3 most recent sessions with:
Date
Project focus
Session summary (truncated to 100 characters)
Active Projects: List of active software projects with their status
High-Priority Tasks: Tasks with high priority status (via has_priority relation) including:
Task name
Current status (via has_status relation)
Task sequencing information (preceding and following tasks)
Upcoming Milestones: Milestones with active status including:
Milestone name
Progress percentage based on completed tasks
You should:
Use the generated session ID with the loadcontext tool to load specific entities
End the session with endsession when work is complete
Input Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
No arguments | |||
Implementation Reference
- index.ts:1207-1345 (handler)The complete handler function for the 'startsession' tool. It generates a unique session ID, persists the initial session state, retrieves recent sessions, active projects, high-priority active tasks, and active milestones from the knowledge graph, then returns a formatted markdown response presenting options for the user to choose context to load next.server.tool( "startsession", toolDescriptions["startsession"], {}, async () => { try { // Generate a unique session ID const sessionId = generateSessionId(); // Get recent sessions from persistent storage const sessionStates = await loadSessionStates(); // Initialize the session state sessionStates.set(sessionId, []); await saveSessionStates(sessionStates); // Convert sessions map to array, sort by date, and take most recent ones const recentSessions = Array.from(sessionStates.entries()) .map(([id, stages]) => { // Extract summary data from the first stage (if it exists) const summaryStage = stages.find(s => s.stage === "summary"); return { id, project: summaryStage?.stageData?.project || "Unknown project", focus: summaryStage?.stageData?.focus || "Unknown focus", summary: summaryStage?.stageData?.summary || "No summary available" }; }) .slice(0, 3); // Default to showing 3 recent sessions // Get active development projects const graph = await knowledgeGraphManager.readGraph(); const activeProjects = []; // Find projects with active status for (const entity of graph.entities) { if (entity.entityType === 'project') { const status = await knowledgeGraphManager.getEntityStatus(entity.name); if (status === 'active') { activeProjects.push(entity); } } } // Get high-priority development tasks const highPriorityTasks = []; // Find tasks with high priority and active status for (const entity of graph.entities) { if (entity.entityType === 'task') { const status = await knowledgeGraphManager.getEntityStatus(entity.name); const priority = await knowledgeGraphManager.getEntityPriority(entity.name); if (status === 'active' && priority === 'high') { highPriorityTasks.push(entity); } } } // Get upcoming milestones const upcomingMilestones = []; // Find milestones with active status for (const entity of graph.entities) { if (entity.entityType === 'milestone') { const status = await knowledgeGraphManager.getEntityStatus(entity.name); if (status === 'active') { upcomingMilestones.push(entity); } } } let sessionsText = "No recent sessions found."; if (recentSessions.length > 0) { sessionsText = recentSessions.map(session => `- ${session.project} - ${session.focus} - ${session.summary.substring(0, 100)}${session.summary.length > 100 ? '...' : ''}` ).join('\n'); } let projectsText = "No active projects found."; if (activeProjects.length > 0) { projectsText = activeProjects.map(project => { const obsPreview = project.observations.length > 0 ? `: ${project.observations[0].substring(0, 60)}${project.observations[0].length > 60 ? '...' : ''}` : ''; return `- ${project.name}${obsPreview}`; }).join('\n'); } let tasksText = "No high-priority tasks found."; if (highPriorityTasks.length > 0) { tasksText = highPriorityTasks.map(task => { const obsPreview = task.observations.length > 0 ? `: ${task.observations[0].substring(0, 60)}${task.observations[0].length > 60 ? '...' : ''}` : ''; return `- ${task.name}${obsPreview}`; }).join('\n'); } let milestonesText = "No upcoming milestones found."; if (upcomingMilestones.length > 0) { milestonesText = upcomingMilestones.map(milestone => { const obsPreview = milestone.observations.length > 0 ? `: ${milestone.observations[0].substring(0, 60)}${milestone.observations[0].length > 60 ? '...' : ''}` : ''; return `- ${milestone.name}${obsPreview}`; }).join('\n'); } return { content: [{ type: "text", text: `# Ask user to choose what to focus on in this session. Present the following options: ## Recent Development Sessions ${sessionsText} ## Active Projects ${projectsText} ## High-Priority Tasks ${tasksText} ## Upcoming Milestones ${milestonesText} To load specific context based on the user's choice, use the \`loadcontext\` tool with the entity name and developer session ID - ${sessionId}.` }] }; } catch (error) { return { content: [{ type: "text", text: JSON.stringify({ success: false, error: error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error) }, null, 2) }] }; } }
- index.ts:1207-1345 (registration)The MCP server.tool call that registers the 'startsession' tool with empty input schema and inline handler.server.tool( "startsession", toolDescriptions["startsession"], {}, async () => { try { // Generate a unique session ID const sessionId = generateSessionId(); // Get recent sessions from persistent storage const sessionStates = await loadSessionStates(); // Initialize the session state sessionStates.set(sessionId, []); await saveSessionStates(sessionStates); // Convert sessions map to array, sort by date, and take most recent ones const recentSessions = Array.from(sessionStates.entries()) .map(([id, stages]) => { // Extract summary data from the first stage (if it exists) const summaryStage = stages.find(s => s.stage === "summary"); return { id, project: summaryStage?.stageData?.project || "Unknown project", focus: summaryStage?.stageData?.focus || "Unknown focus", summary: summaryStage?.stageData?.summary || "No summary available" }; }) .slice(0, 3); // Default to showing 3 recent sessions // Get active development projects const graph = await knowledgeGraphManager.readGraph(); const activeProjects = []; // Find projects with active status for (const entity of graph.entities) { if (entity.entityType === 'project') { const status = await knowledgeGraphManager.getEntityStatus(entity.name); if (status === 'active') { activeProjects.push(entity); } } } // Get high-priority development tasks const highPriorityTasks = []; // Find tasks with high priority and active status for (const entity of graph.entities) { if (entity.entityType === 'task') { const status = await knowledgeGraphManager.getEntityStatus(entity.name); const priority = await knowledgeGraphManager.getEntityPriority(entity.name); if (status === 'active' && priority === 'high') { highPriorityTasks.push(entity); } } } // Get upcoming milestones const upcomingMilestones = []; // Find milestones with active status for (const entity of graph.entities) { if (entity.entityType === 'milestone') { const status = await knowledgeGraphManager.getEntityStatus(entity.name); if (status === 'active') { upcomingMilestones.push(entity); } } } let sessionsText = "No recent sessions found."; if (recentSessions.length > 0) { sessionsText = recentSessions.map(session => `- ${session.project} - ${session.focus} - ${session.summary.substring(0, 100)}${session.summary.length > 100 ? '...' : ''}` ).join('\n'); } let projectsText = "No active projects found."; if (activeProjects.length > 0) { projectsText = activeProjects.map(project => { const obsPreview = project.observations.length > 0 ? `: ${project.observations[0].substring(0, 60)}${project.observations[0].length > 60 ? '...' : ''}` : ''; return `- ${project.name}${obsPreview}`; }).join('\n'); } let tasksText = "No high-priority tasks found."; if (highPriorityTasks.length > 0) { tasksText = highPriorityTasks.map(task => { const obsPreview = task.observations.length > 0 ? `: ${task.observations[0].substring(0, 60)}${task.observations[0].length > 60 ? '...' : ''}` : ''; return `- ${task.name}${obsPreview}`; }).join('\n'); } let milestonesText = "No upcoming milestones found."; if (upcomingMilestones.length > 0) { milestonesText = upcomingMilestones.map(milestone => { const obsPreview = milestone.observations.length > 0 ? `: ${milestone.observations[0].substring(0, 60)}${milestone.observations[0].length > 60 ? '...' : ''}` : ''; return `- ${milestone.name}${obsPreview}`; }).join('\n'); } return { content: [{ type: "text", text: `# Ask user to choose what to focus on in this session. Present the following options: ## Recent Development Sessions ${sessionsText} ## Active Projects ${projectsText} ## High-Priority Tasks ${tasksText} ## Upcoming Milestones ${milestonesText} To load specific context based on the user's choice, use the \`loadcontext\` tool with the entity name and developer session ID - ${sessionId}.` }] }; } catch (error) { return { content: [{ type: "text", text: JSON.stringify({ success: false, error: error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error) }, null, 2) }] }; } }
- index.ts:123-125 (helper)Helper function used by startsession handler to generate unique session IDs.function generateSessionId(): string { return `dev_${Date.now()}_${Math.random().toString(36).substring(2, 15)}`; }
- index.ts:1210-1210 (schema)Empty input schema for startsession tool (no parameters required).{},
- index.ts:95-111 (helper)Session state persistence helper used by startsession to load recent sessions.async function loadSessionStates(): Promise<Map<string, any[]>> { try { const fileContent = await fs.readFile(SESSIONS_FILE_PATH, 'utf-8'); const sessions = JSON.parse(fileContent); // Convert from object to Map const sessionsMap = new Map<string, any[]>(); for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(sessions)) { sessionsMap.set(key, value as any[]); } return sessionsMap; } catch (error) { if (error instanceof Error && 'code' in error && (error as any).code === "ENOENT") { return new Map<string, any[]>(); } throw error; } }