Context Recovery

Fight context switching amnesia by recovering what you were working on from your journal history

The context command helps you recover your work context after time away, context switching, or returning to a project. It visualizes your recent activity from saved journal snapshots.

Quick Start

Recover your work context from the last 7 days:

devdaily context

Get an AI-powered “where did I leave off?” summary:

devdaily context --ai

How It Works

1. Retrieve Snapshots

   Pulls saved journal snapshots from the specified date range.

2. Analyze Activity

   Shows current branch, active branches with uncommitted work, and recent activity timeline.

3. Display Context

   Renders PRs, tickets, work areas, and progression across days.

4. AI Summary (Optional)

   Generates a concise briefing of what you were working on and suggested next steps.

Context recovery requires journal snapshots. If you haven’t taken snapshots yet, the command will create one for you automatically.

Command Options

Time Range

Option	Description	Default
-d, --days <number>	Number of days to look back	7
--date <date>	Show context for specific date (YYYY-MM-DD)	-
--from <date>	Start date for range (YYYY-MM-DD)	-
--to <date>	End date for range (YYYY-MM-DD)	-

Last 7 Days

# Default: last week
devdaily context

Last 14 Days

# Look back 2 weeks
devdaily context --days 14

Specific Date

# What was I doing on Jan 15?
devdaily context --date 2024-01-15

Date Range

# Custom range
devdaily context --from 2024-01-10 --to 2024-01-20

Project Filtering

Option	Description
-p, --project <id>	Filter by project identifier
--all-projects	Show context across all tracked projects

# Single project
devdaily context --project my-api

# All projects
devdaily context --all-projects

Display Options

Option	Description
--ai	Generate AI-powered “where did I leave off?” summary
--branches	Show detailed active branch status
--raw	Output raw context data (no formatting)
--no-copy	Don’t copy AI summary to clipboard
--debug	Show debug output

# AI summary of recent work
devdaily context --ai

# Detailed branch information
devdaily context --branches

# Raw data for automation
devdaily context --raw

Output Components

Project Header

  ━━━ 📂 my-api ━━━
  /Users/dev/projects/my-api
  3 active days · 18 commits

Shows project name, path, active days, and total commits.

Current Branch

  Current branch: feature/oauth2-integration

Displays your current working branch.

Active Branches

Shows branches with work-in-progress:

  Active branches (3):
    ▸ feature/oauth2-integration ← you are here ↑5 ahead
      Last: Implement OAuth2 token refresh flow
      Modified: src/auth.ts, src/api/oauth.ts +3 more
    
      feature/dashboard-redesign ↑12 ahead ● uncommitted changes
      Last: Update dashboard layout
      Modified: src/components/Dashboard.tsx
    
      fix/login-redirect
      Last: Fix redirect after successful login

Branch Status Indicators

• ▸ - Current branch marker
• ← you are here - You’re currently on this branch
• ↑N ahead - Branch is N commits ahead of base
• ● uncommitted changes - Branch has uncommitted work

Activity Timeline

Chronological view of recent work:

  Activity timeline:
    │ 2024-01-18 (today)  🌿 feature/oauth2  📝 5 · 2 PRs · +234/-89
    │   a3f2c91 Implement token refresh endpoint
    │   b7e1d42 Add OAuth2 configuration
    │   ... +3 more commits
    │
    │ 2024-01-17  🌿 feature/oauth2  📝 8 · +456/-123
    │   c9d4e21 Set up OAuth2 providers
    │   d2f8a33 Update auth middleware
    │   e5b3c44 Add OAuth2 database schema
    │   ... +5 more commits
    │   📌 Started OAuth2 integration work
    ╵

Pull Requests

  Pull Requests:
    ○ #45 Add OAuth2 authentication support (open)
    ● #43 Refactor error handling (merged)
    ✕ #41 Update API documentation (closed)

PR State Indicators

• ○ - Open PR (green)
• ● - Merged PR (accent color)
• ✕ - Closed PR (gray)

Tickets

  Tickets:
    PROJ-123: Implement OAuth2 authentication [in progress]
    PROJ-124: Fix login redirect bug [done]

Work Areas

Bar chart showing time distribution:

  Work areas:
    backend        ████████████████░░░░ 78%
    tests          ████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 18%
    docs           ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░  4%

AI-Powered Summary

Add --ai to get a concise briefing:

devdaily context --ai

Example AI Output

╭─────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ 🧠 Where You Left Off                           │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                 │
│ **What I was working on**                       │
│ OAuth2 authentication integration for the API.  │
│ Started 3 days ago, made steady progress on     │
│ token management and provider configuration.    │
│                                                 │
│ **Current state**                               │
│ - ✅ OAuth2 providers configured                 │
│ - ✅ Token refresh endpoint implemented          │
│ - ⏳ PR #45 in review                            │
│ - ⏳ Tests need to be written                    │
│                                                 │
│ **Open threads**                                │
│ - Branch: feature/oauth2-integration (5 ahead)  │
│ - Uncommitted changes in src/auth.ts            │
│ - PR feedback pending                           │
│                                                 │
│ **Suggested next steps**                        │
│ 1. Address PR review feedback                   │
│ 2. Write unit tests for token refresh           │
│ 3. Commit uncommitted auth changes              │
╰─────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

The AI analyzes:

• Main work themes over the period
• What’s completed vs. in progress
• Open branches and uncommitted work
• Logical next steps based on patterns

The AI summary is automatically copied to clipboard (disable with --no-copy).

Multi-Project Context

View context across all your projects:

devdaily context --all-projects --days 7

Shows separate sections for each project you’ve worked on.

First-Time Usage

If you haven’t taken snapshots yet:

  No journal entries found. Taking a live snapshot...
  
  ✓ Snapshot saved for my-api. Future runs will have history.

DevDaily automatically creates your first snapshot and then displays context.

Building Your Journal

To build up context history:

# Take snapshots regularly
devdaily snapshot

# Or enable auto-snapshots in other commands
devdaily standup  # Auto-creates snapshot
devdaily pr       # Auto-creates snapshot

Use Cases

After a Weekend

# Monday morning - what was I doing Friday?
devdaily context --days 3 --ai

After Context Switching

# Just finished working on project A, now back to B
devdaily context --project project-b --ai

After a Vacation

# Back from 2 weeks off
devdaily context --days 14 --branches --ai

Reviewing Old Work

# What was I working on in mid-January?
devdaily context --from 2024-01-10 --to 2024-01-20

Daily Standup Prep

# Quick context before standup meeting
devdaily context --days 1 --ai

Detailed Branch View

Use --branches to see all active branches, not just those with uncommitted work:

devdaily context --branches

Shows:

• All branches with recent commits
• Last commit message per branch
• Files modified in each branch
• Commits ahead of base

Raw Context Mode

For automation and integrations:

devdaily context --raw

Outputs the raw journal entries in a structured format:

=== 2024-01-18 ===
Project: my-api
Branch: feature/oauth2-integration
Commits:
- a3f2c91: Implement token refresh endpoint
- b7e1d42: Add OAuth2 configuration
...

Example Workflows

Quick Morning Check

# See what I worked on yesterday
devdaily context --days 1

Deep Dive Recovery

# Full context with AI guidance
devdaily context --days 14 --branches --ai

Project-Specific Recovery

# What was happening in the API project?
devdaily context --project my-api --ai

Export for Documentation

# Get raw data for notes
devdaily context --raw > context.txt

Configuration

Customize in .devdaily.json:

{
  "output": {
    "copyToClipboard": true
  }
}

Troubleshooting

No work context found

If you see “No work context found for the specified period”:

1. Take snapshots to build your journal:

   devdaily snapshot
   

2. Look back further:

   devdaily context --days 30
   

3. View all snapshots:

   devdaily snapshot --list
   

Context seems incomplete

Journal snapshots are only as complete as the data saved:

• Take snapshots regularly (daily or after major work)
• Enable auto-snapshots (enabled by default in standup, pr, week)
• Use --debug to see what data is available

AI summary fails

Ensure GitHub Copilot CLI is installed:

gh extension install github/gh-copilot

Related Commands

• devdaily snapshot - Take and manage work snapshots
• devdaily recall - Search your work history
• devdaily week - Generate weekly summaries
• devdaily standup - Generate daily standups