The /dr-next Command — Resume from the Last Checkpoint
How /dr-next reads the last stage snapshot and picks up exactly where the previous session stopped — without rereading the whole task history.
A task interrupted in the middle of the DO phase should not require a full re-read of every prior artefact before work can resume. /dr-next solves the context-recovery problem by reading the last saved checkpoint first and rebuilding orientation from there.
It is the standard command for continuing any in-progress task across session boundaries — whether the gap was five minutes or five days.
Snapshot-first recovery
The first thing /dr-next does after resolving which task to resume is check for a stage snapshot at datarim/snapshots/{TASK-ID}.snapshot.md. If the snapshot validates, its contents become the primary context — the command reads it, replays the relevant context block back to the operator, and skips the full downstream read of activeContext.md, tasks.md, and progress.md. This is the fast path: almost no file I/O for a clean resume.
If the snapshot is missing or malformed, the command falls through silently to the standard read pipeline — no warning, no interruption, just the slower but complete recovery path.
Phase routing
After rebuilding context, /dr-next determines the current phase: PLAN, DESIGN, DO, or ready-for-archive. Each phase maps to a specific next command. A task in the DO phase routes to /dr-do; a task with all implementation done routes to /dr-qa or /dr-archive. The operator sees a context summary and a call-to-action pointing at the right next step — no guessing about where the pipeline stands.
One concrete example
A developer session interrupted mid-implementation. When /dr-next runs, it finds the snapshot written at the end of the previous /dr-do call. The snapshot records: stage do, recommended next /dr-do {TASK-ID}, and a short context summary including the last completed step. The operator reads the summary and continues in the same direction — no re-reading the full PRD or plan from scratch.
When there are multiple active tasks
If more than one task is active, /dr-next lists all of them with their current phases and asks which to resume. This is the Variant B call-to-action: a numbered menu where each entry is one active task and its continuation command. The operator picks a number and the right command runs. No task falls through the cracks when several are in flight simultaneously.
For an overview of the full pipeline, see what Datarim is. To check what is active before resuming, start with /dr-status.