git:20260411.af2e024 to git:20260411.a0d1d86

---

name: synthesizing-cc-bigpicture

description: Synthesizes a living big-picture meta-plan from Claude Code sessions, plans, tasks, and team communications. Use when orienting across projects, assessing reasoning modes, or creating a plan-to-plan overview.

compatibility: Designed for Claude Code

metadata:

allowed-tools: Read, Grep, Glob

argument-hint: [project-name] [time-range] [output-path]

context: fork

---

# Big-Picture Synthesis

**Target**: $ARGUMENTS

Synthesizes a **plan to plan** — an overarching view across all Claude Code

artifacts. A reasoning tool that connects sessions, plans, tasks, and memories

into a coherent narrative of what you're working on, why, and where you're headed.

## Arguments

| Position | Name | Required | Default | Description |

|----------|------|----------|---------|-------------|

| 1 | `project-name` | no | all projects | Filter to a single project (substring, case-insensitive). Use `all` for all. |

| 2 | `time-range` | no | all time | E.g. `7d`, `30d`, `this-week`. |

| 3 | `output-path` | no | auto | Where to write output. |

**Default output path:**

- `project-name` set: `<decoded-project-path>/docs/bigpicture.md`

- `all` or omitted: `~/.claude/bigpicture.md`

- Explicit `output-path`: overrides both.

**Project matching**: Matched against decoded `~/.claude/projects/<encoded-path>/`

directories (`-` → `/` in encoding). Substring match on any path segment.

**Examples:**

```

/synthesizing-cc-bigpicture # All → ~/.claude/bigpicture.md

/synthesizing-cc-bigpicture Agents-eval # Single → project docs/

/synthesizing-cc-bigpicture Agents-eval 7d # Single, last 7 days

/synthesizing-cc-bigpicture all 30d ./bigpicture.md # All, 30 days, custom path

```

## When to Use

- Starting a work session — orient across projects

- Planning what to work on next — strategic prioritization

- Sprint/week boundary — maintain the meta-plan

- Feeling stuck — surface current reasoning mode and whether a shift is needed

## Do Not Use

- Searching a specific past conversation (use `/resume` or `/history`)

- Per-session context (session-memory does this automatically)

- Real-time usage monitoring (use `/insights`)

## Project Filtering

When `project-name` is set (not `all`), ALL data collection and output must

respect the filter. Apply these rules once, consistently:

1. **Session allowlist**: From `history.jsonl`, collect `sessionId` values whose

`project` field matches (case-insensitive).

2. **Project dirs**: Filter `~/.claude/projects/*/` to matching decoded paths.

3. **Plans**: Content-based — include only plans mentioning the project name.

4. **Tasks**: Match task dir names against session allowlist (UUIDs) or filtered

team names.

5. **Teams**: Include only teams whose `config.json` references the project name.

6. **Session .jsonl**: Only read files whose UUID is in the session allowlist.

7. **Output**: Every section scoped to filtered data only. Exception:

"Cross-Project Connections" may reference other projects as outbound links.

## Workflow

1. **Parse arguments** — Apply defaults per Arguments table. Resolve output path.

2. **Check existing** — If bigpicture.md exists at output path, load for

incremental update (preserve structure, refresh content).

3. **Discover & filter projects** — Glob `~/.claude/projects/*/`. Decode paths.

Apply project filter if set. Build session allowlist from `history.jsonl`.

4. **Progressive retrieval** — Escalate through tiers, stop when every output

section has concrete evidence. See `references/progressive-retrieval.md`

for tier definitions, cost estimates, and the escalation rule. Start at

Tier 1 (metadata-only).

5. **Collect signals** — Following the progressive retrieval tiers, collect

7. **Synthesize** — Group by project → time clusters. Link plans↔sessions↔tasks.

Surface blockers, trajectory, recurring themes, cross-project connections.

## Common Pitfalls

- **Data dump**: If output exceeds ~200 lines, raise abstraction. Interpret, don't list.

- **Reading full transcripts**: Use `history.jsonl` + first/last lines only.

- **False mode classification**: Reasoning modes are heuristic signals, not verdicts.

- **Spawning subagents**: Don't. Sequential within fork context is sufficient.

## Quality Check

- Correct > Complete > Minimal (ACE-FCA)

- ~100-200 lines output

- Every claim traces to a specific CC artifact

- Incremental update preserves structure, refreshes content

## References