Pausing Context Hooks

The Problem¶

Not every session needs the full ceremony. Quick investigations, one-off questions, small fixes unrelated to active project work: These tasks don't benefit from persistence nudges, ceremony reminders, or knowledge checks. Every hook still fires, consuming tokens and attention on work that won't produce learnings or decisions worth capturing.

TL;DR¶

Command	What it does
`ctx pause` or `/ctx-pause`	Silence all nudge hooks for this session
`ctx resume` or `/ctx-resume`	Restore normal hook behavior

Pause is session-scoped: It only affects the current session. Other sessions (same project, different terminal) are unaffected.

What Gets Paused¶

All nudge and reminder hooks go silent:

Context size checkpoints
Ceremony adoption nudges
Persistence reminders
Journal maintenance reminders
Knowledge growth nudges
Map staleness nudges
Version update nudges
Resource pressure warnings
QA reminders
Post-commit nudges
Specs nudges
Backup age warnings
Context load gate
Pending reminders relay

What Still Fires¶

Security hooks always run, even when paused:

block-non-path-ctx: prevents ./ctx invocations
block-dangerous-commands: blocks sudo, force push, etc.

Workflow¶

# 1. Session starts: Context loads normally.

# 2. You realize this is a quick task
ctx pause

# 3. Work without interruption: hooks are silent

# 4. Session evolves into real work? Resume first
ctx resume

# 5. Now wrap up normally
# /ctx-wrap-up

Graduated Reminder¶

Paused hooks aren't completely invisible. A minimal indicator appears so you always know the state:

Paused turns	What you see
1-5	`ctx:paused`
6+	`ctx:paused (N turns): resume with /ctx-resume`

This prevents the "forgot I paused" problem during long sessions.

Tips¶

Resume before wrapping up. If your quick task turns into real work, resume hooks before running /ctx-wrap-up. The wrap-up ceremony needs active hooks to capture learnings properly.
Initial context load is unaffected. The ~8k token startup injection (CLAUDE.md, playbook, constitution) happens before any command runs. Pause only affects hooks that fire during the session.
Use for quick investigations. Debugging a stack trace? Checking a git log? Answering a colleague's question? Pause, do the work, close the session. No ceremony needed.
Don't use for real work. If you're implementing features, fixing bugs, or making decisions: keep hooks active. The nudges exist to prevent context loss.