branching-workflowlisted
Install: claude install-skill 0xUrsanomics/utopia-os
# Branching workflow
`/rewind` (Claude Code v2.0.0+): fork from a prior assistant turn, take a different forward path. The abandoned branch's tokens leave context entirely. The cleanest zoom-out primitive available natively in the CLI.
This skill: WHEN to branch, WHAT to preserve first, HOW to recover. Pairs with the Critic skill (a BLOCK verdict often triggers a branch).
## When to branch
Branch (use `/rewind`) when ALL three apply:
1. **The current path is going off the rails.** Output is wrong, the agent is confidently asserting unverified claims, the classifier flagged high-stakes but the Critic says BLOCK, or a path-of-least-resistance failure (closure-bias / search-truncation / sycophancy) has visibly compromised the conversation.
2. **Continuing-with-corrections would be more polluting than rewinding.** "Let me reconsider" + retry-emit will leave the bad branch in context as residue. Rewinding leaves it cleaner.
3. **The bad path started recently enough.** If the divergence is 1-3 turns back, rewind. If it's 10+ turns back, /save the insights + /compact + start fresh with prepended context.
Do NOT branch when:
- The output is acceptable but imperfect (continue-with-revision is cheaper).
- You're in the middle of a long-running task with persistent state (database writes, sent messages, scheduled tasks fired). Branch does NOT undo external side effects.
- You're under 50 turns into the session (the cost of pollution is low; rewind overhead doesn't pay back yet).