I manage my Git repos with gitjoin together with other small tools such as firstupdotenv and grrep, each doing one thing very well. What I missed was a simple way to keep contextual information per repository and branch. The tools I've seen that do this look like sledgehammers for my nails, so I wrote mycontext.

In my setup, mymonorepo/bep/gocode/libs is a gitjoin virtual monorepo with Git repos such as debounce, gitmap and lazycache. The context for the mybranch branch in debounce lives in libs/_mycontext/debounce/mybranch/.

What goes into a context is up to you. Some examples:

• The current Claude Code session ID, to resume the session when picking up work on a branch (see below).
• Reports from security researchers describing an issue to be fixed.
• Notes and design documents for a feature.

Specification

mycontext does not depend on gitjoin; it works with any Git repository. All commands are run from inside the repository and operate on that repository only.

• The context for a branch lives in <repo>/../_mycontext/<repo dir name>/<branch>/.
• Branch names with slashes nest as directories, e.g. feature/foo lives in _mycontext/myrepo/feature/foo/.
• A context directory is marked by an empty .mycontext-branch file. This is how mycontext tells a context apart from a sub directory inside one.
• _mycontext is meant to be committed (e.g. into the parent gitjoin repository). Files that only make sense on one machine go into the context's .local/ sub directory, which is ignored by _mycontext/.gitignore, created by mycontext the first time it creates a context.
• mycontext never commits anything, and does not touch your Git branches.

Installation

go install github.com/bep/mycontext@latest

Usage

mycontext path [--local]             # Print the context directory for the current branch, creating it if needed.
mycontext ls                         # List this repository's contexts; contexts without a local branch are marked (gone).
mycontext rm [branch]                # Remove a context (defaults to the current branch).
mycontext mv <old> <new>             # Rename a context, e.g. after renaming the branch.
mycontext prune [--dry-run]          # Remove contexts for local branches that no longer exist.

mycontext path is the integration point for other tools, e.g. cd $(mycontext path).

Claude Code

Store the session ID for the current branch with a SessionStart hook in .claude/settings.json:

{
  "hooks": {
    "SessionStart": [
      {
        "hooks": [
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "jq -r .session_id > \"$(mycontext path --local)/claude-session\""
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

And resume it with:

claude --resume $(cat $(mycontext path --local)/claude-session)