claude-continue

Survive Claude's 5-hour usage limit. Same-chat continuity via durable cron; state-file resume as fallback; /rip kill switch; optional macOS launchd auto-relaunch. Zero idle token cost.

What it does

When you're working with Claude and the 5-hour usage window resets, you normally lose context. claude-continue solves this two ways:

1. Same chat (primary): CronCreate(durable: true) schedules a tick that fires inside the same REPL right after the window resets. The conversation never changes, the context never drops.
2. New chat fallback: If the CLI was closed, a per-project state file lets /awake rebuild context in a new session. Optional macOS launchd job can auto-launch your terminal at the right time.

Commands

Command	Purpose
/awake	Activate or resume. Three entry modes: fresh start, resume from state, or activate mid-conversation.
/save-state	Manual snapshot of the current session.
/awake-tick	(Auto) Fired by the durable cron; ultra-minimal, just chains the next one.
/rip	Kill switch — cancels cron, uninstalls launchd, disables hooks. Reversible.
/resurrect	Undo /rip — restores from archive/before-rip.md.

Why it's cheap

• Heartbeats are pure bash — no Claude turn, no tokens. State updates happen in scripts/heartbeat.sh, invoked from a PostToolUse hook.
• Hooks never inject prompts by default. They only emit a single line when the 5-hour limit is within 30 minutes (warn-emit.sh).
• Usage detection via ccusage with a 5-minute filesystem cache.
• awake_enabled: false default — until you explicitly /awake, every hook is a no-op.

Trigger	Frequency	Tokens
Every Edit/Write	per edit	0
10-min heartbeat	every 10 min	0
Limit warning	≤2× per 5h window	~10–20
awake-tick cron fire	5h	~50–100
/awake, /save-state, /rip, /resurrect	on demand	user-driven cost

Install

Option A — clone and load locally (recommended for first try)

git clone https://github.com/emircbngl/claude-continue.git
claude --plugin-dir ./claude-continue
# inside the Claude session:
/awake

--plugin-dir loads the plugin for that one session only. No global install, no marketplace step. Good for trying it out.

Option B — install from a release tag

git clone --branch claude-continue--v0.1.0 https://github.com/emircbngl/claude-continue.git
claude --plugin-dir ./claude-continue

Tags follow Claude's plugin convention: {name}--v{version}. Use a tag (instead of main) when you want a pinned version that won't shift under you.

Option C — persistent install via Claude's plugin manager

When the plugin is added to a marketplace you have configured, you can install it like any other plugin:

claude plugin install claude-continue
# inside the session:
/awake

Persistent installs live under ~/.claude/plugins/. List with claude plugin list. Uninstall with claude plugin uninstall claude-continue.

Optional: launchd auto-relaunch (macOS, CLI users only)

bash claude-continue/scripts/install-launchd.sh
# To remove:
bash claude-continue/scripts/uninstall-launchd.sh

The launchd job opens your terminal every ~5 hours and runs claude -c "/awake". Skip this on Claude Desktop — the primary cron mechanism handles continuity inside the app.

Troubleshooting: "Permission denied" on hook scripts

Some marketplace bundles strip the executable bit when unpacking. If hook output shows bash: /scripts/heartbeat.sh: Permission denied, run once:

chmod +x "$(dirname "$(find ~/.claude/plugins -name plugin.json -path '*claude-continue*' | head -1)")"/scripts/*.sh

For the optional auto-launch on macOS:

bash claude-continue/scripts/install-launchd.sh

To remove:

bash claude-continue/scripts/uninstall-launchd.sh

Requirements

• macOS (launchd part) or any OS (core skills)
• bash, jq (for usage parsing)
• npx available on PATH (for ccusage) — npm i -g ccusage for faster repeated calls

State location

~/.claude/continue-state/<state_id>/session.md

The state_id is derived in order of preference: git-root hash → dash-encoded cwd → session id. This means working from different shells on the same project gives the same state file.

Claude Desktop

Skills and hooks load in Desktop too. CronCreate works the same way. install-launchd.sh detects Desktop and skips itself.

Files

claude-continue/
├── .claude-plugin/plugin.json
├── hooks/hooks.json
├── skills/{awake,awake-tick,save-state,rip,resurrect}/SKILL.md
├── scripts/{state-path,read-state,write-state,heartbeat,warn-emit,
│             tty-check,usage-detector,install-launchd,uninstall-launchd}.sh
├── scripts/com.user.claude-continue.plist.template
└── tasks/todo.md

Star history

License

MIT