editor-rescue

editor-rescue

Editors with hot exit keep every unsaved buffer forever. This skill backs up that state, triages each unique buffer into keep, maybe or toss, writes organized notes, and then moves the state aside so the editor opens empty. Nothing is ever deleted.

Scripts are in this skill's scripts/ directory and need only the Python 3 standard library. OUT defaults to ~/editor-rescue-<date>.

Procedure

1. Have the user fully quit each editor (Cmd-Q, not just closing windows). A running Sublime keeps rewriting its session, and reset.py refuses to run while an editor is open.
2. Extract: python3 <skill-dir>/scripts/extract.py [--out DIR]. This copies each editor's state into OUT/_backup/, dumps unique buffers to OUT/_work/raw/, auto-tosses empty buffers and terminal or test output, and writes triage batches to OUT/_work/batches/.
3. Triage: start one background subagent per batch, all in a single message, on a cheaper model (e.g. sonnet). Give each the prompt in references/triage-prompt.md, with {LIST} set to OUT/_work/batches/batch_NN.list and {RESULT} set to OUT/_work/results/batch_NN.json. If there is only one small batch (about 20 files or fewer), triage it yourself with the same prompt.
4. Assemble: python3 <skill-dir>/scripts/assemble.py OUT. If it prints UNREVIEWED paths, read those files yourself (usually tiny fragments), write OUT/_work/results/manual.json in the same schema, and run assemble again until nothing is left unreviewed.
5. Spot-check: read OUT/README.md, plus a few files from keep/ and entries in TOSSED.md.
6. Report: give the user the counts, the highlights, how many buffers held credentials, and the DIRTY-FILES.md entries whose only copy is the buffer. Tell them the raw secrets are still in OUT/_work/raw/ and OUT/_backup/, so OUT stays private and gets deleted once they have rotated the keys.
7. Reset, only after the user says yes to the report. The original "close it all" request does not count as that yes. Run python3 <skill-dir>/scripts/reset.py OUT as a dry run and show its output. Then run it again with --yes. It moves Sublime sessions and VS Code-family Backups/ into OUT/_backup/<editor>/moved-aside/, and clears the reopen-window list. Without that last step, VS Code reopens every empty window.
8. Suggest turning hot exit off so this doesn't happen again: Sublime "hot_exit": "disabled", VS Code "files.hotExit": "off".

Handling the content

These buffers are the user's private scratch space. They routinely hold API keys, passwords and personal material.

• Keep everything on this machine. Report in the terminal only, with no artifacts, docs or uploads.
• Refer to a secret by file and type. Leave the value out of chat and out of any file you write.
• extract.py refuses output paths inside iCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive or Google Drive. Pass --allow-synced only if the user asks for it by name.

Common mistakes

Mistake	Result
Closing windows instead of quitting	Sublime rewrites its session, and the extract goes stale
Running reset before the user has seen the notes	They lose the chance to catch a bad toss
Assuming the agents covered every file	Fragments get skipped. assemble.py lists them as unreviewed
Moving only Backups/ in VS Code	It still reopens a pile of empty windows
Applying DIRTY-FILES.md edits blindly	Most are stale versions of files that have since moved on