BFM-decomp/docs/ops/7-session-start-ritual.md

§7 Session-start ritual

Claude Code load order (2026-09-05, R64 candidate): PROJECT_CONTEXT.md → phase-ends/DIGEST.md (all phase synopses + all rules in full) → the THREE most recent phase-ends/PhaseEnd_*.md → phase-ends/CURRENT_PHASE.md, then the 🛑 SESSION CHECKPOINT block is replayed VERBATIM into the chat. Budget ≈100k tokens + the checkpoint. Never read all PhaseEnds, phase-ends/logs/, the whole cookbook or docs/cookbook-index.md at session start (CLAUDE.md is the authority). The Ghidra steps below apply only to RE sessions (G2) — the MCP server now runs headless via the SessionStart hook.

Order is load-bearing — MCP tools fail (sometimes silently) without an open program.

1. Start Ghidra (in WSL, under WSLg): ~/ghidra_12.1_PUBLIC/ghidraRun.
2. Open the BFM project → open SLUS_007.26 in CodeBrowser. Confirm the GhidrAssistMCP control panel (Window → GhidrAssistMCP) shows the server up on localhost:8080.
3. Start/resume Claude Code in ~/bfm-decomp. Run /mcp — the ghidra server must be connected with ~38 tools. Then make one cheap verification call (e.g. get_binary_info) before any heavier work. No MCP round-trip = no RE work this session (rule G2).
4. Build preflight (when the session involves building, Phase 4+):

   cd ~/bfm-decomp
   git status --short && make check-env
   

   One tree to check — clean or intentionally dirty before starting.
5. If PCSX-Redux work is planned: launch it (under WSLg), confirm the web server port (§3) and that a RAM dump fetch returns 2 MB.

Shutdown note: Ghidra writes the program DB on save — save (or deliberately discard) before closing, and never kill Ghidra mid-MCP-write.

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