Method

Naming checkpoints so teammates survive

Conventions from cohort workshops

Stylized code rain on a screen

A brilliant checkpoint with a clever filename is a lost checkpoint. Teammates search under stress; wit does not help them.

Prefer boring segments

Use a fixed order: date, desk or site code, device alias, action family, optional outcome. Example: 2026-04-11_yng_devA_restore_partial. Boring is a feature.

Put outcome at the end

When the outcome leads the name, sorting hides related attempts. Keeping action families together makes incomplete restores visible as a cluster.

Ban private jokes

“final-final-v3-really” communicates anxiety, not state. If a session needed multiple attempts, number them and state why attempt two existed in the note body.

Write the headline for the next human

Inside the file, the first line should answer: what happened, who was present, and whether the archive is complete. Everything else can wait.

Practice these rules in the Handoff Language Lab portion of Checkpoint Log Mastery.

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