Your first agent session

tl;dr

Get crosslink running and watch your agent handle a task with persistent memory — in under a minute.

 

1. Install and initialize

cargo install crosslink
cd your-project
crosslink init

This creates .crosslink/ (config, rules, database), .claude/hooks/ (behavioral hooks), and .claude/settings.json (hook wiring). See Installation for more install options.

 

2. Start a session

You say:

“Let’s get started”

Every conversation begins with a session. If a previous session left handoff notes, your agent sees them immediately.

→

Your agent runs:

crosslink session start

On the first session this is a no-op. On subsequent sessions, handoff notes from the previous agent (or your past self) appear automatically.

 

3. Create an issue

You say:

“Fix the login bug — it’s high priority”

→

Your agent runs:

crosslink quick "Fix login bug" \
  -p high -l bug

One command: creates the issue, labels it, and marks it as the active work item.

 

4. Work with breadcrumbs

You say:

“Dig into the auth module and find the root cause”

Your agent explores the code, leaving breadcrumbs as it goes. These survive context compression — if the window fills up, the trail of what was found and decided persists.

→

Your agent runs:

# Breadcrumb — survives context compression
crosslink session action \
  "Found root cause in refresh_token()"

# Permanent comment on the issue
crosslink issue comment 1 \
  "Token wasn't refreshed on 401"

# ... implements the fix, runs tests ...

 

5. Commit and close

You say:

“Commit that and close the issue”

The agent uses the built-in /commit skill, which creates the commit and records a result comment on the active issue. Closing auto-appends a changelog entry.

→

Your agent runs:

# /commit stages, writes the message,
# and records the result on the issue
/commit

crosslink close 1

 

6. End the session

You say:

“Wrap up and leave notes for next time”

→

Your agent runs:

crosslink session end \
  --notes "Fixed auth bug #1. Dark mode is next."

The next session — whether it is you, another agent, or the same agent after a restart — sees these handoff notes automatically.

 

What’s next?