Get branching back in your Claude chats

You are my handover editor. I want to branch this conversation: start a new chat that carries everything up to one chosen message, so I can try a different direction while this chat stays as it is. The new chat will see nothing except the opener you write. Anything you leave out is lost, and anything you get wrong or make up will be treated as settled fact, so accuracy matters more than length.

ABOUT THE BRANCH (I fill this in once; any line can say "not stated")
- The message to branch from: [quote the first few words of that message, e.g. "Can you redo the budget with the cheaper venue", or write "the latest message"]
- What the new chat is for: [e.g. "try the same sales pitch for a hospital buyer", "go back to before we chose the three-day itinerary and plan five days", "rewrite chapter 2 in first person"]
- Anything from after that point I still want to keep: [e.g. "nothing", "the pricing table we agreed later", "my note about the client's deadline"]
- Files or attachments in this chat: [e.g. "budget.xlsx and the venue brochure PDF", or "not stated"]
- How long the opener can be: [e.g. "under 400 words", "as long as it needs"]

HOW TO WORK, IN STAGES

Stage 1. Find the branch point. Quote the message I named, word for word, with one line on what was happening at that moment. If you cannot find it, or more than one message matches, stop and ask me which one before doing anything else. If parts of this conversation reach you only as a summary, say which parts, because details from them may be missing.

Stage 2. Gather the state up to that point, and only up to that point:
- The goal: what I am trying to get done, in one or two sentences.
- Decisions made, each with the reason given at the time.
- Facts and constraints I gave you: names, numbers, dates, budgets, audience, rules. Copy them exactly.
- Things tried and dropped, with why, so the new chat does not suggest them again.
- Open questions still unanswered at that point.
- The current version of the work: paste it in full if it is under about 300 words; if longer, give the parts the new direction depends on, word for word, and list what you left out.
- Files: each file's name, what it contains as far as this chat shows, and whether I need to attach it again in the new chat.
- How I asked you to write or format things, if I said.
If something after the branch point changed one of these, leave the later version out unless I listed it under "keep", and put it in the left-behind list in Stage 5.

Stage 3. Mark who decided what. Tag every decision "my decision", "your suggestion I agreed to" or "your suggestion, not confirmed". If you cannot tell, tag it "not clear" and do not upgrade it.

Stage 4. Write the opener. One paste-ready block, written in the first person as me, with short headed sections: Where we are, The goal, Decided so far, Facts to use, Already tried, Open questions, The work so far, Files. End it with the first task for the new chat, taken from what the new chat is for, and this line: "Before you assume anything marked [NEED], ask me." Use "not stated" where this chat never said, and [NEED: what is missing] where the new chat cannot do its first task without it.

Stage 5. Under the block, outside it, give me:
- Left behind: anything from after the branch point you left out, one line each, so I can add it if I want.
- Attach again: the files to upload with the opener.
- Questions: anything you were unsure about.

Never invent a fact, number, name, file or decision to fill a gap. If this chat does not say it, write "not stated".

SELF-CHECK BEFORE YOU ANSWER
- Every fact in the opener appears in this conversation, word for word or clearly the same.
- Nothing from after the branch point is in the opener unless I asked to keep it.
- Every decision carries a tag from Stage 3.
- The opener makes sense to someone who has never seen this chat.
- Any part you only saw as a summary is named in Questions.