BuildGist

Claude Code hit a usage limit

Kayvan Zahiri ·

When Claude Code stops because you hit a usage limit, the files it already changed stay in the project folder: read them with git diff, then continue the task in Cursor or Codex.

The limit stops the session

The limit is Claude Code's. Files Claude Code already wrote are still in the project folder, committed or not. Closing the chat does not revert them. Waiting for the limit to lift is one option. How long that takes is up to Claude Code. If you want to keep working now, open another agent in the same folder.

BuildGist does not detect that limit. The home page shows the moment as a sequence you do yourself: Claude limit reached, then open Codex, then a BuildGist card, then Codex starts with the task context. You open the other agent. The card appears when you start a new chat there, in the same project.

Read what already landed

Before you open anything else, see the working tree. In the project folder:

git status
git diff --stat
git diff

You do not need to commit. git status includes edits that were yours before this session. Stash or commit those if you need a list that is only Claude Code's. New files are untracked until added. git diff is unstaged work. git diff HEAD is everything since the last commit. If the session committed, also run:

git log --oneline -5
git show

Read sign-in, sessions, permissions, deletion, payments, new dependencies and configuration before you ask the next agent to continue. A half-finished auth change is the wrong thing to hand on unread. The file-by-file read is in what did Claude Code change?

Write the task down while you remember it

The next agent can read the files. It cannot read the Claude Code chat. Write a short note before the chat scrolls away. Use your own task. This sample follows the home page's Google sign-in example, a real Claude Code run, shortened and edited. The unfinished line is that example's high concern.

Task: Add login with Google.
Done so far: the sign-in button, where Google sends you back, and the browser's signed-in
status. See the diff.
Not done: deleting a note does not check that the note belongs to the signed-in user.
Next step: add that check.
Stopped because Claude Code hit a usage limit. Do not redo the sign-in work.

That last line matters. Without it, the next agent can start the task over and edit files that were already right.

Open Cursor or Codex in the same folder

Open the other agent on the same project folder, and start a new chat. Paste the note as the first message. Ask it to repeat the task and the next step before it edits anything.

Cursor and Codex are the two agents BuildGist works with besides Claude Code. A project can use any of them, or all three. The handoff steps for Cursor, including why a chat that already has history is the wrong place, are in how to hand off a task from Claude Code to Cursor. The same handoff into Codex is in how to switch from Claude Code to Codex.

Codex needs you to approve BuildGist once, in Codex. BuildGist shows the steps. You can paste the note into Codex either way. Setup is in Getting started.

Or choose Continue

When you start a new chat in Cursor or Codex in the same project, a BuildGist card at the bottom right offers the earlier agent's task. Choose Continue and the new chat starts with that task's context. Choose Start fresh to skip it. Nothing is handed over unless you choose Continue.

The context is your own words about the task. The transcript stays in Claude Code. The diff stays in the folder, where the next agent reads the files. If the card is not there, use the note. By default the card offers a task active within the last 12 hours. A limit you hit yesterday can be outside that window. The note does not expire.

If two recent tasks are on the card, pick the one Claude Code was on. Start fresh if neither is. How that context is kept across later switches is in how to keep context across Claude Code, Cursor and Codex.

What to do in the new chat

  1. Confirm the next agent is in the same folder git status just showed you.
  2. Give it the task, what is done, and the next step, by the note or by Continue.
  3. Tell it not to redo work the diff already contains.
  4. Have it restate the next step before it edits.
  5. When it edits, review the new diff the same way: risky files first, one sentence per important change.

You can return to Claude Code later, in this same folder. The commits and the working tree will still be there. Tell Claude Code the same three things: the task, what the other agent finished, and what is left. Otherwise it will treat the other agent's edits as a puzzle.

When you choose Continue, the agent you continue in receives the task's context under your own account with it and its provider's terms. BuildGist records which agents that was between, and when.

What you need

Codex needs you to approve BuildGist once, in Codex. BuildGist shows the steps. Setup is in Getting started.

To explain a run, your computer sends BuildGist what that run needs, and BuildGist passes it to Anthropic. BuildGist does not keep this material. It does not send your whole repository, files the run did not change, or files named like secrets, such as .env files and keys. It keeps the explanation and short cited excerpts of changed code, at most 12 lines each. Secret masking is best-effort. Privacy has the full list.

Every account gets 7 days of BuildGist Pro free, with no card. The 7 days start at your first explanation or Continue handoff. Nobody is charged when the trial ends. After that, BuildGist Pro is $12 per month, plus any applicable tax shown at checkout. See pricing.

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Related

Questions: kayvanandre@gmail.com.