BuildGist

How to keep context across Claude Code, Cursor and Codex

Kayvan Zahiri ·

To keep a task's context across Claude Code, Cursor and Codex, stay in the same Git folder and, when you start a new chat in another of those agents, choose Continue so that chat starts with the earlier task.

One folder, three agents

BuildGist works with Claude Code, Cursor and Codex. A project can use any of them, or all three. The folder holds the code all three can read, if you open each one there. The chat in each agent stays in that agent. Cursor cannot see a Claude Code transcript. Codex cannot see a Cursor transcript. The code moves with the folder. The reason it changed does not, unless you write that reason down or choose Continue.

What gets passed

Choose Continue on the BuildGist card and the new chat starts with that task's context. Choose Start fresh and nothing is handed over. Nothing is handed over unless you choose Continue.

The context is your own words: what you asked for, and constraints you typed while the task was underway. The transcript stays in the agent you left. The diff stays in the folder. The next agent reads the files there. When the last run's files are still as that run left them, and HEAD has not moved, the context can also say how many files that run changed, whether a test failed, and up to three paths. It does not include the patch.

When you choose Continue, that agent receives the task's context under your own account with it and its provider's terms. BuildGist keeps which agents the handoff was between, and when. Privacy is the full list.

The card

When you start a new chat in another coding agent in the same project, a BuildGist card at the bottom right of your screen offers the earlier agent's task. The home page shows one: Continue in Codex, the project name, Claude Code pointing at Codex, the task "Add Google OAuth", and the two choices Continue and Start fresh. A switch into Cursor uses the same card, titled Continue in Cursor.

If two recent tasks could apply, the card asks which task. Each task is one choice. Start fresh is still there. Pick the task you are actually on. The other one is left out of what gets passed.

By default the offer is for a task whose last activity in this project was within 12 hours. After that, the card does not offer it. Write the note below if you are coming back later. That idle gap is also what keeps tomorrow's task from being read as another line of today's.

The card that appears when you bring Cursor to the front needs BuildGist for Mac to be open. Cursor's handling of the context is best effort. If the new chat does not show the task, paste the note. A Cursor chat that already has messages does not take the context. It goes with the next new chat. Claude Code and Codex take it on a new session, which means a new chat, not a chat you are in the middle of. Setup is in Getting started.

The note, when you want a copy you can see

Continue passes a compact context. You do not see the full text on the card. The card shows the task. If you want the words in front of you, write them yourself and paste them as the first message. Use your own task. This one is the home page's example.

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.

Ask the new agent to say the task and the next step back before it edits. The steps for a Claude Code to Cursor handoff are in how to hand off a task from Claude Code to Cursor. Claude Code to Codex is in how to switch from Claude Code to Codex.

A task that moves through all three

Stay in one folder the whole way. Suppose the home page's task started in Claude Code and you need to leave it.

  1. In the project folder, run git status and git diff --stat. That is the code so far, including uncommitted work.
  2. Open Cursor or Codex on that folder. Start a new chat.
  3. Choose Continue, or paste the note. If you choose Continue and the task is missing from the chat, paste the note.
  4. Let that agent do the next step. When its run ends, read the new diff, or read the explanation in your Inbox if the run was one BuildGist explains.
  5. To move again, repeat from the first step. The latest working tree is the code. The task on the card, or a note you rewrite, is the reason.

After you choose Continue, later prompts any of the three agents type in this repository join that task until you choose Start fresh, or until it goes idle. A second task typed in the same repository at the same time can join it. Choose Start fresh at the start of a different task, so the next agent is not told yesterday's constraints.

BuildGist does not copy a chat transcript from one product into another. You choose Continue, or you paste a note. If you do neither, the next agent has the files and none of the reasons.

If the reason you are switching is that Claude Code hit a usage limit, the files are already safe to leave. What to do in that moment is in Claude Code hit a usage limit.

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.

Try BuildGist

Apple silicon, macOS 12 or later. United States, 18 or older.

Related

Questions: kayvanandre@gmail.com.