Explicit Identity

This pattern solves race conditions when you're spawning processes or crossing async boundaries. The core idea is simple: never query for "most recent" or "current" at execution time because what's current now won't be current after an await or process spawn. Instead, pass explicit IDs like session_id or root_span_id through the entire pipeline. The examples show real bugs this prevented, like analyzers learning from the wrong session because they defaulted to "most recent" instead of getting an explicit ID passed in. If you're building anything with background jobs, child processes, or distributed traces, this will save you from subtle timing bugs.

skills.sh installs: 479
GitHub stars: 3.9K
last updated: Aug 21, 2026

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Install

$ npx -y skills add parcadei/continuous-claude-v3 --skill explicit-identity --agent claude-code

Installs into .claude/skills of the current project.

Files

Explicit Identity Across Boundaries

Never rely on "latest" or "current" when crossing process or async boundaries.

Pattern

Pass explicit identifiers through the entire pipeline. "Most recent" is a race condition.

DO

Pass --session-id $ID when spawning processes
Store IDs in state files for later correlation
Use full UUIDs, not partial matches
Keep different ID types separate (don't collapse concepts)

DON'T

Query for "most recent session" at execution time
Assume the current context will still be current after await/spawn
Collapse different ID types:
- session_id = Claude Code session (human-facing)
- root_span_id = Braintrust trace (query key)
- turn_span_id = Braintrust turn within session

Example

// BAD: race condition at session boundaries
spawn('analyzer', ['--learn'])  // defaults to "most recent"

// GOOD: explicit identity
spawn('analyzer', ['--learn', '--session-id', input.session_id])