example to use eeprom to store reset states to trigger an action on purposeful resets

resetaction.ino

/**
 * detect mutiple resets in order to trigger events using resets or power cycles alone
 * reset board within resettimeout(5000ms) after boot and do so resetcnt(4) times
 * has led indicator of reset window and serial output for better clarity
 *
 * This is blocking using a delay for timeout, can easily be changed to use a timer
 * This is not wear leveled, but you could replace with spiffs(slower), or use a ring counter to level it
 * You could also add a smaller window for reset by adding a pre-delay, to prevent reduce flash writes during glitchy or fast power cycles
 * either way USE WITH CAUTION as you are writing twice every time your reset or repower the board, soft resets and wdt should not trigger this however.
 *
 * @author tablatronix
 **/
#include <EEPROM.h>

#ifdef ESP8266
extern "C" {
#include "user_interface.h"
}
#endif

int addr         = 0;    // eeprom address to store reset cnt
int resetcnt     = 4;    // how many resets to trigger
int resettimeout = 5000; // ms to timeout

#define RESET_LED LED_BUILTIN

const char * const RST_REASONS[] =
{
    "REASON_DEFAULT_RST",
    "REASON_WDT_RST",
    "REASON_EXCEPTION_RST",
    "REASON_SOFT_WDT_RST",
    "REASON_SOFT_RESTART",
    "REASON_DEEP_SLEEP_AWAKE",
    "REASON_EXT_SYS_RST"
};

void blinkled(int pin, int blinks){
    for(int i=0;i<blinks-1;i++){
        digitalWrite(RESET_LED, LOW);
        delay(100);
        digitalWrite(RESET_LED, HIGH); // leave led on    
        delay(100);
    }
}

int getResetReason(){
    const rst_info * resetInfo = system_get_rst_info(); 
    Serial.print(F("system_get_rst_info() reset reason: "));
    Serial.println(RST_REASONS[resetInfo->reason]); 
    return resetInfo->reason;
}

void setResetCounter(int cnt){
    Serial.println("RESET write: " + (String)cnt);  
    EEPROM.write(addr,cnt);
    EEPROM.commit();
}

void handleReset(){
    // these are not the resets we are looking for
    if(getResetReason() != REASON_EXT_SYS_RST) return;

    pinMode(RESET_LED, OUTPUT); 
    digitalWrite(RESET_LED, HIGH); // turn led off

    EEPROM.begin(512);
    // get resets cnt
    int resets = EEPROM.read(addr);     
    Serial.println("RESET Count: " + (String)resets);
    
    // are we there yet?
    if(resets == resetcnt-1){
        setResetCounter(0);
        blinkled(RESET_LED,8);
        handleResetCallback();
        return;
    }

    blinkled(RESET_LED,2);
    digitalWrite(RESET_LED, LOW); // turn led off
    
    // bump resets
    resets++;
    setResetCounter(resets);
    
    // timeout
    delay(resettimeout);
    Serial.println("RESET timeout");
    setResetCounter(0);
    digitalWrite(RESET_LED, HIGH); // turn led off
}

void handleResetCallback(){
    Serial.println("RESET CALLBACK");
    // do stuff
}

// minimal function example
bool ifResetAction(){
    int numresets    = 4;
    int resettimeout = 5000;
    int addr         = 0;

    bool resetstate = false;
    const rst_info * resetInfo = system_get_rst_info(); 
    if(resetInfo->reason == 6){
        EEPROM.begin(512);
        int resetcnt = EEPROM.read(addr);
        Serial.println("RESET: reset count = "+(String)(resetcnt+1));
        
        resetstate = (resetcnt == numresets-1);
        resetcnt   = (resetcnt+1) % (numresets);
        
        EEPROM.write(addr,resetcnt);
        EEPROM.commit();
        
        if(resetstate) return true;

        Serial.printf("RESET: blocking for %d ms\n",resettimeout);        
        delay(resettimeout);
        Serial.println("RESET: timeout reached");        
        EEPROM.write(addr,0);
        EEPROM.commit();
    }
    return false;
}

void setup(){
    Serial.begin(115200);
    delay(500);
    Serial.println("\nSetup");
    handleReset();
    // if(ifResetAction()) Serial.println("RESET: TRIGGERED"); // minimal example function 
}

void loop(){
    Serial.println(millis());
    delay(1000);
}

sorry for all the updates, I accidentally had my ST gist plugin set to auto upload.

added led blinking status

This is a proof of concept, it could be reduced to a few lines of inline code and stuck in another sketch to add functionality, maybe I will add a tiny implementation example.

added single function minimal example

Tested on adafruit huzzah and official (amica) nodemcu 1.0
I have never see a reset method other than REASON_EXT_SYS_RST I suppose I should add REASON_DEFAULT_RST support in case it is ever encountered, but I would like to know how it works first. Maybe power up and pull enable after ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKNv7dpW9pU