Rigorous whole-system checkup — verifies every Dex feature honestly (working / off / broken / couldn't-check), self-heals what is provably safe, and guides the user only where Dex cannot fix itself. Replaces /health-check.

2026-07-11431

getting-started

davekilleen/Dex

Interactive post-onboarding tour with adaptive pathways based on available data

2026-07-11431

name	dex-whats-new
description	Check for system improvements (learnings + Claude updates)

Check for improvements to your Dex system from TWO sources:

Learnings from your usage - Mistakes, patterns, opportunities captured during sessions
New Claude Code capabilities - Features that could enhance your workflows

Usage

/dex-whats-new              # Review learnings + check for Claude updates
/dex-whats-new --full       # Include detailed explanations
/dex-whats-new --learnings  # Only review session learnings
/dex-whats-new --claude     # Only check Claude Code updates

Arguments

$MODE: Optional flags

--full - Detailed explanations of each feature
--learnings - Only review learnings (skip Claude check)
--claude - Only check Claude updates (skip learnings)

Process

Step 0: Review Session Learnings (Unless --claude flag)

Check for learnings to review:

Read files in System/Session_Learnings/ from last 30 days
Read 06-Resources/Learnings/Mistake_Patterns.md - check for new patterns
Read 06-Resources/Learnings/Working_Preferences.md - check for trends

Extract improvement opportunities:

Recurring mistakes → suggest preventive measures
Gaps in documentation → suggest additions
Workflow inefficiencies → suggest automations
User patterns → suggest customizations

Present findings:

🧠 LEARNINGS FROM YOUR USAGE

Since last review: [X] session learnings captured

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

📊 PATTERNS IDENTIFIED

1. [Pattern name]
   Observed: [frequency] times
   Impact: [what this affects]
   Suggestion: [concrete improvement]
   
2. [Pattern name]
   ...

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

💡 SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS

Based on what you've learned, here's how to improve Dex:

1. [Improvement name]
   Problem: [What's not working smoothly]
   Solution: [Specific change to make]
   Files: [What to update]
   Effort: Low/Medium/High
   
2. [Improvement name]
   ...

Want me to implement any of these? (Enter number)

If no learnings: Skip this section or show: "No session learnings captured yet. The system will learn as you use it."

Step 1: Read Current State (Unless --learnings flag)

Load System/claude-code-state.json:

{
  "last_check": "2026-01-15",
  "last_version_seen": "1.0.28",
  "features_seen": ["hooks", "sub-agents", "skills", "commands", "mcp"]
}

If file missing or last_check is null, treat as first run.

Step 2: Fetch Current Changelog

Use WebSearch to find the latest Claude Code changelog:

Search: "Claude Code changelog 2026" or "Anthropic Claude Code releases"
Primary source: Anthropic's official documentation
Fallback: GitHub releases, official blog posts

Focus on:

New features and capabilities
Breaking changes
Deprecations
Performance improvements

Step 3: Compare and Surface Changes

Identify what's new since last_check:

For each new feature:

What it does (plain English, 1-2 sentences)
Why it matters for PKM users
How you could use it in Dex (concrete example)
Effort to adopt (Low/Medium/High)

Step 4: Present Claude Findings

If Claude Code updates found:

🆕 CLAUDE CODE UPDATES

Last checked: [date] (X days ago)
Current version: [version]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🆕 NEW FEATURES

1. [Feature Name]
   What: [Plain English description]
   For you: [How this could improve Dex]
   Effort: Low

2. [Feature Name]
   What: [Description]
   For you: [Specific improvement idea]
   Effort: Medium

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

💡 SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS

Based on what's new, here are concrete things you could add to Dex:

1. [Improvement name]
   Uses: [Which new feature]
   What it does: [Specific description]
   Pillar: [Which pillar it supports]

Want me to implement any of these? (Enter number)
Or run `/dex-improve` to workshop custom ideas.

If no Claude updates:

✅ Claude Code is up to date!

Last checked: Today
Current version: [version]

No new features since your last check.

Combined View (Default)

When running without flags, show BOTH sections:

🔄 DEX SYSTEM IMPROVEMENT REVIEW

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🧠 FROM YOUR USAGE
[Session learnings section]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🆕 FROM CLAUDE CODE
[Claude updates section]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

💡 COMBINED IMPROVEMENTS

Pulling together learnings + new capabilities:

1. [Improvement combining both]
   Uses: [Your pattern] + [New Claude feature]
   Impact: [What this unlocks]
   
Want me to implement any of these? (Enter number or 'all')

Step 5: Update State

CRITICAL: After presenting findings, you MUST update System/claude-code-state.json using the Write tool.

Steps:

Read current state file to preserve existing features_seen array
Add any newly discovered features to the array (avoid duplicates)
Update last_check to today's date (YYYY-MM-DD format)
Update last_version_seen if a new version was found
Write the updated JSON back to System/claude-code-state.json

Example update:

{
  "last_check": "2026-01-28",
  "last_version_seen": "1.0.32",
  "features_seen": [
    "hooks",
    "sub-agents",
    "skills", 
    "commands",
    "mcp",
    "parallel-sub-agents",
    "async-hooks"
  ]
}

Verification: After writing, confirm to user: "State file updated - next check will compare against today's findings."

Step 6: Backlog Synthesis (NEW — Innovation Concierge)

After presenting findings to the user, automatically create or enrich backlog ideas:

Call synthesize_changelog() from Improvements MCP
- This scans the changelog for Dex-relevant features
- Creates new AI-authored ideas for novel capabilities
- Enriches existing ideas with "Why Now?" evidence when a platform feature strengthens them
Call synthesize_learnings() from Improvements MCP
- Scans pending session learnings for improvement opportunities
- Creates ideas from learnings that have concrete "suggested fix" entries
- Enriches existing ideas when learnings relate to known backlog items
Report synthesis results to user:

🤖 BACKLOG SYNTHESIS

Changelog: Scanned X entries → Created Y new ideas, enriched Z existing
Learnings: Scanned X entries → Created Y new ideas, enriched Z existing

Top ideas created/enriched:
1. [idea-XXX] Title (action: created/enriched)
2. [idea-XXX] Title (action: created/enriched)
3. [idea-XXX] Title (action: created/enriched)

Run `/dex-backlog` to see full ranked backlog.

This step is what connects external intelligence to your improvement backlog. Without it, findings are presented and forgotten. With it, every relevant discovery becomes a tracked, ranked improvement opportunity.

Full Mode (--full)

When --full is provided, include educational deep-dives:

For each feature, add:

📚 DEEP DIVE: [Feature Name]

**What it is:**
[2-3 paragraph explanation of the capability]

**How it works:**
[Technical explanation with examples]

**Real-world example:**
[Concrete scenario showing the feature in action]

**In Dex, you could:**
- [Specific application 1]
- [Specific application 2]

**To implement:**
1. [Step 1]
2. [Step 2]
3. [Step 3]

Feature Categories

When evaluating relevance, categorize features:

Category	Relevance to Dex	Examples
Automation	High	Hooks, triggers, scheduled tasks
Performance	Medium	Faster models, caching
Context	High	Memory, skills, knowledge bases
Integration	High	MCP improvements, new protocols
UI/UX	Low	IDE features, visual changes
Developer	Low	API changes, SDK updates

Focus on High relevance categories. Mention Medium. Skip Low unless asked.

Capability Reference

Current Claude Code features to track:

Feature	What It Does	Dex Potential
Commands	User-triggered workflows	`/plan`, `/review`, etc.
Skills	Reusable behaviors, always loaded	Person lookup, writing style
Hooks	Auto-triggers at events	Session start, file changes
Sub-agents	Parallel workers, isolated context	Research, analysis
MCP	External service connections	Calendar, tasks, email
Memory	Cross-session persistence	Preferences, learnings
Tools	Built-in capabilities	File ops, search, terminal

Example Output

📢 Claude Code Updates

Last checked: 2026-01-15 (8 days ago)
Current version: 1.0.32

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🆕 NEW FEATURES

1. Async Hooks
   What: Hooks can now run without blocking the main conversation
   For you: Faster session starts — load context in background
   Effort: Low

2. Sub-agent Communication
   What: Sub-agents can now pass data back to parent
   For you: Research agent could update your notes directly
   Effort: Medium

3. MCP Resource Subscriptions
   What: MCP servers can push updates, not just respond to queries
   For you: Get notified when calendar changes, tasks update
   Effort: High (requires MCP server changes)

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

💡 SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS

1. Background Context Loading
   Uses: Async Hooks
   What: Load your learnings and today's plan while you type
   Pillar: Productivity

2. Auto-Research on New Topics
   Uses: Sub-agent Communication
   What: When you mention a new company, auto-research in background
   Pillar: [context-dependent]

Want me to implement any of these? (Enter 1 or 2)

Error Handling

If web search fails:

"Couldn't fetch the latest changelog. Here's what I know was current as of [last_check]: [List known capabilities]

Try again later, or check manually at docs.anthropic.com"

If state file is corrupted:

"Your capability state file has an issue. I'll create a fresh one and do a full scan."

Then proceed with first-run behavior.

Behaviors

Always Do

Keep explanations in plain English, not developer jargon
Tie every feature back to concrete Dex improvements
Update the state file after every check
Offer to implement suggestions

Never Do

List features without explaining relevance
Skip the state update
Overwhelm with every minor change (focus on impactful features)
Assume user knows Claude Code internals

Related Commands

/dex-improve — Full design partner (includes this + workshopping + audit)
/create-mcp — Build new integrations when new MCP features enable them

Track Usage (Silent)

Update System/usage_log.md to mark what's new check as used.

Analytics (Silent):

Call track_event with event_name whats_new_viewed and properties:

update_available (boolean)

This only fires if the user has opted into analytics. No action needed if it returns "analytics_disabled".