journal

name	journal
description	Reviews recent changes and decisions, and documents them in a dated journal file.

Journal Skill

I help maintain a project journal by documenting recent work, decisions, and architectural tradeoffs.

What I do

1. Analyze: I review recent git changes and conversation context to understand the scope of work and decisions made.
2. Summarize: I synthesize a summary focusing on rationale and tradeoffs.
3. Document: I append structured entries to dated journal files in .journal/YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM.md.
4. Report: I provide the path to the journal entry for verification.

When to use me

Use this skill to document:

• Significant feature completions.
• Architectural decisions or changes in direction.
• Resolution of complex bugs with specific rationale.
• Tradeoffs made during development.

Entry Structure

Each entry I create follows this structure:

• Timestamp: The time of the entry.
• Core Decision/Topic: The primary focus.
• Options Considered: Alternatives that were discussed.
• Final Decision & Rationale: Why the specific path was chosen.
• Key Changes Made: Summary of modified files/logic.
• Future Considerations: Any remaining debt or follow-up items.

Implementation Instructions (for the Agent)

When this skill is activated:

1. Get the current datetime in YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM format.
2. Run git diff HEAD~1 (or appropriate range) to see recent changes.
3. Review the recent conversation history for context on "why" decisions were made.
4. Ensure the .journal directory exists in the project root.
5. Read the existing .journal/YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM.md if it exists.
6. Append the new entry using the structure above.
7. Return a confirmation message with the filename.