lessons

name	lessons
description	Capture and integrate lessons learned. Two modes — capture (single lesson) and scan (mine session files or extended JSONL logs for skill-change proposals).
user_invocable	true
args	Optional. Free-text lesson, OR `scan` (default scan of session files), OR `scan --deep` (deep scan of JSONL transcripts).

Model Selection

• Default model (capture mode): Haiku — appending a structured lesson is a formatted write
• Scan mode (default depth): Sonnet — clustering signals from session files into skill-change proposals is a judgment task
• Scan mode (deep): Opus when transcript count > 20 — cross-session synthesis across raw JSONL needs larger reasoning

Lessons Learned Handler

You operate in one of two modes, dispatched by the first argument:

First token	Mode
scan	Scan mode (default depth) — read recent session markdown summaries
scan --deep	Scan mode (deep) — read recent JSONL extended transcripts
anything else (or empty)	Capture mode — record a single lesson

---

Resolve scope (every mode)

Before dispatching to a mode, locate the workspace and resolve scope from the active session marker.

The skill's base directory is <workspace>/.claude/skills/lessons/; resolve <workspace> by walking up three directory levels and validate that <workspace>/.claude/.workspace exists.

Scan active markers from <workspace>/sessions/active/*.md and <workspace>/projects/*/sessions/active/*.md. Parse frontmatter (project_slug, workstream_slug, session_id).

• One match → scope is <workspace> if project_slug = workspace, else <workspace>/projects/<project_slug>.

• 1 matches → ask the user which session this invocation is scoped to.

• 0 matches → check whether project_slug and session_id were passed as context from /bye. If yes, derive scope from project_slug (<workspace> if project_slug = workspace, else <workspace>/projects/<project_slug>) and proceed. If no context was passed, surface as a bug and abort (manual invocation: ask the user for scope instead).

Modes A and B use <scope> for input/output paths. Mode C is workspace-wide; the marker is read for scope-attribution decoration only.

---

Mode A: CAPTURE (default)

Triggered when the arg is absent or is free text (not starting with scan).

Lessons in capture mode come from:

• The /bye skill passing identified lessons
• The user invoking /lessons "description of what was learned"
• Manual invocation with /lessons (ask the user what was learned)

Steps

1. Gather lessons: If lessons were passed as input, use those. If invoked manually without input, ask the user what they learned.

2. Categorize each lesson into one of:

   • convention — code style, naming, project patterns
   • bug-pattern — common mistakes, gotchas, debugging insights
   • preference — user preferences for tools, workflow, communication
   • architecture — structural decisions, design patterns
   • tool-usage — tips for tools, CLIs, MCP servers, frameworks

3. Append to lessons file: Read <scope>/.claude/memory/lessons-learned.md with mtime capture, then append each lesson under the appropriate category section with this format:

   - **[YYYY-MM-DD]** Description of the lesson
   

4. Store in cognee (if available): If the cognee MCP is healthy, call cognee_add with the lesson text (prefixed with its category), then call cognee_cognify to integrate it into the knowledge graph.

5. Trigger skills-manager: Invoke the /skills-manager skill to assess whether the lessons warrant updates to any skill files. Pass the lessons as context.

6. Report:

   Lessons captured: [count]
   Categories: [list]
   Cognee: stored / skipped (MCP unavailable)
   Skills review: [triggered / no changes needed]
   

---

Mode B: SCAN (default depth)

Triggered by /lessons scan (no --deep flag).

Input source: <scope>/sessions/*.md — markdown summaries written by /bye. (Working state lives at scope root, not under .claude/memory/.)

Steps

1. Select window: list files modified in the last 7 days. If fewer than 3 exist, expand to the last 14 days. Cap at 20 files — prefer the most recent.

2. Read each file and extract signals:

   • User corrections ("no", "don't", "stop doing X", "that's wrong")
   • User confirmations ("yes exactly", "perfect", "keep doing that")
   • Tool failures or repeated retries on the same call
   • Workarounds that worked after an initial failure
   • Explicit mentions of a skill name + a problem
   • Abandoned approaches (task started, dropped mid-session)

3. Cluster signals by target skill: for each signal, identify which skill should have prevented or handled it. Group by skill name. Signals with no clear target go into a cross-cutting bucket.

4. Draft skill-change proposals. For each cluster of 2+ related signals, draft one entry:

   - **skill:** <name>
   - **change:** <what to add, remove, or rewrite>
   - **why:** <one-sentence rationale>
   - **evidence:** <session-file refs, e.g. `session-2026-04-19_144813.md:L42`>
   

5. Write proposal file to <workspace>/contributions/lessons-scan-<YYYY-MM-DD>-default.md (mtime-check on write):

   # Lessons scan — default mode — <YYYY-MM-DD>
   
   Window: <N> session files, <start-date> to <end-date>
   Signals found: <count>
   Proposals: <count>
   
   ## Proposed skill changes
   <proposals>
   
   ## Cross-cutting observations
   <any signals that don't map to a single skill>
   

6. Hand off to skills-manager: Invoke /skills-manager with the proposal file path as context. Skills-manager runs its own holistic-review → approval-gate → apply workflow.

7. Report to the user:

   Scan mode: default
   Window: <N> files
   Proposals written: <count> → <workspace>/contributions/lessons-scan-<date>-default.md
   Skills-manager: triggered
   

---

Mode C: SCAN --deep

Triggered by /lessons scan --deep.

Input source: ~/.claude/projects/<your-project>/*.jsonl — raw harness transcripts (one file per session, turn-by-turn).

Steps

1. Select window: list JSONL files modified in the last 3 days. Note the unbounded count first — if >20, use Opus model for this scan. Then cap at 15 files, preferring the most recent.

2. Scan each JSONL. Each line is a JSON object representing one turn (user message, assistant response, tool call, tool result). Look for signals the markdown summary could have missed:

   • Mid-turn user frustration ("why are you...", "stop", multiple "no" in a row)
   • Tool-retry loops (same tool called 3+ times with similar args and errors)
   • Long tool-result dumps the assistant ignored
   • Reasoning chains that contradicted the final action
   • Abandoned subagent launches
   • Skills invoked that failed silently
   • Repeated permission denials on the same tool

3. Cluster signals by target skill — same as default scan, but the signal vocabulary is richer (raw tool errors, turn-level sentiment, not just end-of-session summary).

4. Draft skill-change proposals — same format as default scan, but evidence refs point to JSONL files and line numbers:

   - **evidence:** `010cbd9d-adb5-4730-8121-64c158238a39.jsonl:L1247`
   

5. Write proposal file to <workspace>/contributions/lessons-scan-<YYYY-MM-DD>-deep.md (mtime-check on write; same structure as default-mode proposal, with Mode: deep and Scope attribution: <workspace | projects/<slug> from marker> in the header).

6. Hand off to skills-manager — same as default scan.

7. Report to the user:

   Scan mode: deep
   Window: <N> JSONL files (<total line count>)
   Proposals written: <count> → <workspace>/contributions/lessons-scan-<date>-deep.md
   Skills-manager: triggered
   

---

mtime-check protocol

For every shared-file write (Mode A append; Mode B/C proposal write):

1. Read the file; capture mtime.
2. Compute the edit.
3. Re-stat. If mtime changed since the read, re-read the file and re-compute the edit from scratch. Retry up to 3 times.
4. Write.

On retry exhaustion (>3 conflicts), prompt the user.

Division of labor

This skill detects (finds what needs to change). skills-manager governs (decides and applies changes). Never edit skill files from within lessons — always hand off.

What NOT to scan

• Files older than the window (noise swamps recent signal)
• JSONL files > 50MB (probably a stuck session, skip)
• Sessions flagged as test/scratch in their filename

Downstream skills — do not duplicate

• contribute operates on captured lessons to prepare upstream Memnyx contributions. Downstream of this skill.