| name | session-observatory-live |
| description | Conversational guide for using tools/session-retro/observe.mjs to capture friction, wins, corrections, decisions, gaps, tool-use, and checkpoints as they happen during a session. Use at session start (to kick off the log), at inflection points (to record events), and at session end (to archive and feed the retrospective generator). |
| format | "2025-10-02T00:00:00.000Z" |
| version | 1.1.0 |
| status | ACTIVE |
| updated | "2026-04-17T00:00:00.000Z" |
| version_history | [{"1.0.0 (2026-04-17)":"initial"},{"1.1.0 (2026-04-17)":"document `event tokens` dual-write shortcut"}] |
| triggers | ["Conversational guide for using tools/session-retro/observe"] |
Session Observatory — Live Event Logging
Most session retrospectives are written from memory at the end. Memory is
lossy. This skill captures the habit of logging events as they happen, so the
retrospective has real data to work with.
When to Activate
- At session start — log
start <mission-name> as one of the first
Bash tool calls, so the started_commit is recorded.
- When friction hits — hook fired repeatedly, tool failed, command took
longer than expected, user corrected you.
- When something works unusually well — a technique that you'd recommend
to future sessions.
- Before and after irreversible actions — commits, pushes, destructive ops.
- On progress markers — every ~10% through a long job.
- At session close — log
end, then run generate.mjs to produce the
SESSION-RETRO.md.
Commands
node tools/session-retro/observe.mjs start "<mission-name>"
node tools/session-retro/observe.mjs event <kind> "<label>" '<json-payload>'
node tools/session-retro/observe.mjs status
node tools/session-retro/observe.mjs end
Event Kinds (standard)
| Kind | When | Example label |
|---|
friction | Something took more effort than it should have | "read-before-edit hook fired N times" |
win | Something worked notably well | "idempotent pipeline saved 3 re-runs" |
correction | User or hook corrected direction | "user reminded: no Co-Authored-By" |
tool-use | Notable tool invocation | "installed better-sqlite3 as optional dep" |
decision | Judgment call deserving review |
