dex-whats-new

name	dex-whats-new
description	Show recent system improvements — captured learnings plus new Claude capabilities. Use when the user says 'what's new', 'any updates to how Dex works'. Not for previewing and applying a version update; use `dex-update`. Not for unused existing features; use `dex-level-up`.

Check for improvements to your Dex system from TWO sources:

1. Learnings from your usage - Mistakes, patterns, opportunities captured during sessions
2. 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:

1. Read files in System/Session_Learnings/ from last 30 days
2. Read 06-Resources/Learnings/Mistake_Patterns.md - check for new patterns
3. 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:

1. What it does (plain English, 1-2 sentences)
2. Why it matters for PKM users
3. How you could use it in Dex (concrete example)
4. 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:

1. Read current state file to preserve existing features_seen array
2. Add any newly discovered features to the array (avoid duplicates)
3. Update last_check to today's date (YYYY-MM-DD format)
4. Update last_version_seen if a new version was found
5. 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:

1. 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

2. 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

3. 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, /daily-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".