read

name	read
description	Read recent journal entries. Use when resuming work, checking what was done recently, or reviewing a specific session's history.

Journal: Read

Overview

Read and display journal entries. Supports filtering by time range, type, branch, outcome, origin, or keyword.

No confirmation needed — runs immediately and displays results.

Journal Location

Reads from .claude/journal.jsonl in the project root. If the file doesn't exist, report that no journal exists and suggest running field-notes:write.

Modes

Recent (default)

Show the last N entries (default: 5):

/field-notes:read
/field-notes:read 10

By type

Filter to a specific entry type:

/field-notes:read bug-fix
/field-notes:read refactor

By time

Filter to entries from a time range:

/field-notes:read today
/field-notes:read week
/field-notes:read 2026-03-27

By branch

Filter to entries from a specific branch:

/field-notes:read branch feature/notifications

By outcome

Filter to entries with a specific outcome:

/field-notes:read blocked
/field-notes:read partial

By origin

Show only primary sessions or delegated work:

/field-notes:read delegated
/field-notes:read primary

By keyword

Search across all text fields (summary, workedOn, issues, insights, feedback):

/field-notes:read search SSE
/field-notes:read search "rate limiter"

Display Format

Present entries in reverse chronological order (newest first):

## Journal — last 5 entries

◆ 2026-03-27 14:30 | work | completed | primary
  Branch: feature/notifications | Skill: zenflow:dispatch
  Worked on: plan: resources/plans/245-realtime-notifications.md
  Added real-time SSE notifications for issue state changes
  Files: 5 modified, 2 created | Tests: +8
  Insight: Two-stage review caught a missing reconnection handler
  Feedback: Worktree delegation kept context clean during side fix

◆ 2026-03-27 10:15 | bug-fix | completed | delegated
  Branch: fix/rate-limiter | Skill: zenflow:bug-fix
  Worked on: issue: rate limiter counter not resetting
  Fixed rate limiter counter not resetting between windows
  Files: 1 modified | Tests: +1

◆ 2026-03-26 16:00 | exploration | partial | primary
  Branch: feature/mastra | Skill: zenflow:collab
  Worked on: Mastra workflow integration patterns
  Explored Mastra workflow integration patterns
  Insight: Mastra's step() API changed in 0.5 — docs are outdated
  Would do differently: Check installed version before reading remote docs
  Feedback: Remote docs should be version-pinned in bookmarks

◆ 2026-03-26 11:00 | work | blocked | delegated
  Branch: fix/sse-backoff | Skill: zenflow:plan
  Worked on: plan: resources/plans/244-sse-backoff.md
  Attempted SSE backoff implementation, blocked by unclear retry semantics
  Blocker: No spec for max retry count — needs product decision

(4 entries shown, 23 total)

Display rules

• Show origin badge (primary or delegated) — makes it clear who did the work
• Show outcome — completed entries are normal, highlight blocked and partial
• Only show non-empty optional fields (skip "Blocker: None" noise)
• workedOn always shown — it's the anchor for what this entry is about
• feedback shown when present — it's the meta-level learning

The Process

1. Read .claude/journal.jsonl
2. Parse each line as JSON
3. Apply filters (type, time, branch, outcome, origin, keyword) if specified
4. Format and display in reverse chronological order
5. Show entry count summary

Related Skills

• field-notes:write — Append new entries
• field-notes:summary — Aggregate patterns
• field-notes:reflect — Session retrospective