| name | irp-capture |
| description | Capture, recall, and check durable decision lineage inside any project using IRP (Intent Record Protocol). |
IRP Capture — Claude Code Skill
IRP preserves durable human decisions, rationale, and reasoning lineage inside a local project.
When to use this skill
Use capture when a decision crystallises during a Claude session. The reasoning is sharpest at the moment of decision — capture it before moving on.
Use irp why before starting new work. It shows what was already decided so nothing gets relitigated.
Use irp check before proposing something new. It catches conflicts with active decisions.
What IRP captures
- A decided outcome (what)
- The reason it was decided (why)
- When and how it was decided (timestamp, source)
What IRP does NOT capture
- Temporary brainstorming
- Speculative or unresolved thinking
- Task lists or status updates
- Filler summaries
- Duplicate restatements with no new meaning
Think of IRP as a camera, not a notebook. Capture only what should survive session boundaries and matter later.
Substrate
The canonical IRP state lives in the project root:
.irp/
├── ledger.jsonl ← append-only source of truth
└── current.json ← derived active state (last 10 decisions)
These are plain text files. They travel with the repo. No service required.
Commands
Capture a decision
irp capture "Decision: Use Postgres for the reporting service" \
--why "Redis rejected — query patterns require joins"
Review active decisions
irp why
Shows the last 10 confirmed decisions with reasoning.
Review a specific decision
irp why --id IRP-2026-04-08-001
Show full project context
irp inherit
Lists all active decisions — use this to understand the current state of the project before making changes.
Check a proposal for conflicts
irp check "Add a SQLite database for reporting"
Returns whether the proposal conflicts with any active decision. Use this before proposing architectural changes.
JSON output
Add --json to any command for machine-readable output:
irp why --json
irp check --json "Add a SQLite database"
Installation
pip install irp-capture
The irp CLI is immediately available after install. No configuration needed.
Decision quality guide
A good decision entry answers two questions:
- What did we choose?
- What did we reject, and why?
The second question is the valuable one. Anyone can find what you chose. The rejected alternatives are what gets lost.
Threshold: Capture decisions that would be hard to explain six months later. If you cannot write one sentence of why, the decision may not be ready to capture yet.
