| name | sprint-retro |
| description | Draft a Sprint Retro by synthesizing scrum dailies, recaps, the sprint planning note, and the prior retro. Args: [sprint number | dates]. No args = infer the current sprint. |
| license | MIT |
| compatibility | Requires qmd (CLI or MCP) for vault search. Reads recaps, scrum dailies, and the Tracker. |
Sprint Retro
Synthesize a draft Sprint Retro from everything already in the vault — daily standups, weekly recaps, the sprint planning note, and the previous retro — so the live retro starts from a populated document instead of a blank template.
Usage
/sprint-retro — Infer the current/most-recent sprint from the prior retro + cadence.
/sprint-retro <N> — Draft the retro for sprint number N.
/sprint-retro <dates> — Use an explicit sprint window (e.g. 2026-05-19..2026-06-02).
Date Filtering
See date-filter for date-range syntax and parsing.
Output format (mandatory)
Mirror followup-todos — the retro is a bullet document, not a task list:
- Never insert Obsidian Tasks / checkbox lines: no
- [ ], - [x], - [-], - [?] — including in the Action items section.
- Never append Tasks date tokens (
📅, 🛫, ⏳). Write dates inline in prose / ISO (e.g. "by 2026-06-01").
- A single trailing priority emoji (
🔺 ⏫ 🔼 🔽) as plain text is fine when it reads naturally.
- Always use plain list items:
- Description…. Wikilinks ([[@Name]], [[Recap …]]), [PROJ-123](https://…) links, and bold are encouraged.
File naming convention (mandatory)
Sprint artifacts in Meetings/Engineering/Scrum/ follow a single pattern — keep it consistent:
- Retro:
Sprint <N> Retro <YYYY-MM-DD>.md (date = sprint end date / retro day).
- Planning:
Sprint <N> Planning <YYYY-MM-DD>.md (date = planning meeting day).
Never leave an undated Sprint N Retro.md or a <Team> - Sprint Planning … variant. If you encounter one while gathering context, flag it and offer to git mv it into the canonical form (updating any [[wikilinks]] that reference the old name).
Workflow
Step 1: Determine sprint number and window
- Verify the current date (see Date Verification in skill-conventions):
date +%F.
- List
Meetings/Engineering/Scrum/Sprint * Retro *.md to find the prior retro (Sprint <N-1> Retro <date>).
- Derive this sprint:
- Number = prior + 1 (or the explicit
<N> arg).
- Window = the day after the prior retro's end through this sprint's retro day. Retros land on a biweekly cadence (same weekday, ~14 days apart) — extrapolate, then sanity-check against the planning note's date and the scrum dailies present.
- Confirm the resolved sprint number and
start..end window with the user if anything is ambiguous (missing prior retro, irregular cadence, mid-sprint run).
Step 2: Gather sources
See vault-context. Gather in parallel:
| Source | Where | What to extract |
|---|
| Scrum dailies | Meetings/Engineering/Scrum/YYYY-MM-DD.md within the window | Yesterday/Today/Blockers, ticket IDs, merges, incidents, decisions |
| Recaps | Recaps/Recap *.md whose period: overlaps the window | Highlights, decisions, open items, insights, cross-team notes |
| Sprint planning | Sprint <N> Planning <date>.md | Committed tickets, estimates, decisions — to measure against outcomes |
| Prior retro | Sprint <N-1> Retro <date>.md | Open Action items to carry forward and check off |
| Tracker | Tracker.md | Current ticket status (Done / Blocked / Paused / WIP) |
Prefer qmd over grep for discovery (see qmd). Resolve names to [[@Name]] via people-resolver.
Step 3: Synthesize
Distill the gathered material into the retro sections, attributing each bullet to its source(s) with wikilinks (e.g. ([[Recap 2026-05-31]], [[Meetings/Engineering/Scrum/2026-05-28]])). Enrich bullets with Jira links ([PROJ-1234](https://your-org.atlassian.net/browse/PROJ-1234)) where a ticket is referenced.
- Went Well / Start doing — shipped tickets, milestones, unblocks, demos.
- Didn't Go Well / Stop doing — misses, recurring blockers, process friction, deadline pressure. Note cross-sprint patterns.
- Keep doing / Shoutouts — one bullet per person, citing their concrete contributions. Only include people with evidence in the sources; don't invent contributions.
- Discussion/Proposals — open questions, decisions to make, timelines.
- Action items — concrete next steps (plain bullets, see output rules), including carried-over items from the prior retro.
Step 4: Compose the document
Base structure on Templates/Sprint Retro.md, with these additions used by recent retros:
---
Notes:
created: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS±HH:MM
Participants: "[[+Engineering]]"
---
# Sprint <N> Retro — <YYYY-MM-DD>
**Sprint:** <N> · **<start>** → **<end>**
Planning context: [[Sprint <N> Planning <date>]]
> [!info] Draft synthesized from the vault
> Bullets below are distilled from **Scrum dailies** (`<start>`–`<end>`), the recaps covering this window, and the **[[Sprint <N> Planning <date>]]** commitments. Adjust after the live retro or paste a Confluence URL into `Notes:`.
### ▶️ Start doing / Went Well
- …
### 🛑 Stop doing / Didn't Go Well
- …
### 🙌 Keep doing / Shoutouts
- **[[@Name]]** — …
## Discussion/Proposals
- …
## Action items
- … 🔼
- Carry: … ⏫
## Sources (vault index)
| Kind | Notes |
| --- | --- |
| Recaps | [[Recap …]] (range), [[Recap …]] (range) |
| Scrum DS | [[Meetings/Engineering/Scrum/<start>]] … [[Meetings/Engineering/Scrum/<end>]] |
| Grooming / forums | [[Sprint <N> Planning <date>]] |
| Prior retro | [[Sprint <N-1> Retro <date>]] |
Leave Notes: empty for the user to paste the Confluence retro URL. Never set modified: manually (Obsidian manages it).
Step 5: Present and confirm
Show the draft to the user before saving. Let them adjust bullets, attributions, shoutouts, and action items.
Step 6: Save
Save to Meetings/Engineering/Scrum/Sprint <N> Retro <end-date>.md — see the naming convention above. If a retro for the sprint already exists, ask whether to overwrite.
Step 7: Offer to commit
See /commit.
Important Notes
- Draft, not gospel — the output is a synthesis to seed the live retro; flag it as such in the
[!info] callout and expect the user to revise.
- Evidence-only shoutouts — only credit contributions that appear in the sources; omit team members with no traceable activity rather than guessing.
- Cadence is a heuristic — biweekly same-weekday is the norm, but planning/retro days drift; always cross-check the derived window against the actual scrum dailies and planning-note date.
- Naming consistency — if you touch sibling planning/retro files with non-canonical names, normalize them via
git mv and fix referencing wikilinks (see the convention section).
- No checkboxes — this is a discussion artifact; keep it bullets-only per the output rules, matching
/followup-todos.
- Timezone — use the vault owner's offset from USER.md. See skill-conventions Project Context.