| 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Insight: Mastra's step() API changed in 0.5 — docs are outdated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 aboutfeedback shown when present — it's the meta-level learning
The Process
- Read
.claude/journal.jsonl
- Parse each line as JSON
- Apply filters (type, time, branch, outcome, origin, keyword) if specified
- Format and display in reverse chronological order
- Show entry count summary
Related Skills
- field-notes:write — Append new entries
- field-notes:summary — Aggregate patterns
- field-notes:reflect — Session retrospective
