| name | retro-notes |
| description | Capture AI-readable postmortems after a dev attempt resolves into a project-scoped lessons file that future /big-plan runs can read. Use when: (1) User says 'retro-notes', 'retro', 'capture lessons', 'fail-notes', 'postmortem', (2) A dev session wrapped up that took longer than expected, changed approach mid-way, or had non-obvious gotchas. Reader is a future planning agent. |
Retro Notes
Purpose
Convert lessons from a just-resolved dev attempt into a structured, project-scoped lessons file (/l-lessons-{area} skill) that future planning runs (e.g. /big-plan) can consume. Goal: turn one-time pain into permanent leverage so the next attempt in the same area is faster.
Pre-flight check (mandatory)
Before writing, confirm two things:
- Is the work actually wrapped up? If the user is still mid-struggle, ask them to confirm. Mid-struggle notes record symptoms, not root causes — they crystallize the wrong lesson. If unresolved, suggest they invoke this skill again after the fix lands.
- What's the project area? Look at the current working directory, recently touched files, and conversation topic. Propose a project-area name (kebab-case, e.g.
canvas-tools, tauri-window-mgmt, react-form-state). Confirm with the user before writing.
Locate or create the lessons file
The output is a project-scope skill at .claude/skills/l-lessons-{area}/SKILL.md.
One growing file per problem-area, NOT one file per attempt.
- Check
.claude/skills/ for any existing l-lessons-* skill that matches the area. If a relevant one exists, append a new dated section to its SKILL.md.
- If none exists, scaffold a new skill at
.claude/skills/l-lessons-{area}/SKILL.md with the frontmatter shown below.
