journaling

name	journaling
description	Use at session end, after completing or abandoning any task, or when an approach fails — record what happened in docs/journal/ so no future session re-investigates it.
version	4

Journaling

One file per entry: docs/journal/YYYY-MM-DD-<short-slug>.md. English, regardless of the user's language. Write for a stranger: a future session with zero memory of today.

Entry format

Frontmatter:

---
title: <one line>
date: YYYY-MM-DD
tags: [tag, tag]          # only tags from docs/TAGS.md — new tag = add it there, same commit
summary: <one sentence>
outcome: done | partial | failed | abandoned
---

Body sections, in order:

1. What was asked — the user's request in one or two sentences.
2. What I did — the actual changes, with file paths and commit subjects.
3. What I tried that didn't work — and why — MANDATORY. With evidence: exact commands run, error messages seen, numbers measured. "It didn't work" without evidence is not an entry. If nothing failed, write "Nothing failed."
4. Decisions made — each with its why.
5. Follow-ups — what a next session should pick up, if anything.

Index — not optional

Add one line to docs/journal/INDEX.md under ## Entries, newest first (replacing the _(none yet)_ placeholder if it is still there):

- YYYY-MM-DD — [title](YYYY-MM-DD-slug.md) — outcome — tags — summary

An entry that is not in the index is a bug. Include the index line in the same commit as the entry.

When exactly

• At session end (always — but scaled: a ten-minute change earns three honest lines, "nothing failed" is a complete answer to the failures section, and one index line is the whole obligation. Long entries are for long or surprising work.)
• Immediately after abandoning an approach, while the evidence is still in context.
• After anything surprising: a wrong assumption, a tool quirk, a decision reversal.