| name | chronicle-session |
| description | Log the current Claude Code session as a concise YYMMDD-HHMM-<slug>.txt under ~/Daily/YYYY-MM-DD/, then sync to the private jluo41/Daily git repo (pull --rebase → commit → push). Use when a working session ends OR on the user's explicit "log this session" request. The .txt is the input to chronicle-daily's evening rollup. Day-close aware — if today's folder has `.closed`, write to tomorrow instead. |
/chronicle-session — Per-session log writer
What this skill does
At the end of a working session, write one concise .txt file into
~/Daily/<date>/ and sync it to github.com/jluo41/Daily. The file is
the unit of truth for that session — chronicle-daily later rolls all
of a day's .txt files into one Excalidraw canvas.
When to invoke
- 🛑 Stop hook fires at end of a Claude Code session
- 🧑 user says "log this session" / "/chronicle-session" / "记录一下这次"
- 📦 wrapping up a discrete piece of work that should be findable later
Do NOT invoke mid-session for trivial sub-tasks. One session = one log.
File format
~/Daily/YYYY-MM-DD/YYMMDD-HHMM-<slug>.txt
▲▲▲▲▲▲ ▲▲▲▲
date write-time (24h, local) — lexical sort = chronological
<slug>: 2–4 hyphenated words naming the topic (e.g. ref-repo-agent-stack, voice-bot-debug). Derive from the most concrete noun phrase in the session, not the verb.YYMMDD matches the parent folder's date.HHMM is the moment write-session.sh runs, NOT the session start. Sessions logged later in the day sort later — what we want.
Authoring rule: diagrams, not bullets
This skill defers content authoring to diagram-ascii. Every section
must be an ASCII diagram, not a bullet list. Bullets are allowed only
inside a diagram cell (e.g. a table row), never as the section body.
Before drafting the .txt, mentally pick the right diagram primitive
from diagram-ascii for each section:
| Section | Recommended primitive | From diagram-ascii |
|---|
| What shipped | annotated folder tree | "Folder tree — annotated" |
| Flow / architecture | pipeline (left→right or top↓) | "Pipeline" / "Layered" |
| Decisions | comparison or decision table | "Table" |
| X vs Y comparison | side-by-side boxes + tagline | "Contrast / reversal" |
| Cumulative progress | progress tracker | "Progress tracker" |
| Takeaway | one boxed callout, ≤ 3 lines | (free form) |
If you catch yourself writing • something as the body of a section,
stop and convert it to one of the primitives above.
Required .txt template (concise — 3-4 sections, each is a diagram)
💻 <platform> · 🕐 HH:MM-HH:MM · 🏷️ <slug>
═══════════════════════════════════════════
─§ What shipped ──
<annotated folder tree showing files/folders touched>
<or a pipeline if the work was a flow>
─§ Flow / architecture (optional) ──
<pipeline or layered diagram of the new behavior>
─§ Decisions ──
+---------+---------+
| Topic | Choice |
+---------+---------+
| ... | ✅ ... |
| ... | ⏳ ... |
+---------+---------+
─§ Takeaway ──
🔑 single-sentence takeaway, boxed if it deserves it
Style rules:
- 🌐 English by default — section titles, prose, slugs, commit msgs.
Quote the user verbatim if they spoke another language; otherwise English.
- 🎨 diagrams > bullets: every section is a diagram. Heavy emoji per
the diagram-ascii palette (every box, header, label, status).
- ≤ ~12 lines of diagram per section; whole file should fit on one screen.
- Use
─§ Title ─ dividers (canvas tool splits on these — see
diagram-ascii-canvas).
- The "Takeaway" section is mandatory — it's the next-day-reader's scan target.
- See
diagram-ascii SKILL for the full primitive library.
Day-close check
Before writing, decide the target date:
target_date = today
if exists(~/Daily/<today>/.closed):
target_date = today + 1 day # day already finalized; write to tomorrow
mkdir -p ~/Daily/<target_date>/
This keeps post-rollup work from polluting the closed day.
Sync workflow (use the bin script — don't reimplement)
~/Daily/.bin/ → symlink to bin/write-session.sh
OR call directly:
chronicle-session/bin/write-session.sh <slug> < session.txt
Internals (see bin/write-session.sh):
1. cd ~/Daily
2. git pull --rebase --autostash (handles unstaged work safely)
3. determine target_date (today vs tomorrow if .closed)
4. write file to <target_date>/<filename>.txt
5. git add <new file>
6. git commit -m "session(<date>): <slug>"
7. git push (retry once on rejection:
git pull --rebase; git push)
If the remote isn't configured yet, the script logs and skips push.
How Claude actually authors the .txt
Claude writes the .txt content to stdin of the script. Workflow:
- Outline what was done, decided, and is worth remembering.
- Pick a diagram primitive for each section from
diagram-ascii's
library (folder tree, pipeline, table, contrast, progress tracker).
If you can't think of one, the section probably doesn't deserve to
exist — drop it.
- Draft the
.txt content directly in the chat as a fenced block,
using only diagram-ascii primitives. NO plain bullet sections.
- Show the user the preview in chat for ✅ / ✏️ feedback.
- On user confirm, run
bin/write-session.sh <slug> piping the content.
If the user invokes via Stop hook (no human-in-loop), skip step 4 and
just write + push.
Anti-pattern check — before showing the preview, scan it:
- ❌ section body is a bullet list with no boxes / trees / arrows → redraft
- ❌ all sections are the same shape (e.g. all tables) → mix primitives
- ❌ no
─§ dividers between sections → the canvas can't split it
- ✅ each section's primitive is visibly different from its neighbors
What this skill does NOT do
- ❌ Build the canvas — that's
chronicle-daily
- ❌ Read transcripts — Claude has the conversation in context already
- ❌ Multi-platform collection — each platform calls this skill (or its
CLI script) on its own; this skill assumes "the current session"
- ❌ Edit prior sessions — append-only, by design
Sister skill
chronicle-daily — 22:00 rollup, builds the canvas, writes .closed
