write-journal

name	write-journal
description	Write a daily work journal entry for the current feature
user_invocable	true

Write Journal

Usage: /write-journal [extra context] (e.g., /write-journal we decided to drop the reactive approach)

Appends a journal entry for the current feature, capturing what was done in the session.

Feature Detection

Auto-detect which feature is active:

1. Check the current working directory for a feature path (e.g., ~/git/hibernate/3223/...)
2. Check conversation context for recent commands or file reads in a feature directory
3. If ambiguous or no feature context is found, ask the user which feature to journal

Writing the Entry

1. Determine the current date and time:

   date "+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M"
   

2. Gather git commits on the feature branch(es) since the last journal entry (or all commits if no prior entry exists). Parse the first ## YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM heading from the existing day file to determine the cutoff:

   # For each repo in the feature directory:
   cd ~/git/hibernate/<feature>/<repo>
   git log --oneline --since="<last entry timestamp or start of day>" HEAD
   

3. Build the entry from:

   • Session context: what problems were investigated, what was tried, what was learned
   • Git commits as milestones (short hash, commit message)
   • User-provided extra text (from the argument)

4. Write to file at ~/git/hibernate/<feature>/journal/YYYY-MM-DD.md:

   • If the file exists, prepend the new entry at the top (newest first), separated by a blank line from the existing content
   • If the file does not exist, create it

Entry Format

Each entry starts with a heading using the datetime, followed by bullet points. Entries must have enough prose to understand the problem context a month later.

## 2026-04-01 16:45

- Found the root cause of the flaky ORM batch insert test. H2 uses READ_COMMITTED by default but the test assumed REPEATABLE_READ. Fixed by explicitly setting the isolation level in the test configuration.
- commit: def5678 - Fix flaky batch insert test isolation level

Formatting Rules

• No bold, no italics, no code blocks, no emoji
• Only headings (##) and unordered bullet lists (-)
• Terse but substantive: enough context to understand the problem, not just a list of actions
• No AI slop: no filler phrases, no unnecessary padding

After Writing

Print the entry that was written and the file path.