lore-capture

name	lore-capture
description	Capture durable knowledge from the current conversation to the lore inbox. Use when decisions are made, bugs are root-caused, patterns are identified, or lessons are learned. Do NOT capture ephemeral task details.

Lore Capture

Save durable knowledge from this conversation to the lore inbox for later compilation.

What to capture

Identify the most important durable knowledge:

• Decisions made and why (including rejected alternatives)
• Bugs root-caused (the root cause, not just the fix)
• Architectural choices and their tradeoffs
• Patterns identified in the codebase
• Lessons learned
• User preferences or workflow rules stated explicitly

Skip: what files were edited, what commands were run, in-progress task state.

Step 1: Determine the inbox path

Derive the project slug from the current working directory:

• Replace path separators (/ or \) with -
• Strip leading drive letter on Windows (e.g. C: → drop it)
• Example: /home/user/my-project → home-user-my-project

Inbox path:

• Windows: $env:USERPROFILE\.claude\projects\<slug>\lore\inbox\
• Unix/macOS: ~/.claude/projects/<slug>/lore/inbox/

If the inbox directory does not exist, tell the user to run /lore-init first and stop.

Step 2: Write the capture file

Filename: YYYY-MM-DDTHH-MM-SS-<content-slug>.md

• Use current UTC time
• <content-slug> is 2-4 kebab-case words describing the content
• Example: 2026-05-25T14-32-00-async-queue-decision.md

File content:

---
source: conversation
captured: <ISO 8601 UTC timestamp>
topic: <one-line description of what was captured>
suggested_category: <project|architecture|decisions|feedback|user>
---

<The durable knowledge, written clearly so it makes sense weeks later
with no context from this conversation.

Include:
- What was decided or discovered
- Why (motivation, constraints)
- What alternatives were considered and rejected
- Any caveats or conditions that might change this>

Step 3: Confirm

Report: "Captured to lore/inbox/. Run /lore-ingest to compile."

Do NOT ingest immediately — just write to inbox.