compound-engineering

Use when a VERIFIED, DURABLE insight emerges — not raw events (that's recording-practices), not pattern analysis (that's running-retros). Persists one-line knowledge items to docs/memory/long-term.md, which is loaded on every session start.

Use DURING work when a notable event occurs — bug fixed, non-obvious root cause found, effective technique discovered, pitfall hit. Logs raw experience entries. Does NOT distill rules (that's running-retros) or persist knowledge (that's managing-memory).

Use when enough raw experience has accumulated to compress — 10+ unreviewed entries, milestone completed, or 7+ days since last retro. Reads entries, finds patterns, distills executable rules, and feeds them back into memory. This is the compression step that turns raw logs into curated knowledge.

Bootstraps compound-engineering on every session. Loads project memory, scans recent experience, and activates the plan→record→remember→review loop.

Use BEFORE starting non-trivial work. Creates a structured plan with task breakdown, technical design, and risks. A task is non-trivial if it touches 3+ files, involves a design choice, or will take more than 30 minutes.