distill

name	distill
description	Extract reusable principles and decision frameworks from accumulated experience. Use after significant work sessions, project milestones, or when you notice recurring patterns worth codifying.
argument-hint	[domain or topic to distill]
user-invocable	true
allowed-tools	Read, Glob, Grep, Bash

Distill wisdom from experience in this area: $ARGUMENTS

Process

1. Experience Inventory

Gather evidence of past decisions and outcomes:

• Read recent git history (git log --oneline -20)
• Review agent memory and learnings
• Check .Codex/rules/ for existing principles
• Look at code patterns in the codebase

2. Pattern Extraction

For each significant decision or outcome:

• What was decided? (the choice made)
• What was the context? (constraints, information available)
• What happened? (outcome, downstream effects)
• Was it the right call? (with hindsight)

Look for:

• Success patterns — conditions that consistently lead to good outcomes
• Failure patterns — early warning signs of bad paths
• Evolution patterns — how thinking has changed over time

3. Principle Abstraction

Distill patterns into principles at the right abstraction level:

Level	Example
Tactical	"Always run tests before committing database migrations"
Strategic	"Prefer reversible changes over irreversible ones"
Philosophical	"Optimize for time-to-signal, not time-to-completion"

A good principle is:

• Actionable — you can act on it right now
• Falsifiable — you can identify situations where it doesn't apply
• Bounded — it states when it applies, not just what to do

4. Validation

Check each principle against past experience:

• Does it explain observed outcomes?
• Are there counter-examples?
• Under what conditions does it break?

5. Storage

Write validated principles to the appropriate location:

• Project-wide: .Codex/rules/ as a new or updated rule file
• Agent-specific: Agent memory
• Session-specific: MEMORY.md

Tag with freshness: HOT (just validated) | WARM (reasonable but not recently tested) | COLD (theoretical)

6. Output

## Distillation: [Domain]

### Evidence Base
- [N decisions/outcomes reviewed]
- [Key sources consulted]

### Principles Extracted

#### [Principle Name]
- **Statement**: [Clear, actionable principle]
- **Level**: tactical | strategic | philosophical
- **Evidence**: [What experience supports this]
- **Boundary**: [When this does NOT apply]
- **Freshness**: HOT | WARM | COLD
- **Stored in**: [where it was written]

### Principles Updated
- [Any existing principles promoted, demoted, or retired]

### Open Questions
- [What we still don't know]