Session Retrospective

Session Retrospective

Distill past sessions for this project into evidenced, ack-gated improvements to the team's memory and shared docs. Efficiency-led: process waste first, durable facts second. You (scout) run this manually when asked.

Read-only analysis, assisted writes. The parser only reads transcripts. You propose every change and write nothing until the user acks.

When to use

• The user says "run a retrospective", "mine past sessions", "what slowed us down", or "improve the team from recent work".
• Periodically, to fold lessons from recent sessions into .agents/.

Not for: onboarding a fresh repo (that's seeding-a-project), or refreshing config from code/PR changes (that's scout's normal update flow).

Procedure

1. Distill. Run the parser from the project root:

   node {skill}/scripts/distill-sessions.mjs
   

   It reads ~/.claude/projects/<this-project>/ transcripts newer than the watermark (.agents/memory/scout/.last-retrospective), plus each session's subagents/, and prints a bounded markdown digest. Add --all to ignore the watermark, --exclude-session <id> to skip the active session, or --out <path> to save the digest. Exit code 3 = no transcripts found → use the Fallback below. The newest session is usually the one you're running in — pass --exclude-session <its id> so the retrospective doesn't analyze itself.

2. Read the digest (it fits in context — never read raw .jsonl).

3. Interpret — see references/signal-taxonomy.md. Separate:

   • Efficiency findings — repeated corrections, retry loops, file churn, tool errors, ignored conventions.
   • Durable facts — gotchas, decisions, "X doesn't work, use Y". Every finding MUST cite the session id it came from. Drop anything you cannot evidence from the digest.

4. Map findings to targets — see references/finding-to-target.md: role-specific → that role's .agents/memory/<role>/; team-wide process → .agents/workflow.md / .agents/conventions.md; durable fact → a curated entry (via the memory skill). If .agents/ doesn't exist, the project isn't seeded — a retrospective refines an existing lens, it doesn't create one; run seeding-a-project first.

5. Propose, then wait. Present each proposed change as a diff plus a one-line rationale with its session-id evidence. Stop and wait for the user's ack. Do not write yet.

6. On ack, write:

   • Memory deltas via the memory skill (curated entries + MEMORY.md index lines; project_briefing.md updates).
   • Surgical edits to .agents/workflow.md / conventions.md.
   • A dated report .agents/retrospectives/YYYY-MM-DD.md: sessions analyzed, findings, what was applied, what was deferred and why.
   • Advance the watermark: write .agents/memory/scout/.last-retrospective as {"lastRun":"<ISO>","analyzed":[<session ids you just covered>]}, merging with any existing ids. Only after writing — never on a decline.

Fallback (non–Claude Code hosts)

If the parser exits with code 3, transcripts aren't accessible here. Ask the user to paste a session transcript or summary, then run steps 3–6 on that text (skip the watermark; note in the report that it was a pasted-transcript run).

Anti-memory-poisoning rules

• Never write without an explicit ack.
• Every durable fact cites a session id. No inventing.
• Record corrections as one-line lessons, not raw quotes.
• Bounded recall — reason over the digest, never raw .jsonl.

Common mistakes

• Writing before ack — forbidden; always propose-then-wait.
• Advancing the watermark on a dry run or a decline — only after writing.
• Treating a candidate correction as a fact without judgment — the digest flags candidates; you decide.
• Reading raw transcripts into context — use the digest.

References

• references/transcript-schema.md — Claude Code JSONL + sub-agent layout.
• references/digest-format.md — the digest the parser emits.
• references/signal-taxonomy.md — signal definitions + thresholds.
• references/finding-to-target.md — finding→target mapping + safeguards.