Write Retrospective

Write Retrospective

Facilitate, then record. The user supplies the judgments (what went well, what hurt); this skill supplies the facts, the structure, and the record.

Steps

1. Confirm the target. Epic (monday board group, folder from <scrum-context>'s mondayEpics) and sprint window (default: since the previous file in <epicFolder>/retrospectives/, else the last 7 days).

2. Prepare the facts. Objective inputs the discussion anchors on:

   • Board outcomes for the window: done / carried over (node "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/monday/list-items.mjs", or the Epic's .pm/backlog/ if fresh).
   • The previous retrospective's Try action items, if a prior file exists — each one gets a follow-up verdict this time. Present these before asking any opinion question, so the discussion starts from data, not vibes.

3. Facilitate KPT. Ask the user in three passes — Keep (worth continuing), Problem (what hurt), Try (what to change next sprint) — one pass at a time, offering 1–2 candidate observations from the step-2 facts each pass (e.g. a recurring carry-over is a Problem candidate). The user's answers are the content; your candidates are prompts, marked as suggestions if they only confirm them.

   • Completion criterion: each pass explicitly closed by the user ("that's all"), and every previous Try item has a verdict (kept working / dropped / still pending).

4. Extract action items. From Try, make each action concrete: what, who (default: the user), and a due signal (next sprint / a date). An unownable Try ("communicate better") gets reshaped with the user or recorded as a theme, not an action.

5. Save the record. Write Markdown (repository/Drive artifact — English unless the discussion was held in another language; then match it) to <epicFolder>/retrospectives/<yyyy-MM-dd>-retro.md:

   # Retrospective — <Epic> — <sprint window>
   
   ## Sprint facts
   ## Previous actions — follow-up
   ## Keep
   ## Problem
   ## Try
   ## Action items
   - [ ] <action> — <owner>, <due>
   

6. Track the actions. Ask whether action items should go on the monday board. If yes: creating items is beyond the bundled scripts (status and links only) — use the monday-api-mcp server (confirm connected, list its tools before assuming names); if unavailable, the checklist in the retro file is the tracking record — say so. Report the saved path and the action list.

Failure modes

• Epic not in mondayEpics → run setup-scrum-context or ask for the folder.
• User wants a different format (4Ls, Start/Stop/Continue) → keep the same steps, swap the section headings.
• Solo project → keep facilitation lightweight (one pass may suffice), but the previous-Try follow-up still runs; that loop is the point of a retro.