Compound

Compound Learnings

Save new patterns and learnings from the current session into global skills, guidelines, or learnings under ~/.claude/.

Usage

• /learnings:compound - Capture learnings from current session

Reference Files (conditional — read only when needed)

• content-type-decisions.md — Read if categorization is ambiguous
• skill-template.md — Read only when a Skill-type learning is selected
• writing-best-practices.md — Read only when a Skill-type learning is selected
• skill-authoring.md — Read only when a Skill-type learning is selected
• iterative-loop-design.md — Read only when learning involves iterative/loop patterns
• public-release-review.md — Read when learning will be shared publicly or across repos

Instructions

1. Identify learnings from current session:

   • Review the conversation for new patterns, processes, or guidelines discovered
   • List each learning with a brief description
   • Categorize using this decision tree:
     • Command with clear, repeatable steps? → Skill
     • Changes behavior or approach? → Guideline
     • Reference info, patterns, or examples? → Learning

2. Display learnings for selection:

   ALWAYS use a markdown table — never use section breaks, horizontal rules, or prose paragraphs to list learnings.

   Identified learnings from this session:
   
   | # | Learning | Type | Target File | Utility |
   |---|----------|------|-------------|---------|
   | 1 | LGTM verification process | Skill | commands/address-pr-review/SKILL.md | High - novel project pattern |
   | 2 | Co-authorship in PR replies | Guideline | guidelines/git-workflow.md | Low - already documented |
   | 3 | SessionEnd hook configuration | Learning | learnings/ci-cd.md | High - useful reference |
   

   Target files are relative to ~/.claude/.

   Utility ratings (self-assessment of value to Claude):

   • High - Novel pattern I wouldn't know without documenting
   • Medium - Useful reminder, but I could rediscover if needed
   • Low - Standard knowledge or already documented (shown for transparency)

   Auto-save High and Medium-utility learnings. High and Medium learnings are automatically included — they represent patterns worth preserving without asking.

   Prompt for Low-utility learnings. Use AskUserQuestion with multi-select to let the user choose which Low learnings to also capture (if any exist). If no Low learnings exist, skip the prompt entirely and proceed to writing. Include the utility rating in each option's description field (e.g., "Utility: Low — standard knowledge or already documented").

   After the table, clearly state which learnings will be auto-saved:

   Auto-saving N High/Medium-utility learning(s). Select any Low learnings to also include:
   

   Combine the auto-saved and user-selected items into SELECTED_LEARNINGS.

   Do NOT proceed until user selects (or all are auto-saved). If no learnings selected and none are High/Medium, inform user and exit.

3. Write learnings to files:

   • If any Skill-type learning is selected: read skill-template.md, writing-best-practices.md, and skill-authoring.md first
   • For each item in SELECTED_LEARNINGS:
     • Read the target file (~/.claude/<relative-path>) to check if it exists
     • Existing file: use Edit to append new sections (find a unique string near the end, replace with itself + new content)
     • New file (Read returned error): use Write with full content
   • File placement rules:
     • Skills → ~/.claude/commands/<skill-name>/SKILL.md
     • Guidelines → ~/.claude/guidelines/<guideline-name>.md
     • Learnings → ~/.claude/learnings/<topic>.md

4. Verify and report:

   • Read back each written file to confirm content was saved correctly
   • Output a summary:

     Updated files:
     - <path> — <what was added> (Utility: <High/Medium/Low>)
     
     Wrote N learnings to ~/.claude/.
     

Prerequisites

For prompt-free execution, add these allow patterns to user-level ~/.claude/settings.local.json:

"Read(~/.claude/commands/**)",
"Read(~/.claude/learnings/**)",
"Read(~/.claude/guidelines/**)",
"Write(~/.claude/learnings/**)",
"Write(~/.claude/commands/**)",
"Write(~/.claude/guidelines/**)",
"Edit(~/.claude/learnings/**)",
"Edit(~/.claude/commands/**)",
"Edit(~/.claude/guidelines/**)"

Important Notes

• Prefer updating existing files over creating new ones
• Keep learnings atomic — one concept per section
• Write concisely — every token in a learning/guideline/skill costs context budget when loaded. Express insights in the fewest tokens that preserve the teaching value. Prefer terse patterns over verbose explanations; code examples over prose when the code speaks for itself.
• Type selection when unsure: Learning > Guideline > Skill (least to most structured)
• Strip provenance before writing. Remove "discovered while building X" / "learned during Y project" notes — they add no teaching value and leak project context into global learnings. The pattern itself is what matters. (See also: learnings/guideline-authoring.md → "Provenance vs structural content")
• Be honest in utility self-assessments