How do I install the Kaizen skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add digital-stoic-org/kaizen in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

What does the Kaizen skill do?

Capture friction with any Praxis artifact (skill, CLAUDE.md, rule, workflow) in under 30 seconds. Use when user says "kaizen", "log friction", "this annoyed me", or invokes `/kaizen `. One-shot append to `/praxis/thinking/kaizen/ .jsonl` — no editor, no follow-up questions, no context switch. Friction signal (fix existing), distinct from lazy skills (build new). It is listed under Productivity on SkillMD.

Is Kaizen safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. Capability flags: docs only. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Kaizen?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Kaizen free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Kaizen?

digital-stoic-org (@digital-stoic-org) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Kaizen by digital-stoic-org — Agent Skill

Name: Kaizen
Rating: 4.2 (5 reviews)
Author: digital-stoic-org

Kaizen

Capture friction with any Praxis artifact (skill, CLAUDE.md, rule, workflow) in under 30 seconds. Use when user says "kaizen", "log friction", "this annoyed me", or invokes `/kaizen <target> <note>`. One-shot append to `/praxis/thinking/kaizen/<target>.jsonl` — no editor, no follow-up questions, no context switch. Friction signal (fix existing), distinct from lazy skills (build new).

File contents

Kaizen — Friction Capture

One-shot friction log. Capture, confirm, resume. Speed is the point.

Usage

/kaizen <target> <note>

Both required. If either missing → respond ⚠️ Usage: /kaizen <target> <note> and stop.

Behavior

Single Bash call. Slugify target (lowercase, ./ → -), append one JSON line, count, respond:

SLUG=$(echo "<target>" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' | tr ' ./' '---')
DIR=/praxis/thinking/kaizen
mkdir -p "$DIR"
FILE="$DIR/$SLUG.jsonl"
NOTE_JSON=$(printf '%s' "<note>" | python3 -c 'import json,sys;print(json.dumps(sys.stdin.read()))')
printf '{"ts":"%s","cwd":"%s","note":%s}\n' "$(date -Iseconds)" "$(pwd)" "$NOTE_JSON" >> "$FILE"
wc -l < "$FILE"

Then respond: 🏷 kaizen:<target> logged (total: N) — thanks and resume prior conversation immediately. No commentary, no analysis, no reformulation.

Use python3 json.dumps for escaping — never hand-roll JSON.

Reserved targets

Target	Meaning
`praxis`	Top-level meta (workflow, methodology, portfolio)
`claude.md`	Instruction drift in any CLAUDE.md. All levels collapse to `claude-md.jsonl`; disambiguate via `cwd` field at review time
`self`	Note to future-self about personal workflow habits (distinct from `introspect/self.md` identity profile)
`<skill-name>`	Friction with a specific skill — use real name, not `lazy-*` prefix

Free-form otherwise; conventions unenforced.

Examples

/kaizen troubleshoot "asks same diagnostic twice in a row"
/kaizen claude.md "git commit rules ambiguous on scope field"
/kaizen convert-pdf "OCR re-runs on cached pages"
/kaizen convert-pdf "VLM mode is great for scanned docs"
/kaizen self "forgot to check benchmarks/inventory.yaml before starting"

Praise and friction share the bucket — natural language carries the sign. No type field, no --priority, no --undo, no auto-dedupe (repeats = valid intensity signal). Manual jsonl edit if needed.

Key rules

Note required. Missing note = useless for clustering.
After-only. Works after a skill returns, not mid-skill.
Verbatim storage. No cleanup, categorization, or reformulation.
One-line response. Never comment on note content. Resume immediately.

---name: kaizendescription: Capture friction with any Praxis artifact (skill, CLAUDE.md, rule, workflow) in under 30 seconds. Use when user says "kaizen", "log friction", "this annoyed me", or invokes `/kaizen <target> <note>`. One-shot append to `/praxis/thinking/kaizen/<target>.jsonl` — no editor, no follow-up questions, no context switch. Friction signal (fix existing), distinct from lazy skills (build new).---# Kaizen — Friction CaptureOne-shot friction log. Capture, confirm, resume. Speed is the point.## Usage```/kaizen <target> <note>```Both required. If either missing → respond `⚠️ Usage: /kaizen <target> <note>` and stop.## BehaviorSingle Bash call. Slugify target (lowercase, ` ./` → `-`), append one JSON line, count, respond:```bashSLUG=$(echo "<target>" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' | tr ' ./' '---')DIR=/praxis/thinking/kaizenmkdir -p "$DIR"FILE="$DIR/$SLUG.jsonl"NOTE_JSON=$(printf '%s' "<note>" | python3 -c 'import json,sys;print(json.dumps(sys.stdin.read()))')printf '{"ts":"%s","cwd":"%s","note":%s}\n' "$(date -Iseconds)" "$(pwd)" "$NOTE_JSON" >> "$FILE"wc -l < "$FILE"```Then respond: `🏷 kaizen:<target> logged (total: N) — thanks` and **resume prior conversation immediately**. No commentary, no analysis, no reformulation.Use `python3 json.dumps` for escaping — never hand-roll JSON.## Reserved targets| Target | Meaning ||---|---|| `praxis` | Top-level meta (workflow, methodology, portfolio) || `claude.md` | Instruction drift in any CLAUDE.md. All levels collapse to `claude-md.jsonl`; disambiguate via `cwd` field at review time || `self` | Note to future-self about personal workflow habits (distinct from `introspect/self.md` identity profile) || `<skill-name>` | Friction with a specific skill — use real name, not `lazy-*` prefix |Free-form otherwise; conventions unenforced.## Examples```/kaizen troubleshoot "asks same diagnostic twice in a row"/kaizen claude.md "git commit rules ambiguous on scope field"/kaizen convert-pdf "OCR re-runs on cached pages"/kaizen convert-pdf "VLM mode is great for scanned docs"/kaizen self "forgot to check benchmarks/inventory.yaml before starting"```Praise and friction share the bucket — natural language carries the sign. No `type` field, no `--priority`, no `--undo`, no auto-dedupe (repeats = valid intensity signal). Manual jsonl edit if needed.## Key rules- **Note required.** Missing note = useless for clustering.- **After-only.** Works after a skill returns, not mid-skill.- **Verbatim storage.** No cleanup, categorization, or reformulation.- **One-line response.** Never comment on note content. Resume immediately.

Frequently asked questions