fabioc-aloha Meditation
Transform session insights into durable knowledge. Most sessions don't need it; some have a pattern worth keeping.
When to Fire
- User says "let's meditate", "consolidate", or invokes
/meditate - End of a significant work session
- After solving a hard problem with a reusable insight
- Before a long break from a project
Skip when: the session was routine execution of patterns already encoded. Meditation on every session produces noise; the discipline is to write only what's new and portable.
The Five Steps
1. Review
Scan the session honestly:
- What problems did we solve?
- What mistakes did we make?
- What patterns emerged that weren't already encoded?
- What would help future sessions?
2. Extract
Separate signal from noise. For each candidate pattern, ask: "Is this already covered by an existing skill, instruction, or memory?" If yes, skip. If no, route by type:
| If pattern is... | Create / update |
|---|---|
| Reusable domain knowledge | Skill (.github/skills/<name>/SKILL.md) |
| Always-on behavior or rule | Instruction (.github/instructions/<name>.instructions.md) |
| Repeatable workflow / slash command | Prompt (.github/prompts/<name>.prompt.md) |
| Automatable mechanical task (skill-owned) | Skill script (.github/skills/<name>/scripts/*.cjs) |
| Automatable mechanical task (cross-cutting) | Repo script (scripts/<name>.cjs) |
| User preference (cross-project) | User memory (/memories/<name>.md) |
| Project / repo convention | Repo memory (/memories/repo/<name>.md) |
| Cross-session handoff (next session needs to know) | Repo file (HANDOFF.md at repo root) — NOT session memory |
3. Write
Each artifact gets correct frontmatter, concrete examples (not abstractions), and tables with real data. Avoid the "capabilities list" anti-pattern — describe behavior, not features.
For skills and instructions: include a Trigger or When to fire section so future sessions know when the pattern applies.
4. Chronicle (optional)
If the session arc was substantial, write to .github/episodic/meditation-YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>.md:
# Meditation: <Topic>
**Date**: YYYY-MM-DD
**Focus**: What we worked on
## Accomplished
- [Key outcomes]
## Patterns Extracted
- [What became skills / instructions / memory]
## Lessons
- [Insights worth remembering]
## Open Questions
- [What remains unresolved]
Skip the chronicle for short sessions or when nothing new emerged.
5. Handoff (when ending a session)
If the user is closing the thread, write to repo-root HANDOFF.md:
# Session Handoff
Last updated: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM
## Just shipped
- [SHAs / files / outcomes]
## In progress
- [Specific next step + file paths]
## Pending queue
- [ ] [Ordered todos]
## Resume point
- [Where to pick up]
Quality Bar
A meditation is complete when:
- New patterns are persisted, not just acknowledged
- Nothing important lives only in the context window
- Existing artifacts were checked for duplication before writing new ones
- The session can be closed without losing the thread
Brain Retraining (longer cycles)
The five-step protocol above is per-session. The Mall brain also retrains on a longer cadence against two evidence streams:
- Catalog reality. New sources added or retired, new plugin shapes encountered, and trust-score distribution shifts can render parts of the brain stale. Run currency-audit against
lastRevieweddates and the weekly catalog-refresh PR signals. - Self-audit during PR review. The catalog-refresh PR is the human surface; any friction observed there (wrong-routing, undocumented edge case, missing skill) is signal that a brain artifact needs evolution.
| Cadence | Action |
|---|---|
| Weekly | Review the catalog-refresh PR. Note any friction; if a brain artifact mis-routed or under-described, hotfix in the same PR. |
| Monthly | Run currency-audit against any artifact with lastReviewed older than 90 days. Refresh or sunset. |
| Quarterly | Walk every brain artifact. Confirm falsifiability-deadlines haven't fired without action. Sunset what no longer earns its tokens. |
Retraining is critical thinking applied to the brain itself. Each cycle treats the current brain as a hypothesis and tests it against accumulated evidence. Skipping a cycle is the same discipline violation as skipping act-pass on a behaviour-class commit.
Anti-Patterns
| Anti-pattern | Correction |
|---|---|
| Writing a meditation note for every session | Most sessions are routine execution; only write when something new emerged |
| Duplicating an existing skill / memory under a new name | Always grep first: is this already covered? |
| Aspirational notes ("we should do X someday") | Memory is for what was learned, not what was wished |
| Long prose chronicles when a one-line memory suffices | Match artifact size to insight size |
| Skipping the duplication check to "just capture it" | Adds noise that the next session has to filter |
Related
- meditation.instructions.md — when this skill fires
- /meditate prompt — slash-command entry
- memory-triggers.instructions.md — automatic triggers between meditations
Falsifiability
- This skill adds no value if meditation sessions produce no actionable items (skill extractions, pattern recognitions, or architecture insights) over a 90-day window
- The protocol is wrong if chronicles written per this format are never consulted in future sessions
- Stale if the memory tier structure changes and this skill references obsolete storage locations