Kspec Observe

Observations

Capture and act on systemic patterns — friction, successes, questions, and ideas. Observations are the feedback loop that drives process improvement.

When to Use

• You hit friction (something harder than it should be)
• You notice a success worth replicating
• A systemic question arises (not session-specific)
• An improvement idea surfaces during work

Not for: Session-local questions (use kspec meta question), future work items (use kspec inbox add), or task-specific notes (use kspec task note).

Observation Types

Capturing Observations

Capture in the moment — don't wait until later. The value is in the raw context.

# Friction: something was harder than it should be
kspec meta observe friction "Had to run 5 commands to update one spec field"

# Success: a pattern worth remembering
kspec meta observe success "Using --dry-run before derive prevented duplicate tasks"

# Question: systemic, not session-local
kspec meta observe question "When should agents enter plan mode vs just implement?"

# Idea: something that could improve the system
kspec meta observe idea "CLI could suggest next steps after task completion"

# Link to a workflow for context (use a workflow ref defined in the project)
kspec meta observe friction "Workflow step lost context unexpectedly" --workflow @<workflow-id>

Reviewing Observations

# All unresolved observations (default)
kspec meta observations

# Only those awaiting resolution
kspec meta observations --pending-resolution

# Filter by type
kspec meta observations --type friction

Acting on Observations

Promote to Task

When an observation reveals clear, actionable work:

kspec meta promote @ref --title "Add bulk AC command" --priority 2

Resolve

When addressed, documented, or no longer relevant:

# Single observation with resolution note
kspec meta resolve @ref "Addressed by the recent change to the affected workflow"

# Batch resolve related observations
kspec meta resolve --refs @ref1 @ref2 @ref3 --resolution "All addressed by new workflow"

Convert from Inbox

When an inbox item is really a pattern observation, not future work:

kspec meta observe --from-inbox @inbox-ref
kspec meta observe --from-inbox @inbox-ref --type friction

Decision Flow

When you notice something during work:
├── Is it future work?
│   └── Yes → kspec inbox add "..."
├── Is it about THIS task only?
│   └── Yes → kspec task note @task "..."
└── Is it a systemic pattern?
    └── Yes → kspec meta observe <type> "..."

For each pending observation:
├── Still relevant?
│   ├── No → resolve with note
│   └── Yes → Needs action?
│       ├── No (just learning) → document and resolve
│       └── Yes → Scope clear?
│           ├── Yes → promote to task
│           └── No → add to inbox for later triage

Where Observations Fit

Batch Capture

When capturing multiple observations at once (e.g., during reflection), use kspec batch:

kspec batch --commands '[
  {"command":"meta observe","args":{"type":"friction","content":"Bulk updates require too many commands"}},
  {"command":"meta observe","args":{"type":"success","content":"Dry-run before derive prevented duplicates"}}
]'

Integration

• /kspec-triage observations — Processes pending observations during triage
• /kspec-reflect — Creates observations from session learnings
• kspec session start — Shows pending observation count