majiayu000 Postmortem
Purpose: Answer an explicit retrospective causal question using the already-validated outcome and evidence.
Critical Constraints
- Because proof and causal inference are different judgments, Postmortem is retrospective causal analysis, not the general learning umbrella and not a completion gate.
- It consumes an immutable Validate verdict plus Learn receipt and does not re-run acceptance validation by default because Validate already owns that proof.
- Treat causal statements as hypotheses because causal confidence must survive alternatives. Separate observed sequence, contributing conditions, counterfactuals, and unknowns.
- A correlation is not promoted to cause without evidence that discriminates plausible alternatives.
- Because the caller owns delivery decisions, do not rewrite proof, operate tracker state, change the remaining plan, or promote a rule. Return evidence to the caller.
- Empty or inconclusive analysis is valid; manufacture neither certainty nor a lesson to make the retrospective feel useful.
Workflow
- Pin the verdict, Learn receipt, delivered artifact, and explicit causal question.
- Reconstruct the evidence-backed timeline without importing hidden author reasoning as fact.
- List candidate contributing conditions and at least one plausible alternative explanation.
- Test each claim against cited evidence and a counterfactual: what should differ if the claim were false?
- Optionally use independent judges to challenge contested causal claims.
- Emit a report containing supported claims, rejected claims, unknowns, evidence references, and suggested experiments. Stop.
Output Specification
- Artifact directory:
.agents/council/. - Filename convention:
YYYY-MM-DD-postmortem-<topic>.md. - Serialization/schema format: Markdown with causal question, pinned inputs, timeline, hypotheses, evidence, counterfactuals, unknowns, and experiments.
- Validator command:
bash skills/postmortem/scripts/validate.sh. - Downstream handoff: Learn or the orchestrator may consume the analysis; they own any bookkeeping, promotion, planning, or delivery decision.
Quality Checklist
- The causal question and immutable inputs are pinned.
- Supported and rejected claims cite discriminating evidence.
- Alternatives, counterfactuals, and unknowns remain visible.
- The report stops short of proof, planning, tracker, and delivery authority.
Executable behavior is in postmortem.feature.