Recall Reasoning

Recall Past Work

Search through previous sessions to find relevant decisions, approaches that worked, and approaches that failed. Queries two sources:

1. Artifact Index - Handoffs, plans, ledgers with post-mortems (what worked/failed)
2. Reasoning Files - Build attempts, test failures, commit context

When to Use

• Starting work similar to past sessions
• "What did we do last time with X?"
• Looking for patterns that worked before
• Investigating why something was done a certain way
• Debugging an issue encountered previously

Usage

Primary: Artifact Index (rich context)

uv run python scripts/artifact_query.py "<query>" [--outcome SUCCEEDED|FAILED] [--limit N]

This searches handoffs with post-mortems (what worked, what failed, key decisions).

Secondary: Reasoning Files (build attempts)

bash .claude/scripts/search-reasoning.sh "<query>"

This searches .git/claude/commits/*/reasoning.md for build failures and fixes.

Examples

# Search for authentication-related work
uv run python scripts/artifact_query.py "authentication OAuth JWT"

# Find only successful approaches
uv run python scripts/artifact_query.py "implement agent" --outcome SUCCEEDED

# Find what failed (to avoid repeating mistakes)
uv run python scripts/artifact_query.py "hook implementation" --outcome FAILED

# Search build/test reasoning
bash .claude/scripts/search-reasoning.sh "TypeError"

What Gets Searched

Artifact Index (handoffs, plans, ledgers):

• Task summaries and status
• What worked - Successful approaches
• What failed - Dead ends and why
• Key decisions - Choices with rationale
• Goal and constraints from ledgers

Reasoning Files (.git/claude/):

• Failed build attempts and error output
• Successful builds after failures
• Commit context and branch info

Interpreting Results

From Artifact Index:

• ✓ = SUCCEEDED outcome (pattern to follow)
• ✗ = FAILED outcome (pattern to avoid)
• ? = UNKNOWN outcome (not yet marked)
• Post-mortem sections show distilled learnings

From Reasoning:

• build_fail = approach that didn't work
• build_pass = what finally succeeded
• Multiple failures before success = non-trivial problem

Process

1. Run Artifact Index query first - richer context, post-mortems
2. Review relevant handoffs - check what worked/failed sections
3. If needed, search reasoning - for specific build errors
4. Apply learnings - follow successful patterns, avoid failed ones

No Results?

Artifact Index empty:

• Run uv run python scripts/artifact_index.py --all to index existing handoffs
• Create handoffs with post-mortem sections for future recall

Reasoning files empty:

• Use /commit after builds to capture reasoning
• Check if .git/claude/ directory exists