Session Compounding

Session Compounding Workflow

Implements PROTO-ORG-5 from organon/protocols/PROTOCOLS.md. Converts session learnings into durable improvements.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

• Ending a significant work session — substantial changes were made
• After completing a multi-step task — new patterns may have emerged
• After encountering friction — something was harder than it should have been
• Periodically — even smooth sessions may reveal optimization opportunities

Purpose: The methodology warns: "Without explicit time allocation, improvement never happens." This workflow makes the COMPOUND step actionable.

Context Loading

1. Load project constraints:
   • Read CLAUDE.md (project-level guidance and decision heuristics)
2. Load pattern references:
   • Read book-llms/patterns.md (Recursive Collaboration + Observation Accumulation sections)
   • Read book-llms/workflow-authoring.md (workflow quality attributes for evaluating workflow improvements)
3. Load recent observations:
   • Read organon/observations/README.md (index of existing observation files)
   • Read the most recent observation file listed in the README (for context on prior findings)

Steps

Step 1: Review Session Work

Examine what happened during the session:

git diff --stat HEAD~N  # where N = number of commits in this session
git log --oneline -N    # recent commits

List:

• Files created or modified
• Types of changes (organon content, tooling, skills, documentation)
• Patterns in the work (what was repeated, what was manual)

Step 2: Detect Patterns

Review the most recent observation file to check whether this session's findings relate to previously recorded observations. Look for recurrence — the same friction appearing again strengthens a signal into a pattern.

Look for these improvement signals:

Step 3: Classify Improvements

For each finding, categorize it:

Step 4: Prioritize

Rank improvements by frequency x impact:

Priority = How often does this recur? × How much friction does it cause?

Step 5: Generate Improvement Plan

For the top-priority improvement, draft:

1. What — specific change to make
2. Where — exact file(s) to modify
3. Why — what problem this solves
4. How to verify — how to confirm the improvement works

Step 6: Execute Improvement

With user confirmation, implement the highest-priority improvement:

• If tool candidate → create RFC (use domain-feature-design skill)
• If protocol update → edit PROTOCOLS.md
• If heuristic addition → edit CLAUDE.md or organon/ETHOS.md
• If workflow refinement → edit the skill file
• If documentation gap → create or update the relevant file

Step 7: Record Observations (Optional)

If this session produced observations worth preserving beyond the immediate session, record them:

Decision:

• An active observation file covers this topic → add to it (new O-entry in the Observations section)
• No relevant file exists → create new organon/observations/NNN-descriptive-name.md

What to record: Each observation needs Signal (what happened), Implication (what it means), Suggested Action (what to do). See the Observation Accumulation Pattern for the convention.

When NOT to record:

• Single-occurrence friction you already fixed (just a bug fix)
• Opinions without evidence
• Observations already captured in methodology guidance
• Session-specific context that won't generalize

Not every session produces observations — that's fine. Only record when the session revealed something worth remembering across sessions.

Step 8: Check for Stale Terminology

Search ALL files for terminology that may have become inconsistent during the session:

Use the Grep tool to search all files for the term:

Grep pattern="<term-to-check>" path="." glob="*.md"

Also check organon files by name:

cd packages/tools && npx organon find --name "<term-to-check>"

Check common drift points:

• CLAUDE.md vs organon/ETHOS.md (must stay in sync)
• Skill descriptions vs actual skill content
• Protocol names vs workflow names

Step 9: Run Verification

cd packages/tools && npx organon verify
cd packages/tools && npx organon health

Confirm no regressions from the improvement.

Verification

• At least one improvement identified and classified
• Highest-priority improvement either executed or documented
• organon verify passes after any changes
• organon health score has not decreased
• No stale terminology found

Error Recovery