How do I install the Chronicle Read skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add pasky/chronicle-read in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

What does the Chronicle Read skill do?

Reconstruct high-level past events (decisions, commitments, timelines) from /chronicle chapters. Use for longer-term recall beyond what paragraphs cover — arc of past discussions, decisions made, what happened last week(s). It is listed under AI & ML on SkillMD.

Is Chronicle Read safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Chronicle Read?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Chronicle Read free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Chronicle Read?

pasky (@pasky) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Chronicle Read by pasky — Agent Skill

Name: Chronicle Read
Author: pasky

Chronicle Read

Reconstruct high-level past events (decisions, commitments, timelines) from /chronicle chapters. Use for longer-term recall beyond what <context_summary> paragraphs cover — arc of past discussions, decisions made, what happened last week(s).

pasky 6b086c0 1.4 KB Updated Sep 17, 2026

File contents

Chronicle files in /chronicle/ (read-only, auto-maintained) are numbered chapter files (000001.md, 000002.md, etc.) with YAML frontmatter and timestamped narrative paragraphs:

---
openedAt: "2026-02-20T14:30:00Z"
closedAt: "2026-02-21T10:15:00Z"
summary: "Brief summary of the chapter."
---

[2026-02-20T14:30] First paragraph content.

[2026-02-20T14:35] Second paragraph content.

What's already in your context

Current chapter paragraphs are auto-prepended as <context_summary> messages
These cover only most recent history — older chapters require explicit lookup

When to use chronicle vs chat_history

Chronicle: narrative summaries — good for "what was discussed about X", "what decisions were made", longer-term arcs
chat_history: raw JSONL transcript logs — good for specific quotes, artifact URLs, exact tool calls, who said what

How to use

closedAt absent = current (open) chapter
Grep summary: lines across chapters to find relevant periods
read /chronicle/NNNNNN.md for full chapter content
The chronicle is written automatically from /chat_history/ chatter

Frequently asked questions