qte77 Plan-to-Learnings Distiller
Target: $ARGUMENTS
Extracts structured learnings from Claude Code plan files. Distills decisions made, alternatives rejected, and patterns discovered into a persistent document that compounds project knowledge over time.
Arguments
| Position | Name | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | time-range |
no | 7d |
E.g. 7d, 30d, this-week. Filter plans by modification time. |
| 2 | output-path |
no | docs/learnings/from-plans.md |
Where to write/append output. |
Examples:
/distilling-plan-learnings # Last 7 days → docs/learnings/from-plans.md
/distilling-plan-learnings 30d # Last 30 days
/distilling-plan-learnings 7d ./my-learnings.md # Custom output path
Data Source
~/.claude/
├── plans/*.md # Plan mode files (filtered by mtime)
When to Use
- After completing a plan or sprint — capture what was learned
- At week/sprint boundaries — accumulate decision history
- Before starting a new plan — review past decisions and patterns
Do Not Use
- For real-time plan editing (use plan mode directly)
- For cross-project synthesis (use
/synthesizing-cc-bigpicture) - For session-level context (use session-memory)
Workflow
Parse arguments — Apply defaults per Arguments table. Resolve output path. Create parent directories if needed.
Glob plans — Glob
~/.claude/plans/*.md. Filter by modification time against thetime-rangeargument. Sort by mtime descending (newest first). If no plans match, report "No plans found in time range" and stop.Read each plan — Read matching plan files sequentially. Extract content sections, noting plan title and date.
Extract learnings into three categories:
- Decisions made — Choices that were committed to. Look for: selected approaches, accepted trade-offs, finalized designs, chosen tools/patterns.
- Alternatives rejected — Options considered but not chosen. Look for: crossed-out items, "decided against", "considered but", trade-off discussions, pros/cons where one side won.
- Patterns discovered — Recurring themes or insights. Look for: repeated blockers, successful strategies, workflow improvements, reusable solutions.
Format output — Structure with date headers per plan. Group by category within each plan section.
Write or append — If output file exists, append new entries below existing content with a separator. If new, write with header.
Output Format
# Learnings from Plans
## <Plan Title> — <YYYY-MM-DD>
### Decisions Made
- <decision>: <rationale>
### Alternatives Rejected
- <alternative>: <why rejected>
### Patterns Discovered
- <pattern>: <context and implication>
---
Common Pitfalls
- Inventing learnings: Only extract what is explicitly stated or strongly implied in plan text. Do not infer decisions that aren't there.
- Duplicating entries: When appending, check existing content for duplicates before adding.
- Over-extraction: Prefer fewer, high-quality entries over exhaustive lists. Each entry should be actionable or informative.
Quality Check
- Correct > Complete > Minimal (ACE-FCA)
- Every entry traces to a specific plan file
- Decisions include rationale, not just the choice
- Alternatives include why they were rejected
- Patterns are genuinely recurring (seen in 2+ plans) or significant