Compounding

Compounding

If preflight readiness is missing, stale, or blocked (check .pulse/tooling-status.json), stop and invoke pulse:using-pulse before continuing.

Compounding turns completed feature work into reusable memory for future planning and execution.

Compounding is the canonical post-cycle, machine-readable learning pass for completed Pulse work. Use pulse:dream for runtime-artifact consolidation outside that post-cycle moment.

When to Use

• after pulse:reviewing completes and feature is merged
• after systematic bug-fix work reveals non-obvious root cause
• after abandoned work that produced reusable lessons

Skip only when no durable/reusable learning emerged.

Runtime Contract

All operational rules live in references/runtime-appendix.md. Treat that file as canonical for:

• 3-stream analysis (pattern/decision/failure)
• synthesis quality bar (applicable-when must be specific)
• propagation taxonomy and routing destinations
• promotion rules for critical-patterns.md
• durable memory capture behavior in .pulse/memory/*
• state updates and handoff outputs

Minimum Flow

1. Gather context from history artifacts, verification evidence, and bead graph.
2. Run three analysis streams and collect outputs.
3. Synthesize one learnings file at .pulse/memory/learnings/YYYYMMDD-<slug>.md.
4. Classify each learning by propagation type and route to destination.
5. Promote only truly global-critical learnings.
6. Update .pulse/STATE.md and .pulse/state.json.

References

• references/runtime-appendix.md — canonical runtime contract
• references/learnings-template.md — learnings file structure
• references/analysis-prompts.md — prompts for pattern/decision/failure analysis
• references/corrections-and-ratchets.md — correction and ratchet file structures