typmem-retro
Write the diary entry for a chunk of work. A retro is the story of what happened to you — useful to tomorrow-you (or your successor) who needs to resume quickly. It is one of several memory layers under ~/.typmem/memory/; retro is the raw diary lane, not a reviewed or promoted artifact.
Retro vs learning — read this first
This single distinction governs everything:
- Retro = diary. "What happened to me." Has an
I, a timeline, decisions, dead ends, loose threads. Useful soon, decays fast — three months later most of it is noise because the work moved on.
- Learning = recipe card. "What I now know about the world." A distilled fact with no story, no timeline, no
I. True regardless of which day or project produced it. Useful to anyone, indefinitely. Learnings live elsewhere — typmem-learn handles them.
The test to tell them apart: "Will this still matter after the work that produced it is finished?"
- No → it is retro material (status, decisions-in-flight, follow-ups). Write it here.
- Yes → it is a learning. Do NOT bury it in the diary; flag it (see step 7) and let
typmem-learn capture it.
A retro is allowed and expected to be messy, first-person, and time-ordered. That is the point — do not sanitize it into a polished report.
What goes in a retro
Guidance, not a rigid template (the body format is intentionally loose for now — just write the story):
- What you set out to do this session
- What actually happened (a rough timeline is fine)
- Decisions you made, and why
- Dead ends — things you tried that did not work, and what you ruled out
- Where things stand now: unfinished threads, what's paused, the next step for tomorrow-you
How to write it
- Resolve today's date in local time as
YYYY-MM-DD.
- Make sure the directory exists:
mkdir -p ~/.typmem/memory/retro
- Build a short slug describing what this session was about: lowercase kebab-case, 2–5 words, hyphen-separated, no spaces (e.g.
aca-tailscale-sidecar, resh-rhai-parser).
- Target file:
~/.typmem/memory/retro/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md (date prefix + slug — retro is the only memory layer that uses a date in the filename). Each session/topic gets its own file.
- Create the file with this frontmatter, then the diary body:
---
author: <agent name or person writing this>
created: YYYY-MM-DD
---
If a file with that exact name already exists (you re-ran on the same topic the same day), do NOT overwrite it — append a ## HH:MM — <short label> section at the end instead.
- Write the body as a diary per the guidance above. Keep the diary discipline — rough and honest beats polished.
- Before finishing, scan what you wrote for any durable facts (recipe cards) that snuck in. For each one, tell the user it belongs in a learning and suggest running
typmem-learn — but do not write to learnings/ from this skill yourself.
File rules
- Location:
~/.typmem/memory/retro/
- Filename:
YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md (one file per session/topic; slug is a short lowercase kebab-case descriptor)
- Frontmatter (MVP):
author, created. No reviewer — retro is never reviewed.
- Body: free-form diary, no fixed template yet.
Don't
- Don't put durable facts or lessons here — those are learnings (
typmem-learn).
- Don't overwrite an existing retro file — if the name collides, append a new timestamped section instead.
- Don't add a
reviewer field or try to promote a retro. Retro is a side lane that feeds learnings; it is not on the promotion ladder (learnings → precedents → rules).
1---2name: typmem-retro3description: Write a retrospective diary entry capturing the story of a work session — what you set out to do, what happened, decisions made, dead ends hit, and unfinished threads — to ~/.typmem/memory/retro/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md. Use this whenever wrapping up work, when the user says they are done / stopping for now / "end of session", when a meaningful chunk of work concludes, or when asked to "write a retro", "log what happened", "record today", or "capture this session". Reach for it even if the user never says the word "retro" — any end-of-work wrap-up is a trigger. Do NOT use this to capture durable facts, gotchas, or how-things-work lessons; those are learnings — use typmem-learn for those.4---56# typmem-retro78Write the diary entry for a chunk of work. A retro is the story of *what happened to you* — useful to tomorrow-you (or your successor) who needs to resume quickly. It is one of several memory layers under `~/.typmem/memory/`; retro is the raw diary lane, not a reviewed or promoted artifact.910## Retro vs learning — read this first1112This single distinction governs everything:1314- **Retro = diary.** "What happened to me." Has an `I`, a timeline, decisions, dead ends, loose threads. Useful *soon*, decays fast — three months later most of it is noise because the work moved on.15- **Learning = recipe card.** "What I now know about the world." A distilled fact with no story, no timeline, no `I`. True regardless of which day or project produced it. Useful to anyone, indefinitely. Learnings live elsewhere — `typmem-learn` handles them.1617The test to tell them apart: **"Will this still matter after the work that produced it is finished?"**18- No → it is retro material (status, decisions-in-flight, follow-ups). Write it here.19- Yes → it is a learning. Do NOT bury it in the diary; flag it (see step 7) and let `typmem-learn` capture it.2021A retro is *allowed and expected* to be messy, first-person, and time-ordered. That is the point — do not sanitize it into a polished report.2223## What goes in a retro2425Guidance, not a rigid template (the body format is intentionally loose for now — just write the story):2627- What you set out to do this session28- What actually happened (a rough timeline is fine)29- Decisions you made, and why30- Dead ends — things you tried that did not work, and what you ruled out31- Where things stand now: unfinished threads, what's paused, the next step for tomorrow-you3233## How to write it34351. Resolve today's date in local time as `YYYY-MM-DD`.362. Make sure the directory exists: `mkdir -p ~/.typmem/memory/retro`373. Build a short slug describing what this session was about: lowercase kebab-case, 2–5 words, hyphen-separated, no spaces (e.g. `aca-tailscale-sidecar`, `resh-rhai-parser`).384. Target file: `~/.typmem/memory/retro/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md` (date prefix + slug — retro is the only memory layer that uses a date in the filename). Each session/topic gets its own file.395. Create the file with this frontmatter, then the diary body:40 ```41 ---42 author: <agent name or person writing this>43 created: YYYY-MM-DD44 ---45 ```46 If a file with that exact name already exists (you re-ran on the same topic the same day), do NOT overwrite it — append a `## HH:MM — <short label>` section at the end instead.476. Write the body as a diary per the guidance above. Keep the diary discipline — rough and honest beats polished.487. Before finishing, scan what you wrote for any durable facts (recipe cards) that snuck in. For each one, tell the user it belongs in a learning and suggest running `typmem-learn` — but do not write to `learnings/` from this skill yourself.4950## File rules5152- Location: `~/.typmem/memory/retro/`53- Filename: `YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md` (one file per session/topic; slug is a short lowercase kebab-case descriptor)54- Frontmatter (MVP): `author`, `created`. No `reviewer` — retro is never reviewed.55- Body: free-form diary, no fixed template yet.5657## Don't5859- Don't put durable facts or lessons here — those are learnings (`typmem-learn`).60- Don't overwrite an existing retro file — if the name collides, append a new timestamped section instead.61- Don't add a `reviewer` field or try to promote a retro. Retro is a side lane that *feeds* learnings; it is not on the promotion ladder (`learnings → precedents → rules`).
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