Robdmc Claude Tools Skills

Scribe

The scribe maintains a narrative log of your exploratory work, can archive important files, and tracks git state.

Address naturally: "hey scribe, log this" / "scribe, save this notebook" / "scribe, what did we try yesterday?"

Quick Reference

Important: Git entries ONLY happen when user explicitly says "git". Never auto-promote.

CRITICAL: Always Propose Before Finalizing

NEVER run entry.py prepare or entry.py finalize without first:

1. Showing the user the proposed entry text (title + body) in a markdown block
2. Getting explicit user approval ("ok", "yes", "looks good", etc.)

This applies to ALL entry types (log, git-entry, archive).

Example Propose Step

Here's the entry I'll create:

Title: Migrate signup forecast to Parquet format

Body: Removed all DuckDB dependencies, switching to a simpler Parquet-based workflow. The notebook now loads from subscriptions.parquet and saves to signup_forecast.parquet...

Files touched: compute_signup_forecast.nb.py

Does this look good?

Directory Structure

.scribe/
├── 2026-01-23.md      # Daily log files (tracked in git)
├── assets/            # Archived files (gitignored)
└── diffs/             # Legacy diffs (gitignored, not created for new entries)

Entry Flow

1. Assess — Check context, recent logs, git status
2. Propose — Draft the full entry text (title and body) and show it to the user in a markdown block. Ask "Does this look good?" or "Should I proceed?"
3. Confirm — STOP and WAIT for explicit user approval ("ok", "yes", "looks good", etc.). Do NOT proceed until user confirms.
4. Prepare — entry.py prepare [options] → outputs staging file path
5. Edit title — Replace __TITLE__ in staging file
6. Edit body — Replace __BODY__ in staging file
7. Finalize — entry.py finalize → validates, appends to log, archives files

Prepare Command

uv run --project {SKILL_DIR}/scripts python {SKILL_DIR}/scripts/entry.py prepare [options]

Outputs the staging file path (e.g., .scribe/__2026-01-23-14-35__.md).

Staging File

The staging file contains placeholders to fill:

---
id: 2026-01-23-14-35
timestamp: "14:35"
title: __TITLE__
git: abc123
_pending:
  git_entry: false
---
## 14:35 — __TITLE__

__BODY__

**Files touched:**
- `etl.py` — Added coalesce logic

---

Use the Edit tool to replace __TITLE__ and __BODY__ with actual content.

Finalize Command

uv run --project {SKILL_DIR}/scripts python {SKILL_DIR}/scripts/entry.py finalize

This validates placeholders are filled, strips _pending, archives files, appends to daily log, and (if git-entry) creates commit.

Scripts

Scripts in {SKILL_DIR}/scripts/. Run with: uv run --project {SKILL_DIR}/scripts python {SKILL_DIR}/scripts/<script.py>

Entry Structure

Daily logs (.scribe/YYYY-MM-DD.md) contain entries:

---
id: 2026-01-23-14-35
timestamp: "14:35"
title: Entry title here
git: abc1234
---
## 14:35 — Entry title here

Narrative...

**Files touched:**
- `file.py` — Description

---

Searchable fields: id:, title:, git:, mode: git-entry, **Related:**, **Archived:**

Querying

• Time-based: Read .scribe/YYYY-MM-DD.md directly
• Topic-based: Grep in .scribe/, then Read matches
• Assets: assets.py list [filter]

Error Recovery

Principles

• Narrator, not stenographer — Write prose, not dumps
• Capture the why — Not just what, but why it was tried
• Stay concise — Entries should be scannable
• Preserve dead ends — Failed approaches prevent repeats
• Git state anchors context — Commit hash precisely identifies code state

Reference Files

For detailed examples: references/entries.md | references/querying.md | references/recovery.md

Source: robdmc/claude_tools — distributed by TomeVault.