Learnings

Overview

Capture durable lessons as soon as evidence appears, not only at explicit retrospective requests. Write each validated learning as JSONL so future agents can reuse successful patterns and avoid footguns quickly.

Zig CLI Iteration Repos

When iterating on the Zig-backed learnings/append_learning helper CLI path, use these two repos:

• skills-zig (/Users/tk/workspace/tk/skills-zig): source for the learnings and append_learning Zig binaries, build/test wiring, and release tags.
• homebrew-tap (/Users/tk/workspace/tk/homebrew-tap): Homebrew formula updates/checksum bumps for released learnings binaries.

Trigger cues

• $learnings
• “lessons learned” / “takeaways” / “wrap up” / “handoff”
• Before commit/PR/ship; after a proof signal changes state (fail->pass)
• “strategy pivot” / “footgun” / “gotcha” / “retry loop”

Operating Contract (Auto-Capture)

• Allowed to run automatically at the end of an implementation turn (success or paused) and at delivery boundaries (commit/PR/handoff).
• Best-effort and non-blocking: never require extra context; if evidence is thin, either write nothing or persist review_later with placeholders.
• Noise control: if no Capture Checkpoint occurred or nothing decision-shaping emerged, append 0 records; otherwise prefer 1 record (max 3).
• Completion proof: after an implementation turn with a checkpoint, either (a) produce an appended: id=... success line, or (b) state 0 records appended with a concrete reason.
• Helper-first write path: use append_learning/run_learnings_tool append for normal writes; manual .learnings.jsonl edits are emergency-only and must include explicit rationale.

Quick Start

CODEX_SKILLS_HOME="${CODEX_HOME:-$HOME/.codex}"
CLAUDE_SKILLS_HOME="${CLAUDE_HOME:-$HOME/.claude}"
LEARNINGS_SPECS_DIR="$CODEX_SKILLS_HOME/skills/learnings/specs"
[ -d "$LEARNINGS_SPECS_DIR" ] || LEARNINGS_SPECS_DIR="$CLAUDE_SKILLS_HOME/skills/learnings/specs"

run_learnings_tool() {
  local subcommand="${1:-}"
  if [ -z "$subcommand" ]; then
    echo "usage: run_learnings_tool <datasets|query|recall|codify-candidates|append> [args...]" >&2
    return 2
  fi
  shift || true

  local mode=""
  local bin=""
  local marker=""
  case "$subcommand" in
    append|append-learning|append_learning)
      mode="append"
      bin="append_learning"
      marker="append_learning.zig"
      ;;
    datasets|query|recall|codify-candidates)
      mode="learnings"
      bin="learnings"
      marker="learnings.zig"
      ;;
    *)
      echo "unknown learnings subcommand: $subcommand" >&2
      return 2
      ;;
  esac

  if command -v "$bin" >/dev/null 2>&1 && "$bin" --help 2>&1 | grep -q "$marker"; then
    if [ "$mode" = "append" ]; then
      "$bin" "$@"
    else
      "$bin" "$subcommand" "$@"
    fi
    return
  fi
  if [ "$(uname -s)" = "Darwin" ] && command -v brew >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    if ! brew install tkersey/tap/learnings; then
      echo "brew install tkersey/tap/learnings failed." >&2
      return 1
    fi
    if command -v "$bin" >/dev/null 2>&1 && "$bin" --help 2>&1 | grep -q "$marker"; then
      if [ "$mode" = "append" ]; then
        "$bin" "$@"
      else
        "$bin" "$subcommand" "$@"
      fi
      return
    fi
    echo "brew install tkersey/tap/learnings did not produce a compatible $bin binary." >&2
    return 1
  fi
  echo "learnings binary missing or incompatible: $bin" >&2
  return 1
}

Capture Checkpoints

Capture at least once per coding turn when any of these checkpoints occurs:

1. Validation transition: a signal changes state (fail->pass, pass->fail, timeout->stable).
2. Strategy pivot: an approach is abandoned, replaced, or simplified.
3. Footgun discovery: hidden risk, brittle assumption, or recurring trap is observed.
4. Momentum discovery: a pattern repeatedly accelerates implementation or debugging.
5. Delivery boundary: immediately before commit/PR/final handoff.

Auto-trigger rule: if none of these checkpoints occurred and nothing decision-shaping emerged, do not append anything.

Essentialness Test

Before writing a learning, require all three:

1. Decision delta: would this change what you do next time?
2. Transferability: does it generalize beyond this one exact file/run path?
3. Counterfactual: if ignored, is there a predictable failure, cost, or missed leverage?

If any answer is no, skip capture (or use review_later only when uncertainty itself is decision-shaping).

Workflow

1. Gather evidence.
   • Inspect changed surface (git status -sb, git diff --stat, targeted git diff).
   • Collect executed validation signals and outcomes.
   • Collect failed attempts only when evidenced by commands, logs, diffs, or test output.
2. Distill session essence first.
   • Compress the turn to four lines: objective, inflection, proof, transferable rule.
   • Keep only lessons that alter future decisions.
3. Distill candidate learnings.
   • Convert narrative into rule form (When X, prefer Y because Z).
   • Prefer one essential learning over several procedural notes.
   • Avoid path-bound/session-bound wording unless the path itself is the lesson.
4. Assign semantic status.
   • Use a concise action status in snake_case.
   • Prefer do_more or do_less when they fit.
   • Choose a more precise status when needed (for example investigate_more, codify_now, avoid_for_now).
5. Run pre-append quality gate.
   • learning contains explicit condition + action (When/If ... prefer/do ...).
   • evidence includes at least one concrete anchor (command outcome, commit SHA, run ID, file path, or exact error string).
   • application states what to do on the next similar task.
   • status reflects intent (avoid defaulting to do_more when codify_now/investigate_more/avoid_for_now is more accurate).
   • If working under temp paths (/tmp, /var/folders/...), either skip or mirror only high-signal lessons into a durable repo .learnings.jsonl.
6. Persist immediately.
   • Append each accepted learning to .learnings.jsonl in repo root (0 records is valid when nothing qualifies).
   • Use the append_learning helper command (via run_learnings_tool append) instead of hand-building JSON.
7. Report concise highlights in chat.
   • Summarize the 1-3 highest leverage learnings (or say none).
   • Reference the write result (.learnings.jsonl updated, N records appended, or duplicate-skip).

JSONL Contract

Write one JSON object per line:

{
  "id": "lrn-20260207T173422Z-a91f4e2c",
  "captured_at": "2026-02-07T17:34:22Z",
  "status": "do_more",
  "learning": "Boundary parsing eliminated downstream guard duplication.",
  "evidence": [
    "uv run pytest tests/parser_test.py::test_rejects_invalid passed after boundary parse refactor"
  ],
  "application": "Parse and refine request payloads once at API boundaries.",
  "tags": [
    "api",
    "testing"
  ],
  "context": {
    "repo": "owner/repo",
    "branch": "main",
    "paths": [
      "src/parser.py",
      "tests/parser_test.py"
    ]
  },
  "related_ids": [
    "lrn-20260130T120000Z-deadbeef"
  ],
  "supersedes_id": "lrn-20260101T090000Z-cafebabe",
  "source": "skill:learnings",
  "fingerprint": "a91f4e2c6b5d3f10"
}

Required keys:

• id
• captured_at
• status
• learning
• evidence
• application
• source
• fingerprint

Optional keys:

• context
• tags
• related_ids
• supersedes_id

Write Procedure

Use one append call per learning:

run_learnings_tool append \
  --status do_more \
  --learning "Boundary parsing eliminated downstream guard duplication." \
  --evidence "uv run pytest tests/parser_test.py::test_rejects_invalid passed after boundary parse refactor" \
  --application "Parse and refine request payloads once at API boundaries." \
  --tag api \
  --tag testing

The helper script:

• Normalizes status to snake_case.
• Defaults status to review_later when omitted.
• Enforces strict quality by default (condition+action learning statement, anchored evidence, concrete application, and non-temporary repo path unless explicitly allowed).
• Supports explicit escape hatches:
  • --quality-mode best_effort for intentional thin capture.
  • --allow-temp-path when temporary-repo capture is unavoidable.
• In best_effort mode only, backfills missing evidence/application with placeholders.
• Captures a best-effort repo slug from remote.origin.url (or falls back to repo dir name).
• Captures branch and changed paths from git when available.
• Computes a fingerprint for duplicate detection.
• Appends to .learnings.jsonl in repo root by default.

Mining, Recall, and Codify Loop

Use the miner script to leverage learnings at task start (once the user prompt is available) and to promote repeated items into durable policy.

CLI:

run_learnings_tool datasets
run_learnings_tool query --spec "@$LEARNINGS_SPECS_DIR/status-rank.json"
run_learnings_tool recall --query "fix flaky pre-commit hook" --limit 5
run_learnings_tool codify-candidates --min-count 3 --limit 20

Promotion rule of thumb:

• If a learning is repeated (theme appears >= 3 times) or status is codify_now, promote it into durable docs (for example codex/AGENTS.md or a relevant skill doc).
• After codifying, append a follow-up learning referencing the durable anchor (use --related-id/--supersedes-id and a codified tag).

Runtime bootstrap policy for learnings mirrors cas: use Zig binaries only (learnings, append_learning); on macOS with brew, treat brew install tkersey/tap/learnings failure (or incompatible binaries) as a hard error.

Guardrails

• Ground every learning in observed evidence; do not infer hidden causes as facts.
• Do not write pure changelog bullets; write decision-shaping rules.
• Keep status action-oriented and semantically meaningful for the situation.
• Capture essence, not chronology: avoid storing every step if one inflection explains the outcome.
• Avoid duplicate entries; the helper script skips exact duplicates by fingerprint.
  • If you have materially new evidence for an existing learning, append a follow-up record (adjust status and/or make the learning statement more specific) or re-run with --allow-duplicate intentionally.
  • Do not hand-edit existing JSONL lines in place.
• If evidence is weak, persist with review_later and placeholders, then enrich later.