cameronjlarsen/engineering-toolkit/reflect

Reflect

Mine the current conversation for durable learnings, then route them into skill edits.

Dispatch contract. Resolve every configured role through `provider-dispatch.md`. Reviewers need the parent's live MCP surface, so the default and supported portable route is inherit-parent (or its auto alias). Pass the transcript or digest plus any required evidence paths. On Codex, resolve remaining Claude tool names via `codex-tools.md`.

When to invoke

Invoke when the user says "reflect" or "/reflect". Skip when the conversation is trivial, off-topic, or already covered by an existing skill the parent followed correctly. One-offs are not learnings.

Process

1. Locate the active transcript

The parent finds its own transcript file before fanning out. The system prompt names Claude Code's per-project transcripts directory at ~/.claude/projects/<encoded-cwd>/. Use that path. Do not glob across ~/.claude/projects/. That crosses workspace boundaries and reads private chats from unrelated projects.

ls -t ~/.claude/projects/<encoded-cwd>/*.jsonl 2>/dev/null | head -10

Three transcript layouts: legacy flat (<id>.jsonl), current nested (<id>/<id>.jsonl), and subagent (<parent>/subagents/<child>.jsonl).

For each candidate, read the first JSONL line and check that message.content[0].text contains the conversation's opening user prompt. Take the matching path. If no path resolves, write a tight digest of the session and pass that instead.

2. Spawn three reviewers in parallel

Start all three read-only lanes in one fan-out phase through provider dispatch. Reviewers need MCP access for context lookups (tickets, chat threads, observability traces referenced in the transcript), so keep them native to the parent. The prompt forbids file writes; the parent applies edits.

Each reviewer and the synthesizer name a role line in the active model sheet (see `t3-tools.md`) and a default. Use that line's value, or the default if the sheet or the line is missing. Leave the Route unset when the value is auto or inherit-parent.

Pass each template verbatim, substituting the transcript path or digest where marked. Reviewers return findings in the Agent response body.

3. Synthesize

Dispatch one lane using the reflect tooling, judgment, divergent, synthesizer line (default inherit-parent). Preserve relevant MCP access because the synthesizer spot-verifies citations. Use references/synthesizer.md verbatim, with each reviewer's full output inlined where marked. The synthesizer returns a structured Accepted / Rejected / Backlog list.

4. Structural enforcement check

Sanity-check the synthesizer's Accepted list. For any item that would be enforced more reliably by a lint rule, script, metadata flag, or runtime check, move it from Accepted to Backlog. See the encode-lessons-in-structure principle skill.

5. Apply

Before applying any Accepted edit, present the synthesizer's full Accepted/Rejected/Backlog output to the user and wait for explicit approval. The user picks which subset to apply and may redirect routings. Skill changes affect every future agent in the org. Do not auto-apply.

Backlog items file to whatever devex / backlog tracker your team uses automatically. Only the Accepted list waits for approval.

Never edit a skill under plugins/cache/. Before approval, show its destination: .claude/skills/<skill>/ or ~/.claude/skills/<skill>/ on Claude Code, .cursor/skills/<skill>/ or ~/.cursor/skills/<skill>/ on Cursor. After approval, copy the skill folder there and edit the copy. Never open a PR or push.

For each approved Accepted item, follow the Routing field exactly:

• Trivial existing-skill edit (a one-line bullet, a tightened sentence, a stale fact corrected): parent does directly.
• Substantive existing-skill edit (a new section, a new pattern table, more than ~10 lines): hand to the plugin-dev:skill-development skill and run its draft / test / iterate loop.
• tune description: <skill path> (the skill exists but didn't trigger when it should have): hand to plugin-dev:skill-development and run its description-optimization loop.
• new skill via plugin-dev:skill-development: <kebab-name>: hand creation to plugin-dev:skill-development. Do not invent the shape ad hoc.

If your environment ships a SKILL.md validator, run it on every touched skill before declaring done. Skip this step if it doesn't.

6. Summarize for the user

Short list, no preamble:

• Edits applied: <skill path>. What changed, one line each.
• New skills created: <skill path>. One line each (rare).
• Backlog filed to the devex tracker: <issue title> (<tags>). One line each.
• Dropped: one line per rejected finding + reason from the synthesizer.