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/retro

Improve the process from what actually happened.

npx skills@latest add sico-vibes/zen-skills --skill zen zen-retro

Public repository release pending. Install the router with this mode for shared references and the local record writer.

Improve the next delivery from what actually happened. Do not invent lessons to fill a retrospective template.

When evidence shows a recurring activity, consider a scoped personal workflow proposal with an example, test, owner review and rollback. Do not rewrite or silently publish the generic router. See personalization and reusable workflows.

  1. Establish the period/task/milestone and intended outcome. Read relevant task/spec, review reports, failed checks, session/run events and owner feedback. Label missing transcript/process evidence; source inspection cannot reconstruct an unobserved session.
  2. Reconstruct a short timeline of consequential decisions, changes, failures and recovery. Separate symptoms from causes and self-reports from independent observations. Include what worked so it is not discarded accidentally.
  3. Identify repeated or costly friction: unclear acceptance, missing context, stale docs, wrong execution scope, repeated retries, poor review evidence, unnecessary questions or instruction overload. Link each claim to an event/check/diff/FDK rather than attributing motives to people or models.
  4. Propose the smallest change likely to help: a better brief field, a bounded check, a retrieval cue, an interface seam, a clarified decision or a scoped preference. State benefit, cost, owner and an observable next-run success measure. Do not respond to one failure with a universal hard rule.
  5. Route outcomes correctly. A repair becomes TSK; a factual investigation RDT; a documentation proposal DOC; a quoted correction FDK; a durable preference/fact MEM. Sensitive learning remains proposed. A process suggestion does not itself authorize another model/provider, a Git action or an automation.
  6. Save the retrospective as DOC with data.kind: "retro" and evidence links using the retro template. Retain superseded reasoning and rollback paths. Use actual record tools or initialized standalone storage; otherwise deliver a labelled draft.
  7. On the next relevant task retrieve the accepted lesson and evaluate its effect. Report a failure of the proposed improvement honestly instead of repeatedly appending the same instruction.

Completion

End with observed outcome, what to keep, the most consequential friction and a small owned action list with verification. Separate proposed from accepted/applied changes. Do not bulk-mark tasks Done: a sweep can present evidence-backed completion candidates for owner confirmation.

Example: several sessions omitted native tool-use evidence. A useful improvement adds the actual workspace/tool observation to acceptance. “Be more careful” is neither a procedure nor a verifiable lesson.