forge

Forge

Overview

All subagent dispatches use disk-mediated dispatch. See shared/dispatch-convention.md for the full protocol.

Long retrospectives and multi-session forward-pass consultations maintain an Invariant Cairn per shared/cairn-convention.md. See ## Cairn (Layer 3) below.

Self-improving retrospective system. After tasks complete, runs structured retrospectives. Before tasks begin, consults accumulated lessons. Periodically proposes concrete skill edits based on evidence.

Core principle: The agent that never reviews its own performance never improves. The Forge closes the loop.

Announce at start: "I'm using the forge skill to [run a retrospective / consult past lessons / propose skill improvements]."

Cairn (Layer 3)

Per shared/cairn-convention.md. Forge-specific bindings:

• Applies to long runs only. Single-artifact retrospectives (~minutes) do not need a cairn. Multi-artifact retrospectives spanning multiple sessions, or mutation-proposal runs that consult >20 historical retrospectives, do.
• Phase mapping. One cairn phase per forge "pass" (retro-pass, forward-pass, mutation-pass). Sub-dispatches within a pass are internal.
• Terminal phase. The last pass completes and its output artifact (retro note / skill-edit proposal) is written.
• Mandatory-invariant categories. Any pattern the forge identifies that RECURS across ≥ 3 retrospectives and would motivate a skill-edit mutation — pinned so the mutation-pass doesn't rediscover it.
• Reconciliation. Full 5-rule pass. Forge's own retrospective corpus is not in receipt-ledger.jsonl; Rule 4 checks only that dispatched subagents' receipts are live.

When to Use

digraph forge_modes {
    "Task just completed?" [shape=diamond];
    "Starting new task?" [shape=diamond];
    "10+ retros + recurring pattern?" [shape=diamond];
    "Run Retrospective" [shape=box];
    "Run Feed-Forward" [shape=box];
    "Run Mutation Analysis" [shape=box];
    "Not applicable" [shape=box];

    "Task just completed?" -> "Run Retrospective" [label="yes"];
    "Task just completed?" -> "Starting new task?" [label="no"];
    "Starting new task?" -> "Run Feed-Forward" [label="yes"];
    "Starting new task?" -> "10+ retros + recurring pattern?" [label="no"];
    "10+ retros + recurring pattern?" -> "Run Mutation Analysis" [label="yes"];
    "10+ retros + recurring pattern?" -> "Not applicable" [label="no"];
}

Three modes:

• Retrospective — after any significant task (build, debug, plan execution, branch finish)
• Feed-Forward — before design, planning, or execution begins
• Mutation Proposals — when enough data accumulates (10+ retrospectives, 3+ of same deviation type)

Significant task = anything that used crucible:build, crucible:debugging, or crucible:finish. Simple questions and file reads do not qualify.

Storage

All data lives in the project memory directory:

~/.claude/projects/<project-hash>/memory/forge/
  retrospectives/
    YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS-<slug>.md    # Individual entries (<40 lines each)
  patterns.md                       # Aggregated patterns (max 200 lines)
  mutation-proposals/
    YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>.md           # Skill mutation proposals
  skill-proposals/
    YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>.md           # Skill extraction proposals
  chronicle/
    signals.jsonl                   # Always-on execution signals (1 line per skill completion)
    summary.md                      # Bounded summary (~100 lines, regenerated on read)

Context budget: patterns.md MUST stay under 200 lines. chronicle/summary.md MUST stay under 100 lines. Both are loaded into context during feed-forward. Individual retrospective files are NOT loaded during feed-forward — only during mutation analysis.

Chronicle is always-on — no config toggle. Signals contain no prompt content or task descriptions, only operational metrics (skill name, duration, outcome, files touched, skill-specific counts). This is separate from trajectory capture, which remains opt-in.

Skill-Worthy Patterns section format (within patterns.md):

## Skill-Worthy Patterns

- **[Pattern name]** (count: N, last seen: YYYY-MM-DD): [Description]
  - Status: none | proposed ([path]) | accepted | rejected

Trajectory Capture (Opt-In)

Trajectory capture records structured data about real skill invocations for eval generation. It is OFF by default and requires explicit opt-in.

Configuration

Check for ~/.claude/projects/<hash>/memory/trajectory-config.json before any trajectory operation. If the file does not exist or enabled is false, skip all trajectory recording silently.

Config schema:

{
  "enabled": false,
  "max_entries": 500,
  "include_prompt_summary": true,
  "additional_redact_patterns": []
}

• enabled: Master switch. Default false.
• max_entries: Maximum entries per JSONL file before oldest are pruned. Default 500.
• include_prompt_summary: Whether to include the one-line redacted prompt summary. If false, prompt_summary is set to "[omitted]". Default true.
• additional_redact_patterns: List of regex strings for project-specific secret patterns applied during the redaction pass.

Storage

All trajectory data lives alongside other forge data:

~/.claude/projects/<hash>/memory/trajectories/
  trajectory_samples.jsonl     # Successful completions
  failed_trajectories.jsonl    # Failures, partial completions, aborts

First-Enable Notification

When trajectory capture is first enabled (config file is created or enabled transitions from false to true), output to the user:

"Trajectory capture is now enabled. Here is what this means:

• After each significant skill invocation, a structured record is appended to ~/.claude/projects//memory/trajectories/
• Records include: skill name, duration, tool call count, outcome, and a redacted task summary. Raw prompts are NEVER stored.
• A redaction pass runs before every write to strip file paths, secrets, and sensitive content.
• You can inspect the JSONL files at any time. They are human-readable.
• To disable, set enabled: false in trajectory-config.json or delete the file."

Redaction Rules

Before writing ANY trajectory entry, apply these redaction steps in order:

1. Prompt summary generation: Do NOT copy the user's prompt. Instead, generate a one-line summary that captures the task TYPE without revealing specific content. Good: "Add authentication middleware to REST API" Bad: "Add JWT auth to the Acme Corp billing API at /srv/acme/billing/api.py" If include_prompt_summary is false in config, set prompt_summary to "[omitted]".

2. File path normalization: Replace absolute paths with project-relative paths. Replace home directory segments with ~. Replace username segments with [user]. Example: /home/alice/projects/myapp/src/auth.py becomes ~/projects/myapp/src/auth.py or src/auth.py if within the project root.

3. Secret pattern matching: Scan all string fields for patterns matching:

   • API keys (strings matching [A-Za-z0-9_-]{20,} preceded by key/token/secret/api)
   • Connection strings (containing :// with credentials)
   • Environment variable references with values (KEY=value patterns)
   • Bearer tokens, JWT strings (three dot-separated base64 segments) Replace matches with [REDACTED].

4. Custom patterns: Apply each regex in additional_redact_patterns from the config file against all string fields. Replace matches with [REDACTED].

5. Set redacted flag: Only set redacted: true after steps 1-4 complete successfully. If any step fails, do NOT write the entry.

Redaction Failure

If the redaction pass cannot complete (e.g., malformed config, regex error), log a warning and skip trajectory recording for this invocation. Do NOT write an unredacted entry. Trajectory capture is a nice-to-have — it must never leak sensitive data.

Mode 1: Post-Task Retrospective

When to Trigger

After any skill that completes a significant task reports success. The calling skill (or orchestrator) invokes crucible:forge in retrospective mode.

The Process

0. Capture raw execution metrics (if trajectory capture is enabled): Before dispatching the retrospective analyst, gather and hold in context:

   • Skill name that just completed
   • Start timestamp (from pipeline status "Started" field or session start)
   • End timestamp (current time)
   • Tool call count estimate (from execution summary or narration log)
   • Error recovery event count (how many times an error was encountered and retried)
   • User acceptance signal (did the user approve the output, request changes, or reject it?)
   • Phases reached (for build: design/plan/execute/review; for debugging: investigate/hypothesize/fix/verify; etc.)
   • Completion status (did the skill reach its natural end?)

   These raw metrics are NOT written to disk yet. They are held in context for step 8 (trajectory recording) after the retrospective completes, where they are merged with the retrospective's analytical output (deviation type, outcome, tags) to form the complete trajectory entry.

   If trajectory capture is disabled, skip this step.

1. Dispatch a Retrospective Analyst subagent (Sonnet) using ./retrospective-prompt.md

2. Provide: task description, the plan (if any), actual execution summary, skills used, duration estimate

3. Subagent returns structured retrospective entry

4. Write entry to ~/.claude/projects/<project-hash>/memory/forge/retrospectives/YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS-<slug>.md

5. Update patterns.md — read current file, merge new findings, rewrite

6. For debugging sessions, the retrospective also extracts diagnostic patterns using a dedicated extraction subagent (Opus). Dispatch using ./diagnostic-extraction-prompt.md. Patterns are written to cartographer's landmines via crucible:cartographer (record mode) with dead_ends and diagnostic_path fields. Tag dead-end entries with (source: debugging). 6b. For build sessions with QG fix journals: glob for ~/.claude/projects/<project-hash>/memory/quality-gate/fix-journal-*.md. For each handoff file found: a. Read landmines.md and check for existing entries matching the same module + same failed approach (same file path AND same module AND 3+ non-stopword shared terms). If matching entries exist, skip extraction — handoff was already processed. Delete the handoff file. b. If no match: dispatch the diagnostic extraction subagent (Opus) using ./diagnostic-extraction-prompt.md with the QG-specific addendum (see that file's "Source Context: Quality Gate Fix Journal" section). Tag dead-end entries with (source: qg). c. Write extracted dead ends to cartographer's landmines via crucible:cartographer (record mode). d. Delete the handoff file after successful extraction. e. Cap-pressure behavior: If landmines.md is within 10 lines of its 100-line cap, write only Fatal-severity dead ends. At cap, skip and emit a chronicle signal: { "event": "dead_end_cap_skip", "module": "<module>", "source": "qg" }.

7. For build sessions with a decision journal, the retrospective also extracts substantive design decisions. The retrospective analyst identifies decisions that are NOT operational routing (reviewer-model, gate-round, task-grouping, cleanup-removal types from the journal) but are substantive design choices (technology selection, API design, architecture, constraint trade-offs). These are passed to a cartographer recorder dispatch with the "Extract decisions for cartographer" directive, alongside the module mapping from the build session's task list and design doc.

8. Trajectory recording (if trajectory capture is enabled): a. Check ~/.claude/projects/<hash>/memory/trajectory-config.json — if missing or enabled: false, skip this step entirely. b. Construct the raw trajectory entry from execution data available in context:

   • trajectory_id: Generate a UUID
   • timestamp: ISO-8601 of when the skill invocation started
   • skill: The Crucible skill that was invoked (build, debugging, audit, etc.)
   • completed: Whether the skill ran to its natural completion
   • outcome: Derived from the retrospective's outcome field (success/partial/failure)
   • duration_ms: From pipeline status timestamps or session timing
   • tool_call_count: Estimated from execution summary
   • error_recovery_events: Count of error-then-retry sequences observed
   • user_acceptance: Whether the user accepted the output (accepted/rejected/modified/unknown)
   • phases_reached: For multi-phase skills, which phases completed
   • deviation_type: From the retrospective entry
   • prompt_hash: SHA-256 of the original user prompt
   • prompt_summary: One-line redacted summary (if include_prompt_summary is true)
   • redacted: Set to true only after step (c) completes
   • tags: From the retrospective entry's tags c. Run the redaction pass (see Redaction Rules above). d. Append the entry as a single JSON line to the appropriate file:
   • If completed == true AND outcome == "success": append to trajectory_samples.jsonl
   • Otherwise: append to failed_trajectories.jsonl e. Check file size: if the target file exceeds max_entries lines, remove the oldest entries (from the top of the file) to bring it back to max_entries. 8.5. Chronicle signal (always-on — runs regardless of trajectory capture config): a. Construct signal entry from execution data already in context:
   • v: 1 (schema version)
   • ts: ISO-8601 completion timestamp
   • skill: The Crucible skill that just completed
   • outcome: From retrospective's outcome field (success/failure/partial)
   • duration_m: Wall clock minutes from start to completion
   • branch: Current git branch
   • files_touched: Project-relative paths of files modified during the skill invocation
   • metrics: Skill-specific metrics bag (see table below) b. Compute efficiency sub-object from manifest (if enriched manifest data is available):
   1. Locate the dispatch directory from the .dispatch-active-* marker in the pipeline's scratch directory, or from the metrics log.
   2. Read manifest.jsonl from the dispatch directory.
   3. Check whether any manifest entries have input_chars populated (non-null). If none do (pre-enrichment run), skip — do NOT include the efficiency sub-object (no zeros, no nulls).
   4. If enriched entries exist, compute:
      • total_input_chars: sum of all input_chars values (skip nulls)
      • total_output_chars: sum of all output_chars values (skip nulls)
      • est_input_tokens: total_input_chars / 4 (rounded to nearest integer)
      • est_output_tokens: total_output_chars / 4 (rounded to nearest integer)
      • dispatches_by_tier: count of dispatches grouped by model_tier (e.g., {"opus": 5, "sonnet": 8, "haiku": 2}) — skip null tiers
      • est_rework_tokens: for any seq with a failed/errored entry followed by a retry, sum the retry's (input_chars + output_chars) / 4. 0 if no retries occurred.
      • rework_pct: est_rework_tokens / (est_input_tokens + est_output_tokens) * 100, rounded to 1 decimal
      • active_work_m: from existing metrics log computation (overlapping parallel intervals merged)
      • wall_clock_m: from existing duration computation
   5. Include as metrics.efficiency in the signal entry. c. Append as a single JSON line to ~/.claude/projects/<hash>/memory/chronicle/signals.jsonl d. If the file or directory doesn't exist, create it e. This step does NOT require redaction — signals contain no prompt content, task descriptions, or secrets. Only operational facts.

   Example signal (with efficiency):

   {"v":1,"ts":"2026-03-25T10:00:00Z","skill":"build","outcome":"success","duration_m":42,"branch":"feat/auth-refactor","files_touched":["src/auth/token.ts","src/auth/refresh.ts"],"metrics":{"mode":"feature","tasks":5,"tasks_passed":5,"qg_rounds":3,"review_rounds":2,"stagnation":false,"efficiency":{"total_input_chars":128400,"total_output_chars":82000,"est_input_tokens":32100,"est_output_tokens":20500,"est_rework_tokens":4200,"rework_pct":8.0,"dispatches_by_tier":{"opus":5,"sonnet":8,"haiku":2},"active_work_m":28,"wall_clock_m":42}}}
   

   Example signal (without efficiency — pre-enrichment or no manifest data):

   {"v":1,"ts":"2026-03-25T10:00:00Z","skill":"build","outcome":"success","duration_m":42,"branch":"feat/auth-refactor","files_touched":["src/auth/token.ts","src/auth/refresh.ts"],"metrics":{"mode":"feature","tasks":5,"tasks_passed":5,"qg_rounds":3,"review_rounds":2,"stagnation":false}}
   

   Metrics bag by skill:

   Skill	Metrics
   build	mode, tasks, tasks_passed, qg_rounds, review_rounds, stagnation
   debugging	hypotheses, root_cause_category, where_else_hits
   quality-gate	artifact_type, rounds, fatals_found, stagnation
   design	questions_investigated, auto_resolved
   planning	task_count, review_rounds
   audit	findings_count, lenses_dispatched
   code-review	rounds, findings_by_severity
   TDD	cycles, red_green_refactor_count
   all skills	efficiency (optional sub-object, present only when enriched manifest data exists)

   Signal scope rule: Emit one signal per top-level skill invocation, not per sub-skill dispatch. When build calls quality-gate internally, quality-gate does NOT emit its own signal — its metrics are captured in build's metrics bag. Standalone invocations of quality-gate, code-review, etc. DO emit signals.

   This is self-enforcing: forge retrospective only runs at the end of a top-level skill invocation, so Step 8.5 naturally fires once per top-level skill. Sub-skills called within build do not trigger their own forge retrospective.

9. Skill extraction check (all sessions): Evaluate the just-produced retrospective entry against the following trigger heuristics. If ANY trigger fires, dispatch a Skill Extraction Analyst subagent (Sonnet) using ./extraction-analyst-prompt.md.

   Trigger heuristics (ANY fires = dispatch analyst):

   • Complexity: Execution summary references 5+ distinct tool calls or subagent dispatches in a non-trivial sequence (sequential steps with dependencies, not parallel reads of unrelated files)
   • Error recovery: "What Went Wrong" describes errors that were overcome AND "What Worked" credits a specific approach for the recovery
   • User correction: Execution summary notes user redirection that led to a successful outcome different from the original approach
   • Novel workflow: "What Worked" describes a pattern not present in any existing skill's SKILL.md description frontmatter (check skill names and descriptions against the pattern)
   • Recurrence: The positive pattern in "What Worked" matches an existing entry in patterns.md "Skill-Worthy Patterns" with count >= 2, AND no proposal has been generated for it yet

   Dispatch input: retrospective entry, execution summary, existing skill names/descriptions, existing proposals in skill-proposals/ and mutation-proposals/.

   Handle output:

   • "No proposal warranted" -> Record pattern name in patterns.md Skill-Worthy Patterns section (increment count or add new entry)
   • NEW SKILL proposal -> Write to skill-proposals/YYYY-MM-DD-.md, update patterns.md entry with status: proposed
   • EXTEND EXISTING proposal -> Write to mutation-proposals/YYYY-MM-DD-.md with source: extraction tag, update patterns.md entry with status: proposed

   This step is RECOMMENDED, not REQUIRED. Failure does not break the retrospective. If the analyst cannot determine skill-worthiness, record the pattern and move on.

Update Rules for patterns.md

1. Read the current patterns.md (create if first retrospective)
2. Increment counts based on new retrospective
3. Recalculate percentages and trends
4. Add new warnings only if a pattern appears 2+ times (single occurrences stay in individual files only)
5. Prune warnings that have not occurred in the last 10 retrospectives (pattern may be resolved)
6. Keep total file under 200 lines — compress or remove stale entries
7. Write the updated file
8. Update the "Skill-Worthy Patterns" section:
   • If the retrospective's "What Worked" section describes a reusable pattern, add or increment it
   • Each entry: pattern name, occurrence count, last-seen date, proposal status (none|proposed|accepted|rejected)
   • Maximum 10 entries, 2 lines each
   • Prune patterns not seen in last 10 retrospectives (same rule as warnings)
   • Mark patterns as "resolved" (compress to single line) when their proposal has been accepted or rejected

After Writing

If total retrospective count >= 10 AND any deviation type has 3+ occurrences, suggest to user:

"Forge has accumulated enough data for skill improvement proposals. Would you like to run mutation analysis?"

If a skill extraction proposal was generated in step 9, notify the user:

"Forge detected a skill-worthy workflow: [proposed skill name or extension target]. Proposal written to [path]. When you're ready, you can use skill-creator with this proposal as a starting point."

Do NOT prompt for immediate action. The notification is informational. The user decides when (or whether) to act on it.

Trajectory Recording Without Retrospective

Forge retrospective is RECOMMENDED but not REQUIRED. When a significant skill completes but no retrospective is triggered (user declines, session ending, quick task), trajectory data would be lost.

To handle this, any skill that completes a significant task SHOULD write a minimal trajectory entry if:

• Trajectory capture is enabled
• No forge retrospective is expected to run in this session

The minimal entry uses deviation_type: "unknown", tags: [], and outcome based on the completion signal alone (success if the skill reported success, failure if it reported failure, partial otherwise). The entry still goes through the full redaction pass.

This ensures trajectory data is captured even when forge does not run, at the cost of less-rich analytical fields. The skill-creator's eval generation pipeline handles entries with deviation_type: "unknown" by clustering on execution metrics alone.

Similarly, any skill that completes a significant task SHOULD append a minimal chronicle signal if no forge retrospective is expected to run. The minimal signal uses outcome from the skill's own completion status, files_touched from git diff --name-only, and whatever metrics are available in context. Chronicle signals require no redaction (they contain no prompt content), so the fallback path is simpler than trajectory fallback. This ensures chronicle data is captured even when forge does not run.

---

Mode 2: Pre-Task Feed-Forward

When to Trigger

Before crucible:design, crucible:planning, or crucible:build begins its core work.

The Process

1. Check if ~/.claude/projects/<project-hash>/memory/forge/patterns.md exists
2. Cold start (no file): Report "No prior retrospective data for this project. Proceeding without feed-forward." Return immediately. No subagent needed.
3. Data exists: Read patterns.md (under 200 lines — safe for context) 3.5. Chronicle context (always-on): a. Check if ~/.claude/projects/<hash>/memory/chronicle/signals.jsonl exists b. If not found: skip (cold start — no chronicle data yet) c. If found: compare signals.jsonl mtime with chronicle/summary.md mtime - If summary.md doesn't exist OR signals.jsonl is newer: regenerate summary.md - Regeneration: Read all signals from signals.jsonl, compute: - Hotspots: Group files_touched by cartographer module (if module maps exist in memory/cartographer/modules/) or by directory prefix. A module qualifies as a hotspot when it has 3+ signals with friction indicators (stagnation=true, metrics.qg_rounds>2, skill="debugging", or outcome="failure"/"stagnation"). Show top 5 hotspots sorted by signal count. - Skill Performance: Aggregate runs, avg duration, avg QG rounds, stagnation rate, success rate per skill. Cap at 8 rows. - Trends: Compare last 10 signals vs prior 10 for key metrics. - Recent Friction: Last 5 signals with friction indicators. - Hard cap at 100 lines — drop Trends and Recent Friction sections first if needed. - Write regenerated summary to chronicle/summary.md d. Load chronicle/summary.md into context alongside patterns.md e. Pass both to the Feed-Forward Advisor in Step 4 3.7. Dead-end context (if cartographer data exists): a. Check if ~/.claude/projects/<project-hash>/memory/cartographer/landmines.md exists b. If not found: skip (no dead-end data yet) c. If found: identify the upcoming task's target file paths from the task description. Resolve each to a cartographer module via Path: prefix matching (same logic as Cartographer Mode 3 Load step 7). Scan landmines.md for entries with file paths resolving to the same modules. d. If 0 matching entries: skip e. If 1+ matching entries: extract the matching entries (both source: qg and source: debugging). Pass to the Feed-Forward Advisor in Step 4 under the "Dead-End Context" section. Note: Forge scans landmines.md directly rather than routing through Cartographer Mode 3 Load to avoid coupling — feed-forward works even when no Cartographer consult runs in the current session.
4. Dispatch a Feed-Forward Advisor subagent (Sonnet) using ./feed-forward-prompt.md 4b. Trajectory context (if trajectory capture is enabled): Also read ~/.claude/projects/<hash>/memory/trajectories/failed_trajectories.jsonl and extract the 5 most recent failure entries for the upcoming skill type. Pass these to the Feed-Forward Advisor alongside patterns.md. The advisor can surface trajectory-specific warnings like:
   • "Last 3 build invocations failed at the execute phase with error recovery"
   • "Debugging tasks on this project have a 40% failure rate — consider more investigation before committing to a fix" If no trajectory data exists, skip this addition.
5. Provide: the patterns file content, chronicle summary (if available from Step 3.5), AND a brief description of the upcoming task
6. Subagent returns 3-5 targeted warnings/adjustments relevant to THIS task
7. Surface warnings to the calling skill's orchestrator as bias adjustments (not hard blockers)

Cold Start Lifecycle

• First task: No feed-forward (no data). Retrospective runs after completion. This produces data.
• Second task: Feed-forward has 1 data point. Advisor notes "limited data" but still surfaces any relevant warning.
• After 3+ tasks: Chronicle hotspots start to form. Summary becomes useful.
• After 5+ tasks: Feed-forward becomes meaningfully useful.
• After 10+ tasks: Mutation proposals become available. Chronicle trends become meaningful.

---

Mode 3: Skill Mutation Proposals

When to Trigger

When patterns.md shows 10+ total retrospectives AND recurring patterns (3+ occurrences of same deviation type). Can also be invoked manually.

The Process

1. Read patterns.md and ALL individual retrospective files in retrospectives/
2. Dispatch a Mutation Analyst subagent (Opus) using ./mutation-proposal-prompt.md
3. Provide: the full patterns file, all retrospective entries, and a list of current skill names
4. Subagent analyzes patterns and proposes concrete skill edits
5. Write proposals to ~/.claude/projects/<project-hash>/memory/forge/mutation-proposals/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>.md
6. Surface proposals to the user — NEVER auto-modify skills

The Iron Law of Mutations

NEVER AUTO-MODIFY SKILLS. PROPOSALS ONLY.

The Forge produces proposals for human review. It does not edit skill files. It does not dispatch subagents to edit skill files. It does not suggest "just making this small change." Every mutation requires explicit human approval.

---

Integration

Skills That Should Call Forge

Calling Skill	Mode	When	What to Pass
crucible:build	Feed-Forward	Phase 1 start	Feature description
crucible:build	Retrospective	Phase 4, after red-team, before finishing	Full build summary
crucible:debugging	Retrospective	After fix verified	Bug description + hypothesis log
crucible:debugging	Retrospective (diagnostic extraction)	After fix verified	Session artifacts → cartographer landmines with dead_ends + diagnostic_path
crucible:finish	Retrospective	After Step 3, before Step 4	Branch summary + review findings
crucible:design	Feed-Forward	Before first question	Topic description
crucible:build	Retrospective (decision extraction)	After fix verified	Decision journal + task list → cartographer decisions via recorder
Any skill	Trajectory Record	After retrospective step 7	Execution data + retrospective output (opt-in only)
Any skill	Chronicle Signal	After retrospective step 8	Execution metrics (always-on)

Forge is RECOMMENDED, not REQUIRED. It is a learning accelerator, not a quality gate. Skipping it does not produce broken output — it misses an opportunity to learn.

Skill extraction is an internal step within Mode 1 (Retrospective). It does not require any calling skill to pass additional data -- the retrospective entry itself provides the input. The extraction analyst may read existing skill descriptions from the skill directories to check for overlap.

Quick Reference

Mode	Trigger	Model	Template	Output
Retrospective	Task completes	Sonnet	retrospective-prompt.md	Entry file + patterns.md update
Feed-Forward	Task begins	Sonnet	feed-forward-prompt.md	3-5 targeted warnings
Mutation	10+ retros + manual	Opus	mutation-proposal-prompt.md	Proposal doc for human review

Red Flags

Never:

• Skip retrospective because "task was simple"
• Let patterns.md exceed 200 lines
• Auto-modify any skill file
• Load individual retrospective files into feed-forward (context bloat)
• Run mutation analysis with fewer than 10 retrospectives
• Treat feed-forward warnings as hard blockers (they are advisories)
• Auto-create skills from extraction proposals (Iron Law applies to extraction too)
• Dispatch skill-creator from within the forge pipeline
• Generate skill proposals for trivial workflows (single-step, domain-specific)
• Propose a new skill when an existing skill already covers the workflow
• Store raw user prompts in trajectory files — only store prompt hashes and redacted summaries
• Write a trajectory entry without completing the redaction pass
• Auto-enable trajectory capture — it must be explicitly opted into via config file
• Include prompt content or task descriptions in chronicle signals — signals are operational metrics only

Always:

• Run retrospective after significant tasks
• Check for patterns.md before design/planning
• Write mutation proposals to disk for human review
• Handle cold start gracefully (no data = no feed-forward, just say so)
• Check existing skill descriptions before flagging a workflow as "novel"
• Include confidence level on every extraction proposal
• Write proposals to disk before notifying the user
• Check trajectory-config.json before any trajectory operation
• Run the full redaction pass before writing any trajectory entry
• Set redacted: true only after the redaction pass completes
• Append a chronicle signal after every significant task retrospective (Step 8.5)

Rationalization Prevention

Excuse	Reality
"Task was too simple for a retrospective"	Simple tasks reveal patterns too. 2 minutes max.
"No time for retrospective"	Retrospective prevents the NEXT task from repeating the mistake.
"Feed-forward data is stale"	Prune mechanism handles staleness. Read it anyway.
"Mutation proposal is obviously correct, just apply it"	Iron Law: proposals only. Humans decide.
"Only one data point, feed-forward is useless"	Even one warning is better than none. Report limited data.
"I'll run the retrospective later"	Later never comes. Run it now, while context is fresh.
"I already know what went wrong"	Knowing is not recording. Write it down so FUTURE sessions know too.
"This workflow is obviously worth a skill, just create it"	Iron Law: proposals only. Humans decide. Even the best-looking workflow may be a one-off.
"Every session has a skill-worthy pattern"	If >30% of retrospectives trigger proposals, the heuristics are too loose. Tighten them.
"The proposal is low-confidence, not worth writing"	Low-confidence proposals are seeds. They become medium when they recur. Write them down.
"Trajectory data is too noisy to be useful"	Even noisy data reveals patterns at scale. 10 failed trajectories with the same deviation type IS a signal.
"I'll enable trajectory capture later"	Later means no data for the current project. Enable it now if you want eval generation from real usage.
"The redaction pass is too conservative"	Conservative redaction protects the user. A missed eval scenario is cheaper than a leaked secret.
"This task is too small to record"	Small tasks reveal patterns too. The trajectory entry is one JSON line — the cost is negligible.

Common Mistakes

Bloating patterns.md

• Problem: patterns.md grows past 200 lines, consuming context budget
• Fix: Prune patterns not seen in last 10 retros. Compress entries. Merge similar warnings.

Skipping feed-forward on cold start

• Problem: Announcing "no data" without checking the file path
• Fix: Always check the file path. If missing, say so and proceed. If exists with 1 entry, use it.

Treating warnings as requirements

• Problem: Feed-forward says "watch for over-engineering" and agent refuses to build anything
• Fix: Warnings are bias adjustments, not hard constraints. Note them and proceed.

Running mutation analysis too early

• Problem: 3 retrospectives, agent proposes sweeping skill changes
• Fix: Minimum 10 retrospectives. Below that, patterns are noise.

Proposing skills for domain-specific workflows

• Problem: Agent proposes a skill for "deploying to our specific Kubernetes cluster" -- a workflow only useful for this one project
• Fix: The extraction analyst must assess generalizability. Workflows that reference project-specific infrastructure, APIs, or conventions are positive patterns, not skill candidates.

Ignoring extraction proposals

• Problem: Proposals accumulate in skill-proposals/ and are never reviewed
• Fix: During feed-forward, the advisor can surface pending proposals as a reminder: "N skill proposals awaiting review." Users should periodically review and accept/reject.

Duplicate proposals from extraction and mutation

• Problem: Mode 3 mutation analysis recommends a new skill that extraction already proposed
• Fix: Mutation analyst cross-references skill-proposals/ before recommending new skills. If a proposal exists, add evidence to it.

Prompt Templates

• ./retrospective-prompt.md — Post-task retrospective analyst dispatch
• ./feed-forward-prompt.md — Pre-task feed-forward advisor dispatch
• ./mutation-proposal-prompt.md — Skill mutation analyst dispatch
• ./diagnostic-extraction-prompt.md — Debugging session diagnostic pattern extraction dispatch
• ./extraction-analyst-prompt.md -- Skill-worthy workflow detection and proposal generation dispatch