retrospective

Retrospective

Reflect on what happened. Identify what blocked agent autonomy. Produce concrete improvements so the system gets better.

Not tied to sprints or calendars. Run a retro when there's something worth learning from: a feature shipped, an incident resolved, a pattern of failures, a project wrapped.

Core Question

What happened that an agent couldn't handle autonomously, and what's the cheapest fix so it can next time?

Process

1. Identify the trigger
2. Gather evidence
3. Analyze through the autonomy lens
4. Capture learnings
5. Create improvement tickets
6. Append to .tap/learnings.md

1. Identify the Trigger

What event prompted this retro? Determines scope and data to analyze.

• Feature shipped → analyze the full cycle from ticket to merge
• Incident → analyze what broke, how it was detected, how it was fixed
• Agent failure pattern → analyze recent rejected PRs, rework cycles, blocked tasks
• Project wrap → analyze the full engagement
• Ad hoc → user specifies what to reflect on

2. Gather Evidence

Pull data relevant to the trigger:

git log --since="[relevant period]"           → what was committed
gh pr list --state merged --search "[scope]"  → PRs in scope
gh pr list --state closed --search "[scope]"  → rejected PRs (signal!)
gh issue list --search "[scope]"              → related issues

Also read if available:

• .tap/system-health.md → system metrics around the event
• .tap/tap-audit.md → current readiness assessment
• .tap/learnings.md → prior learnings (avoid repeating known issues)
• PR review comments → why PRs were rejected or revised
• CI logs → what failed and how often

Rejected PRs are gold. Every rejection is a gap in agent capability or context.

3. Analyze Through the Autonomy Lens

For each problem found, classify the root cause:

Context gap — agent lacked information to make the right choice

• Missing or incomplete CLAUDE.md
• Missing ADR → agent guessed wrong pattern
• Unclear acceptance criteria → agent built the wrong thing
• No prior learnings → agent repeated a known mistake

Harness gap — agent lacked tools or access to complete the task

• Missing MCP server (DB, browser, external API)
• Missing CLI tool
• Missing skill
• Insufficient permissions

Feedback gap — agent couldn't verify its own work

• No tests for the affected area
• No browser QA setup
• CI doesn't catch the type of failure that occurred

Design gap — the code itself was too complex to modify safely

• God file / high coupling → agent change broke unrelated behavior (change amplification)
• Inconsistent patterns → agent followed one pattern, should have followed another
• Pass-through layers → agent modified the wrong layer
• No clear module boundaries → agent couldn't isolate the change

Scope gap — agent took on work it shouldn't have

• No AGENTS.md boundaries
• Task was too ambiguous for autonomous execution
• Architecture decision needed human judgment

4. Capture Learnings

For each finding, write a concise learning:

[date] — [trigger]
- [what happened] → [root cause category] → [specific fix]

Good learnings are specific and actionable:

• "Agent used raw SQL instead of Drizzle → context gap → add data access pattern to CLAUDE.md"
• "Agent couldn't test payment flow → harness gap → configure Stripe test MCP"
• "Agent PR touched auth middleware without tests → feedback gap → add auth integration tests"

Bad learnings are vague:

• "Agent needs to be more careful" (not actionable)
• "We should write better tests" (not specific)
• "Communication needs improvement" (not a system fix)

5. Create Improvement Tickets

Each learning that requires work becomes a ticket. Categorize by impact on agent autonomy:

Raises readiness score (MINIMAL→PARTIAL or PARTIAL→FULL):

• Add missing MCP server
• Add missing test infrastructure
• Write AGENTS.md
• Document key ADRs

Prevents repeat failures:

• Update CLAUDE.md with discovered pattern
• Add tests for uncovered area
• Capture decision in .tap/architecture.md

Reduces design complexity:

• Split god file into focused modules
• Collapse pass-through layers
• Standardize inconsistent patterns
• Extract shared code to reduce coupling

Human mode: Present findings. Propose tickets. Ask: "Which of these should we create issues for?"

Agent mode: Create issues via gh issue create with label retro-improvement. Human reviews and prioritizes.

6. Write to .tap/learnings.md

Append (never overwrite) to .tap/learnings.md. Create the file and .tap/ directory if they don't exist.

Use the template in references/learnings-template.md.

Agents read .tap/learnings.md before starting work. Captured learnings prevent the same mistakes from repeating across sessions.

Boundaries

• Does NOT edit CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md (creates tickets suggesting updates — human decides)
• Does NOT edit .tap/architecture.md (creates tickets — human decides on ADRs)
• Does NOT assign blame or assess team performance
• Does NOT follow a calendar — runs when there's something to learn from
• ONLY analyzes events, captures learnings, creates improvement tickets
• Goal is always: increase agent autonomy for next time