Journal Capture Skill

Journal Capture Skill

You have the ability to proactively capture significant work into the user's journal.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill automatically and proactively when you:

1. Complete a significant feature or task

   • Implemented new functionality
   • Fixed a complex bug
   • Refactored important code
   • Set up infrastructure or tooling

2. Make important technical decisions

   • Chose between architectural approaches
   • Selected libraries or frameworks
   • Decided on implementation strategies
   • Resolved design tradeoffs

3. Solve challenging problems

   • Debugged difficult issues
   • Overcame technical obstacles
   • Found non-obvious solutions
   • Learned something valuable

4. Make progress on projects

   • Completed a phase of work
   • Reached a milestone
   • Integrated multiple components
   • Finished testing or deployment

How to Capture

Use the journal_auto_capture MCP tool:

journal_auto_capture(
  title="Brief title of what was accomplished",
  description="The goal (what we were trying to do) and what was done"
)

The tool automatically:

• Determines the project (if in a git repo)
• Adds the "auto-capture" tag
• Generates relevant tags based on content
• Creates a structured journal entry

Examples

Example 1: Feature implementation

User: "Add authentication to the API"
[You implement OAuth2 with JWT tokens]
→ journal_auto_capture(
    title="Implemented OAuth2 authentication",
    description="User requested API authentication. Implemented OAuth2 flow with JWT tokens for secure user sessions."
  )

Example 2: Bug fix

User: "The cache is leaking memory"
[You identify and fix the leak]
→ journal_auto_capture(
    title="Fixed cache memory leak",
    description="User reported memory leak in cache. Identified and fixed by implementing automatic clearing of stale entries."
  )

Example 3: Technical decision

User: "Should we use Redis or PostgreSQL for caching?"
[Discussion leads to Redis choice]
→ journal_auto_capture(
    title="Chose Redis for caching",
    description="Evaluated Redis vs PostgreSQL for caching needs. Selected Redis due to better performance for our use case."
  )

Example 4: Infrastructure setup

User: "Set up CI/​CD pipeline"
[You configure GitHub Actions with tests and deployment]
→ journal_auto_capture(
    title="Set up GitHub Actions CI/​CD",
    description="User requested CI/​CD pipeline. Configured GitHub Actions with automated tests and deployment workflow."
  )

What NOT to Capture

Don't capture:

• Trivial changes (typo fixes, formatting)
• Failed attempts or abandoned approaches
• Purely informational exchanges
• User questions without implementation

Timing

Capture entries:

• Immediately after completing significant work
• Before moving to the next major task
• At natural breakpoints in the conversation
• When the auto-capture hook triggers (every 30 min or 3+ messages)

This ensures the journal stays current and useful for future context recovery.

Responding to Auto-Capture Hook

When you see a message from the auto-capture hook:

🕐 Journal auto-capture triggered
   N messages exchanged since last capture
   Project: <project-name>

📝 Please capture this session to the journal:
   - Summarize the goal (what we were trying to do)
   - Summarize what was accomplished
   - Use journal_auto_capture with a brief summary

⚠️  Claude: You MUST respond to this trigger, even if you decide not to capture.
   Either create a journal entry OR explain why you're not capturing.

You MUST respond to this trigger every time. Follow these steps:

1. Acknowledge the trigger - Let the user know you saw the auto-capture signal
2. Analyze the conversation - Review what happened since the last capture
3. Decide and act:
   • If significant work occurred: Call journal_auto_capture with an appropriate title and description
   • If nothing substantial happened: Explicitly explain why you're not capturing (e.g., "Only trivial Q&A since last capture, nothing substantial to record")

IMPORTANT: Never silently ignore the hook trigger. The user needs visibility into your decision-making process, even if you decide not to capture.

Benefits

Proactive capture helps:

• Rebuild context after /​clear
• Track progress across sessions
• Remember past solutions
• Build institutional knowledge
• Generate progress reports