reflect-on-work

Reflect on Work Skill

Pattern for producing quality reflections.

When to Load This Skill

• You are completing any task
• You need to produce the mandatory reflection fields
• You want to contribute to system evolution

Required Output Fields

EVERY agent output MUST include these fields in compact JSON:

{"knowledge_updates":[{"category":"codebase","content":"What you learned","confidence":"certain"}],"reflection":{"what_worked":["string"],"what_failed":["string"],"patterns_noticed":["string"]}}

Knowledge Updates

Categories

• codebase: Discovered structure, components, data flow
• convention: Coding style, patterns, naming
• decision: Design choice and rationale
• gotcha: Pitfall, workaround, non-obvious behavior

Confidence Levels

• certain: Verified, tested, documented
• likely: Strong evidence but not verified
• uncertain: Observed but needs confirmation

Examples

{"knowledge_updates":[{"category":"convention","content":"Project uses barrel exports in each directory","confidence":"certain"},{"category":"gotcha","content":"Must call init() before using AuthService","confidence":"certain"},{"category":"codebase","content":"API routes follow /api/v1/{resource} pattern","confidence":"likely"}]}

Reflection Fields

what_worked

• Strategies that succeeded
• Tools that helped
• Approaches worth repeating

what_failed

• Strategies that didn't work
• Time wasted on wrong approaches
• Issues encountered

patterns_noticed

• Repeated sequences (skill candidates)
• Common patterns in codebase
• Workflow improvements

Example

{"reflection":{"what_worked":["Parallel explorers found context quickly","Starting with types helped structure code"],"what_failed":["Initial approach missed edge case","Spent time on wrong file before exploring"],"patterns_noticed":["Error handling always uses Result type","Tests colocated with source files"]}}

Complete Output Example

Minimal valid output with reflection:

{"task_id":"task-001","status":"pre_complete","files_modified":[],"knowledge_updates":[],"reflection":{"what_worked":[],"what_failed":[],"patterns_noticed":[]}}

Full output with content:

{"task_id":"task-001","status":"pre_complete","files_modified":[{"path":"src/auth.ts","change_type":"modified","summary":"Added login function"}],"knowledge_updates":[{"category":"convention","content":"Auth uses JWT tokens","confidence":"certain"}],"reflection":{"what_worked":["Found existing patterns quickly"],"what_failed":["Initial test approach was wrong"],"patterns_noticed":["All services use dependency injection"]}}

Principles

• Be honest - Report failures, they're valuable
• Be specific - Actionable insights, not vague
• Be brief - Concise, not exhaustive
• Use compact JSON - Single line, no formatting