post-mortem

What this skill does

# Post-Mortem Skill

> **Purpose:** Wrap up completed work — validate it shipped correctly, extract learnings, process the knowledge backlog, activate high-value insights, and retire stale knowledge.
>
> **Runtime note:** Hook-driven closeout is runtime-dependent. Claude/OpenCode can wire Phase 2-5 maintenance through lifecycle hooks. Codex CLI v0.115.0+ supports native hooks (same behavior). For older Codex versions without hook surfaces, finish closeout with `ao codex stop`.

## Loop position

Move **7 (capture evidence + learning, then ratchet)** of the [operating loop](../../docs/architecture/operating-loop.md). Two outputs per loop turn: evidence (test names, snapshot keys, council verdicts, citation events) recorded against the bead and `.agents/ratchet/`; learnings promoted only under the [ratchet rules](../../docs/architecture/operating-loop.md#the-promotion-ratchet) — noticed once stays in the handoff, repeats twice goes to `.agents/learnings/`, changes future behavior updates a SKILL.md or template, must-never-regress becomes a gate, core doctrine promotes into PRODUCT.md/GOALS.md/docs/cdlc.md. Most observations die at handoff. That is correct.

Six phases:
1. **Council** — Did we implement it correctly?
2. **Extract** — What did we learn?
3. **Process Backlog** — Score, deduplicate, and flag stale learnings
4. **Activate** — Promote high-value learnings to MEMORY.md and constraints
5. **Retire** — Archive stale and superseded learnings
6. **Harvest** — Surface next work for the flywheel

---

## Quick Start

```bash
/post-mortem                    # wraps up recent work
/post-mortem epic-123           # wraps up specific epic
/post-mortem --quick "insight"  # quick-capture single learning (no council)
/post-mortem --scope=pr <num>   # learn from a merged/rejected PR outcome (absorbed /pr-retro)
/post-mortem --process-only     # skip council+extraction, run Phase 3-5 on backlog
/post-mortem --skip-activate    # extract + process but don't write MEMORY.md
/post-mortem --deep recent      # thorough council review
/post-mortem --mixed epic-123   # cross-vendor (Claude + Codex)
/post-mortem --skip-checkpoint-policy epic-123  # skip ratchet chain validation
```

### Codex Closeout

Codex CLI v0.115.0+ has native hooks and handles closeout automatically (no extra steps needed). For older Codex versions (hookless fallback), run these after the post-mortem workflow writes learnings and next work:

```bash
ao codex stop
ao codex status
```

`ao codex stop` uses the latest transcript or history fallback to queue/persist learnings and run close-loop maintenance without runtime hooks.

---

## Flags

| Flag | Default | Description |
|------|---------|-------------|
| `--quick "text"` | off | Quick-capture a single learning directly to `.agents/learnings/` without running a full post-mortem. Formerly handled by `/retro --quick`. |
| `--scope=pr [num]` | off | Read a merged/rejected PR outcome as the wrap-up signal instead of a closed bead/epic — mine reviewer feedback into a PR learning. Absorbed the former pr-retro skill. See [references/pr-scope.md](references/pr-scope.md). |
| `--process-only` | off | Skip council and extraction (Phase 1-2). Run Phase 3-5 on the existing backlog only. |
| `--skip-activate` | off | Extract and process learnings but do not write to MEMORY.md (skip Phase 4 promotions). |
| `--deep` | off | 3 judges (default for post-mortem) |
| `--mixed` | off | Cross-vendor (Claude + Codex) judges |
| `--explorers=N` | off | Each judge spawns N explorers before judging |
| `--debate` | off | Two-round adversarial review |
| `--skip-checkpoint-policy` | off | Skip ratchet chain validation |
| `--skip-sweep` | off | Skip pre-council deep audit sweep |

---

## Quick Mode

Read [references/quick-mode.md](references/quick-mode.md) when you need the `--quick` flag procedure (slug generation, direct learning write, confirmation).

## PR-Outcome Scope (`--scope=pr`)

Read [references/pr-scope.md](references/pr-scope.md) when invoked with `--scope=pr`. It swaps the bead/epic wrap-up signal for a PR's merge/reject/changes-requested outcome: discover the PR, analyze the outcome, mine reviewer feedback via `gh`, extract success/failure patterns, and write a dated PR learning to `.agents/learnings/`. After the PR learning lands, the standard maintenance phases (process → activate → retire → harvest) run as usual. The trigger phrases "PR retro", "learn from this PR", and the legacy pr-retro command all route here.

---

## Execution Steps

Read [references/execution-steps.md](references/execution-steps.md) when you need the full Phase 1 procedure: pre-flight checks, reference loading (Step 0.4), checkpoint-policy preflight (0.5), plan/spec loading (Steps 1-2.3), closure integrity audit (2.4), metadata verification (2.5), deep audit sweep (2.6), council invocation (Step 3), and prediction accuracy (3.5).

### Step 2.1: Load Compiled Prevention Context

Before council and retro synthesis, load compiled prevention outputs when they exist:

- `.agents/planning-rules/*.md`
- `.agents/pre-mortem-checks/*.md`

Use these compiled artifacts first, then fall back to `.agents/findings/registry.jsonl` only when compiled outputs are missing or incomplete. Carry matched finding IDs into the retro as `Applied findings` / `Known risks applied` context so post-mortem can judge whether the flywheel actually prevented rediscovery.

## Phase 2: Extract Learnings

Read [references/phase-2-extract.md](references/phase-2-extract.md) when you need the inline learning extraction procedure: gather context (EX.1), classify (EX.2), write learnings (EX.3), test pyramid gap analysis (EX.3.5), scope classification (EX.4), findings registry (EX.5-6).

Before backlog processing, normalize reusable council findings into `.agents/findings/registry.jsonl`.

Use the tracked contract in `docs/contracts/finding-registry.md`:

- persist only reusable findings that should change future planning or review behavior
- require `dedup_key`, provenance, `pattern`, `detection_question`, `checklist_item`, `applicable_when`, and `confidence`
- `applicable_when` must use the controlled vocabulary from the contract
- append or merge by `dedup_key`
- use the contract's temp-file-plus-rename atomic write rule

After the registry mutation, refresh compiled outputs immediately so the same session can benefit from the updated prevention set.
If `hooks/finding-compiler.sh` exists, run:

```bash
bash hooks/finding-compiler.sh --quiet 2>/dev/null || true
```

#### Step ACT.3: Feed Next-Work

Actionable improvements identified during processing -> append one schema v1.4
batch entry to `.agents/rpi/next-work.jsonl` using the tracked contract in
[`../../docs/contracts/next-work.schema.md`](../../docs/contracts/next-work.schema.md)
and the write procedure in
[`references/harvest-next-work.md`](references/harvest-next-work.md).
Follow the claim/finalize lifecycle documented in `references/harvest-next-work.md`.

The machine-checkable typed contract is the committed JSON Schema pair
[`../../schemas/next-work-batch.v1.schema.json`](../../schemas/next-work-batch.v1.schema.json)
(one JSONL line = one batch entry) and
[`../../schemas/next-work-item.v1.schema.json`](../../schemas/next-work-item.v1.schema.json)
(each `items[]` element). Validate written rows with
[`../../scripts/validate-next-work.sh`](../../scripts/validate-next-work.sh)
(`--strict` to reject malformed output naming the offending field; advisory by
default). The inline bash in `references/harvest-next-work.md` remains a
dependency-free fallback when the script is unavailable.

```bash
mkdir -p .agents/rpi
# Build VALID_ITEMS via the schema-validation flow in references/harvest-next-work.md
# Then append one entry per post-mortem / epic.
# If a harvested item already maps to a known proof surface, preserve it on the
# item as "proof_ref" instead of burying target IDs in free text. Example item:
# [{"title":"Verify the parity gate after proof propagat