kaizen

Prompt file imported from littlebearapps/untether (.claude/commands/kaizen.md). Fill in {{arguments}} before use. Copyright stays with the author.

You are handling /kaizen. Always begin your output with the literal heading ## /kaizen (the Stop-hook and future runs detect a completed capture by that marker — do not omit or reword it).

/kaizen captures process learnings — how the work went, not what the code does — as durable bullets on a single permanent GitHub collector issue. It is the cheap, high-frequency half; /kaizen-review is the weekly, human-gated promotion half.

User input: {{arguments}}

Untether adaptations (read first)

Load .claude/rules/kaizen.md (the thin capture rule) and, for the full rubric, docs/kaizen/README.md. Also .claude/rules/workflow-commands.md for the cross-cutting rules. Key points:

• Authority: read-only except ONE gh issue comment. Never edit code, .claude/rules/*, .claude/settings.json, or CLAUDE.md. Promotion to any of those is /kaizen-review's job, and even then only as a proposal.
• Self-invokes at session end (a Stop-hook nudge is proposed to Nathan for wiring, but is not required — this command runs itself). Under Untether/cron it still self-invokes; the single collector comment is the one sanctioned autonomous external write in the suite (bounded, idempotent, one comment).
• Idempotent. Re-running must not duplicate a bullet already on the collector this session. Resolve the collector by exact title with --limit 200.
• Redaction. Scrub tokens/keys/env/chat-content/fleet identifiers from every evidence ref before it lands in the comment.

What counts as a capture

A capture is a process learning with evidence, in one of these tag buckets (Untether-tuned):

[timing] [tooling] [issue-quality] [novel-pattern] [guardrail-block] [engine-quirk] [cost] [meta]

Every bullet MUST carry:

1. a tag from the list above,
2. an evidence ref — a trace, a log signature, a file:line, an issue #N, a PR #N, or an event signature (never vague "I noticed…"),
3. an S/C/R score — Severity S0–S4 / Confidence low|med|high / Recurrence ×N (see docs/kaizen/README.md for the scales).

Do NOT capture:

• anything already tracked in an open issue (link it instead, no new bullet),
• anything already encoded in a .claude/rules/* trap or docs/ policy (link it),
• product bugs — those are /fix//debug work, not process learnings,
• filler. 0 captures is a valid, common, correct outcome. Never manufacture noise to look productive.

Flow

K-1. Gather session signal (read-only)

Derive candidates from evidence, not vibes:

• git diff/git log for this session's edits (churn, reverts, scope creep).
• Guardrail blocks / tool errors encountered (a BLOCKED: from a release-guard hook, a denied permission, a failed command retried).
• Timing/tooling friction (a wrong command recipe in a doc, a slow path, a missing test fixture, an MCP catalog stale event).
• Engine quirks observed (an upstream CLI behaviour, not an Untether bug).

K-2. Filter to real captures

For each candidate, apply "What counts" above. Drop anything already in an open issue or a rule (link it in your report, but do not add a bullet). Cap at 3 bullets — pick the highest-leverage. If nothing survives, that's 0 captures.

K-3. Resolve or lazily create the collector

gh issue list --repo littlebearapps/untether --label kaizen --state open --limit 200 \
  --json number,title | jq -r '.[] | select(.title == "[kaizen] untether — process improvement log") | .number'

• Match by exact title "[kaizen] untether — process improvement log" — never a prefix match (promoted children keep a [kaizen]-ish look; they carry label kaizen-child, never kaizen).
• If not found and there is ≥1 real capture, create it (lazy — never create an empty collector):

  gh label create kaizen --repo littlebearapps/untether --color 5319e7 --description "Kaizen process-improvement collector" 2>/dev/null || true
  gh label create kaizen-child --repo littlebearapps/untether --color b19cd9 --description "Artefact promoted from a kaizen bullet" 2>/dev/null || true
  gh issue create --repo littlebearapps/untether --label kaizen \
    --title "[kaizen] untether — process improvement log" \
    --body "Permanent collector for /kaizen process learnings. Bullets appended by /kaizen; promoted/struck by /kaizen-review. Do not close."

  (Collector title/label scheme is a propose-to-Nathan item — see the plan §9.)

K-4. Draft the bullets

Each bullet, one line where possible:

- [tag] <the learning, stated as a reusable rule of thumb> — evidence: <ref> — S<0-4>/C<low|med|high>/R×<n> — <YYYY-MM-DD>

Under Untether-mode, print the drafted bullets in text (state the assumption that you'll post them). De-dupe against the collector's existing open bullets.

K-5. Post the ONE comment

gh issue comment <collector#> --repo littlebearapps/untether --body "<the bullets>"

One comment per session. In --dry-run, print the comment body and do not post. If 0 captures, post nothing and say so.

K-6. Report

Under the ## /kaizen heading, print: how many captured (0–3), the bullets (or "0 captures — nothing durable this session"), anything linked-not-captured (already-in-an-issue/rule), and the collector issue number. Keep it brief.

--help prints this sub-command summary and stops (still under the ## /kaizen heading).

End of /kaizen. Weekly promotion is /kaizen-review; policy is docs/kaizen/README.md.