Scribe Skill - Knowledge Capture

This skill ensures valuable learnings are captured during development conversations.

Purpose

Prevent knowledge loss by capturing:

• Problem solutions
• Architecture decisions
• Discovered patterns
• Non-obvious gotchas
• Session summaries

When to Activate

This skill should activate when:

• User mentions "end of session" or "wrapping up"
• A significant problem has been solved
• An architecture decision has been made
• A non-obvious gotcha has been discovered
• User asks to "document" or "capture" something

Trigger Phrases

Trigger	Action
"Let's wrap up"	Suggest running /scribe
"Finally got it working"	Offer to document the solution
"We should remember this"	Offer to capture as knowledge
"That was tricky"	Ask if it should be documented
"Decided to go with X"	Offer to create decision record

Knowledge Categories

Problems & Solutions

Location: knowledge-base/problems-solutions/YYYY-MM-DD-description.md

Capture when:

• An error was debugged
• A workaround was found
• A configuration issue was resolved

Template:

# Problem: {Title}

**Date**: {YYYY-MM-DD}
**Tags**: `{tag1}`, `{tag2}`

## Symptoms
{What was observed}

## Root Cause
{Why it happened}

## Solution
{How it was fixed}

## Prevention
{How to avoid in future}

Architecture Decisions (ADRs)

Location: knowledge-base/decisions/adr-NNN-description.md

Capture when:

• Technology choice made
• Architecture pattern chosen
• Trade-off accepted

Template:

# ADR-{NNN}: {Title}

**Status**: {Proposed | Accepted | Deprecated}
**Date**: {YYYY-MM-DD}

## Context
{What prompted this decision?}

## Decision
{What was decided?}

## Consequences
### Positive
- {Benefit}

### Negative
- {Trade-off}

## Alternatives Considered
- {Alternative 1}: Rejected because {reason}

Patterns

Location: knowledge-base/patterns/pattern-description.md

Capture when:

• A reusable approach discovered
• A best practice identified
• A code pattern works well

Template:

# Pattern: {Title}

**Category**: {Category}
**Tags**: `{tag1}`, `{tag2}`

## Problem
{What problem does this solve?}

## Solution
{The pattern}

## When to Use
{Applicable situations}

## Example
{Code or implementation example}

Gotchas

Location: knowledge-base/gotchas/gotcha-description.md

Capture when:

• Something behaves unexpectedly
• Documentation was misleading
• Hidden requirement discovered

Template:

# Gotcha: {Title}

**Date**: {YYYY-MM-DD}
**Tags**: `{tag1}`, `{tag2}`

## What Happened
{The unexpected behaviour}

## Why
{Root cause or explanation}

## Workaround
{How to handle it}

Session Summaries

Location: knowledge-base/sessions/YYYY-MM-DD-session-summary.md

Capture at end of sessions:

• What was accomplished
• Blockers encountered
• Next steps

Template:

# Session Summary: {Date}

## Accomplished
- {Task 1}
- {Task 2}

## Blockers
- {Blocker 1}

## Decisions Made
- {Decision 1}

## Next Steps
1. {Next step 1}
2. {Next step 2}

Usage

Manual Invocation

/scribe

Automatic Prompts

At natural breakpoints, the assistant may gently ask:

"Should I capture that solution/decision/gotcha for future reference?"

RAG Preparation

When capturing, format for future retrieval:

• Use consistent markdown headings
• Include searchable tags
• Write self-contained entries
• Use specific, technical terms

Directory Setup

Ensure these directories exist:

knowledge-base/
├── problems-solutions/
├── decisions/
├── patterns/
├── gotchas/
└── sessions/