Retrospect Domain — Domain Insights Analysis

Analyze captured sessions to extract domain learnings: what worked, decisions made, patterns emerged.

Arguments

• Domain (optional first arg): technical | research | generic (default)
• Timeframe: --last Nd | --week | --month | --from DATE --to DATE | all

When to Use

Apply this skill when the user asks about:

• What was learned in sessions ("what did I learn?", "session insights")
• Extracting domain patterns or recurring decisions from a time window
• Surfacing anti-patterns or gotchas discovered during work
• Generating a domain knowledge summary across multiple sessions

When Not to Use

• Use retrospect-collab instead when the focus is on HOW the collaboration worked, not WHAT was learned.
• Do not run this skill against zero session files; no sessions means no domain insights to extract.

Principles

• Extract, don't invent: Base every insight on actual session content. NEVER fabricate learnings not present in the session data.
• Be specific: Reference actual conversations, tools used, and decisions made. ALWAYS name the session when citing evidence.
• Detect patterns: Look for themes across multiple sessions, not isolated observations.
• Domain-appropriate: Apply the domain framework matching the session type. Consider falling back to the generic framework only when domain content is ambiguous.
• Framework flexibility: Optionally adapt analysis headings when session content does not fit the standard framework questions.

Anti-Patterns

• NEVER report a learning that is not evidenced in the session — WHY: fabricated insights give false confidence and may direct future work incorrectly
• NEVER apply the generic framework to clearly technical sessions — WHY: the Technical Domain framework surfaces six specific questions that generic analysis misses, reducing insight quality
• NEVER omit the Patterns Emerged section when reviewing more than two sessions — WHY: cross-session synthesis is the primary value-add of this skill; single-session summaries are not enough
• NEVER hardcode the output path — WHY: the .retro/insights/ location is project-configurable; use the configured path, not a hardcoded one

Steps

1. Load domain framework (if specified):

   • Check for a domain-{domain}.md file at the project-configurable domain frameworks location.
   • If missing: warn, use generic framework

   Note: The domain frameworks location is project-configurable — point it to wherever your project stores domain reference files.

2. Filter sessions:

   bash ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/retrospect-load-sessions.sh $@

   First line: PERIOD: YYYY-MM-DD_to_YYYY-MM-DD. Remaining: session paths.

   Note: CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT points to the script bundle location. The learnings output path (.retro/insights/) is project-configurable — set it to wherever your project stores retrospective outputs.

3. Read session files — extract conversation turns, tools used, git context

4. Analyze domain insights using framework:

   • What new patterns/approaches discovered?
   • What decisions were made and why?
   • What worked well / what failed?
   • What patterns recur across sessions?

5. Generate Start/Stop/Continue recommendations

6. Write insights to .retro/insights/domain/{PERIOD}.md

   # Output path example (project-configurable)
   .retro/insights/domain/2026-03-01_to_2026-03-31.md

7. Report: file path, suggest /retrospect collab or /retrospect report

Usage Examples

Run for the last 7 days with the technical domain framework:

/retrospect domain technical --last 7d

Run for the current month with no domain filter (generic):

/retrospect domain --month

Run for a custom date range with the research framework:

/retrospect domain research --from 2026-03-01 --to 2026-03-31

Run and then follow up with collaboration analysis:

/retrospect domain technical --week
/retrospect collab --week

Report Section Format

The domain report follows this structure:

# Domain Retrospective: YYYY-MM-DD to YYYY-MM-DD

## Sessions Reviewed
- [List sessions with timestamps and brief summaries]

## Domain Learnings
### What I Learned
### What Worked Well
### What Didn't Work
### Decisions Made
### Patterns Emerged

## Start/Stop/Continue
## Action Items
## Metrics Summary

Gotchas

• The session filter script outputs a PERIOD header on line one; parse it separately from session file paths.
• Domain framework files may not exist for every domain. ALWAYS warn the user and fall back to generic rather than aborting.
• Consider including a short "Sessions Reviewed" list at the top of the report so the reader knows what data was used.
• Run the session loader directly to test it: ./scripts/retrospect-load-sessions.sh --last 7d

References

• Reference — scoring rubrics, metric definitions, and report format