Recall Past Work

Search through previous sessions to find relevant decisions, approaches that worked, and approaches that failed. Queries two sources:

• Artifact Index - Handoffs, plans, ledgers with post-mortems (what worked/failed)

• Reasoning Files - Build attempts, test failures, commit context

When to Use

• Starting work similar to past sessions

• "What did we do last time with X?"

• Looking for patterns that worked before

• Investigating why something was done a certain way

• Debugging an issue encountered previously

Usage

Primary: Artifact Index (rich context)

uv run python scripts/core/artifact_query.py "<query>" [--outcome SUCCEEDED|FAILED] [--limit N]

This searches handoffs with post-mortems (what worked, what failed, key decisions).

Secondary: Reasoning Files (build attempts)

bash "$CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR/.claude/scripts/search-reasoning.sh" "<query>"

This searches .git/claude/commits/*/reasoning.md for build failures and fixes.

Examples

# Search for authentication-related work

uv run python scripts/core/artifact_query.py "authentication OAuth JWT"

# Find only successful approaches

uv run python scripts/core/artifact_query.py "implement agent" --outcome SUCCEEDED

# Find what failed (to avoid repeating mistakes)

uv run python scripts/core/artifact_query.py "hook implementation" --outcome FAILED

# Search build/test reasoning

bash "$CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR/.claude/scripts/search-reasoning.sh" "TypeError"

What Gets Searched

Artifact Index (handoffs, plans, ledgers):

• Task summaries and status

• What worked - Successful approaches

• What failed - Dead ends and why

• Key decisions - Choices with rationale

• Goal and constraints from ledgers

Reasoning Files (.git/claude/):

• Failed build attempts and error output

• Successful builds after failures

• Commit context and branch info

Interpreting Results

From Artifact Index:

• ✓ = SUCCEEDED outcome (pattern to follow)

• ✗ = FAILED outcome (pattern to avoid)

• ? = UNKNOWN outcome (not yet marked)

• Post-mortem sections show distilled learnings

From Reasoning:

• build_fail = approach that didn't work

• build_pass = what finally succeeded

• Multiple failures before success = non-trivial problem

Process

• Run Artifact Index query first - richer context, post-mortems

• Review relevant handoffs - check what worked/failed sections

• If needed, search reasoning - for specific build errors

• Apply learnings - follow successful patterns, avoid failed ones

No Results?

Artifact Index empty:

• Run uv run python scripts/core/artifact_index.py --all to index existing handoffs

• Create handoffs with post-mortem sections for future recall

Reasoning files empty:

• Use /commit after builds to capture reasoning

• Check if .git/claude/ directory exists