retro

retro is a command for Claude Code from ZIB-IOL/The-Agentic-Researcher. It costs 10 tokens per session (1,527 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A command for reviewing a research session and recording suggestions for improving future sessions.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it after research work to inspect what happened, review unfinished items, and add retrospective suggestions to the project’s revision notes.
Why use it?
It gathers the session’s instructions, experiment notes, open tasks, and recent changes so improvement ideas are based on the project’s actual record.

Command for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: argument-hint in frontmatter. Also seen: mentions CLAUDE.md; mentions AGENTS.md; mentions Gemini CLI.

Good fit Use it after research work to inspect what happened, review unfinished items, and add retrospective suggestions to the project’s revision notes.

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Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add commands/zib-iol/the-agentic-researcher/retro
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ZIB-IOL/The-Agentic-Researcher

Made for: Claude Code.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for retro

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/commands/zib-iol/the-agentic-researcher/retro/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/commands/zib-iol/the-agentic-researcher/retro)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/commands/zib-iol/the-agentic-researcher/retro"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/commands/zib-iol/the-agentic-researcher/retro/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for retro

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/commands/zib-iol/the-agentic-researcher/retro"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/commands/zib-iol/the-agentic-researcher/retro.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 10 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 1,527 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00010 $0.01527
Opus 5 $0.00005 $0.00763
Sonnet 5 $0.00002 $0.00305
Haiku 4.5 $0.00001 $0.00153

Measured 10d ago against content hash 8c24a4f02c61, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-09, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

retro scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 10d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

commands/retro.md · 150 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 150 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

You are reflecting on the current research session to identify improvements for the agent's base instructions. This is a retrospective -- not about what went wrong, but about what can be made better for future research sessions.

User feedback (may be empty): $ARGUMENTS

Step 1: Gather Context

Detect which instruction file exists in the workspace:

  • Check for: CLAUDE.md, GEMINI.md, AGENTS.md (in that order)
  • Use the first one found as $INSTRUCTION_FILE

Read the following files (skip any that don't exist):

  1. /workspace/REVISION.md -- previous retrospective entries (if any)
  2. /workspace/report.tex -- experiment log, results, analysis quality
  3. /workspace/TODO.md -- open items, deferred work
  4. /workspace/$INSTRUCTION_FILE -- the instructions governing this session (especially Section 8: Project Instructions)
  5. Run git log --oneline -30 -- see the commit history (style, frequency, quality)
  6. Run git diff --stat HEAD~5..HEAD 2>/dev/null || true -- recent change patterns

Backward compatibility: If /workspace/research_instructions.md exists (older format), read it as supplementary context for the original research goal.

Step 2: Commandment Compliance

Review compliance with each of the 10 Commandments (Section 1 of the instruction file). For each, assess: followed, partially followed, or violated, with evidence.

# Commandment Status Evidence
I Never break a promise ? Did the agent follow through on stated intentions?
II Never manipulate evaluation ? Were metrics/test sets/constraints kept unchanged?
III Never fabricate citations ? Were bibliography entries verified?
IV Complete all autonomous work ? Were tasks left incomplete? Did the agent wait unnecessarily?
V Make it work before moving on ? Were methods discarded due to implementation bugs?
VI One variable per experiment ? Were experiments properly isolated?
VII Evaluate in tiers ? Was the three-tier strategy followed?
VIII Bound your expectations ? Were theoretical bounds established before heuristics?
IX Record everything ? Are results tables present? Are failures documented?
X Verify before claiming ? Were verification scripts created for non-trivial math?

Read the full file on GitHub · 150 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 10d ago First seen · 150 lines · 10 tokens per session scan A 8c24a4f02c61

Subscribe to this mod's changes

retro is a command published in the GitHub repository ZIB-IOL/The-Agentic-Researcher (95 stars, last pushed 2mo ago), licensed MIT. It adds 10 tokens to every session and 1,527 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.