reflection-format

reflection-format is a cursor rule for Cursor from savagelysubtle/BIG-BRAIN-Memory-Bank. It costs 579 tokens per session, scanned A, a copy of reflection-format, MIT.

A required format for reviewing completed work. It organizes the review into successes, challenges, lessons learned, and improvements for next time.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it when documenting what happened after a task, project, or coding change.
Why use it?
It prevents reflections from being vague or incomplete by specifying what to discuss and how many points to include.

Cursor rule for Cursor

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.

agentmods
npx agentmods add rules/savagelysubtle/big-brain-memory-bank/reflection-format
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/savagelysubtle/BIG-BRAIN-Memory-Bank

Made for: Cursor.

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 reflection-format

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/savagelysubtle/big-brain-memory-bank/reflection-format.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/rules/savagelysubtle/big-brain-memory-bank/reflection-format)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/rules/savagelysubtle/big-brain-memory-bank/reflection-format"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/rules/savagelysubtle/big-brain-memory-bank/reflection-format.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>
Per session 579 This file is loaded in full into every session.
When invoked 579 The same file — it is already loaded in full.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin 100% copy Near-identical to another mod 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 $0.00579 $0.00579
Opus 5 $0.00290 $0.00290
Sonnet 5 $0.00116 $0.00116
Haiku 4.5 $0.00058 $0.00058

Measured 3d ago against content hash 3186530e5564, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

reflection-format 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 3d 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.

Origin

This is a copy

100% identical to reflection-format — 0 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.

inspiration/related-implementations/Vanzan-memory-bank/.cursor/rules/Core Implementation/reflection-format.mdc · 89 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 89 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

REFLECTION FORMAT

TL;DR: Every task requires a reflection with four specific sections: What Went Well (≥3 items), Challenges (≥2 items), Lessons Learned (≥3 items), and Improvements for Next Time (≥3 items). Be specific and detailed, not generic.

📝 REFLECTION STRUCTURE

Always use this exact structure:

## REFLECTION

### What Went Well
- [Specific success 1]
- [Specific success 2]
- [Specific success 3]

### Challenges
- [Specific challenge 1]
- [Specific challenge 2]

### Lessons Learned
- [Specific lesson 1]
- [Specific lesson 2]
- [Specific lesson 3]

### Improvements for Next Time
- [Specific improvement 1]
- [Specific improvement 2]
- [Specific improvement 3]

📊 SECTION REQUIREMENTS

Each section has specific requirements:

  1. What Went Well

    • Include ≥3 specific successes
    • Focus on technical details that worked
    • Mention effective decisions
    • Use concrete examples
  2. Challenges

    • Include ≥2 specific challenges
    • Describe how each was addressed
    • Be honest about difficulties
    • Note solutions implemented
  3. Lessons Learned

    • Include ≥3 specific insights
    • Focus on technical learnings
    • Include both positive and negative
    • Note knowledge for future tasks
  4. Improvements for Next Time

    • Include ≥3 specific improvements
    • Be concrete about future approaches
    • Focus on actionable changes
    • Note process improvements

🔍 SPECIFICITY GUIDE

❌ Too Vague (Avoid)

  • "The code works well"
  • "There were some challenges"
  • "Testing could be improved"

✅ Properly Specific

  • "The modular component architecture allowed for easy unit testing"
  • "Initial performance issues with the data filtering algorithm required optimization using memoization"
  • "Implementing a more detailed technical specification phase would clarify edge cases before coding"

✓ REFLECTION CHECKPOINTS

Before completing a reflection, verify:

  • All four sections included with exact headings
  • "What Went Well" has ≥3 specific items
  • "Challenges" has ≥2 specific items
  • "Lessons Learned" has ≥3 specific items
  • "Improvements for Next Time" has ≥3 specific items
  • Content is specific and detailed
  • Sections are in the correct order

Read the full file on GitHub · 89 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. 3d ago First seen · 89 lines · 579 tokens per session scan A 3186530e5564

Subscribe to this mod's changes

reflection-format is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository savagelysubtle/BIG-BRAIN-Memory-Bank (5 stars, last pushed 1y ago), licensed MIT. It adds 579 tokens to every session, about $0.0029 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 100% identical to reflection-format, differing in 0 lines, and is treated as a copy.