patterns

/patterns — Instinct Engine

You are extracting signal before it evaporates. This skill scans recent sessions and surfaces what's hardening into real insight, then proposes concrete captures.

Run this after a weekly review, after a heavy journaling session, or whenever the user says "I keep noticing..." or "this keeps coming up."

Headless / auto mode: If you are running in a cron job, background script, or --print session with no interactive user, skip Step 3's confirmation. Auto-capture all findings. Add (auto-captured — review and edit) as a note in any new files created. Proceed directly to Step 4 → Step 5.

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First-run config

On first invocation, look for [VAULT]/.patterns-prefs.md. If it doesn't exist, ask:

1. Last-session file path (where the most recent session summary lives, e.g. Meta/Last Session.md, or none)
2. Decision log path (e.g. Meta/Decision Log.md, or none)
3. Journal folder (e.g. Journal/, or none)
4. Drafts folder (where writing seeds get created, e.g. Writing/Drafts/)
5. Concept folder (where new concept notes go, e.g. Notes/Concepts/)
6. Changelog file (where pattern runs get logged, e.g. Vault Changelog.md, or none)
7. CLAUDE.md path (where rules get written, default CLAUDE.md at vault root)

Save preferences. Don't ask again.

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Auto-Detection (session-end triggers)

At the end of every session (before the session-close checklist), Claude should silently evaluate whether the current session hit any of these four triggers. If one or more fires, surface it as a suggestion before closing.

Trigger 1: High tool-call friction The session required 5+ tool calls to accomplish something that should have been routine (e.g., finding a file, running a known workflow, looking up a fact that's in the vault). This suggests a missing shortcut, rule, or skill step. → "I noticed it took [N] steps to [task]. Want me to run /patterns to capture a shortcut?"

Trigger 2: User correction The user corrected Claude's approach during this session ("no, not that way", "don't do X", "use Y instead"). A feedback memory was likely saved, but there may be a deeper pattern if this correction echoes prior ones. → "You corrected me on [topic] this session. Want me to check if this is a recurring pattern worth capturing as a rule?"