retro-and-memory

Retro and memory

A session ends. The instinct is to write "everything is green, shipped X, tests pass" and move on. That sentence is worthless the moment it is challenged, because none of it is backed by something a future session can re-run. The retro loop replaces claims with probes, reconciles outside critique against what the code actually does, and writes only the durable residue into whatever notes you keep, kept deliberately small.

The core is the per-session retro: before you call a session done, probe every health claim, audit what you actually shipped, and reconcile outside critique. What survives -- and only that -- is worth writing down. Where and how you persist it is your choice; the appendix sketches one optional shape.

When to use

• Closing out a work session that produced code, decisions, or findings.
• Recording a lesson you want the next session to inherit.
• Absorbing an outside review, adversarial critique, or reviewer's list of concerns.
• Optionally, on a periodic pass that rolls recurring findings into standing themes.

When not to

• Mid-session scratch notes. Retro is a close-out ritual, not a running log.
• A one-off fact with no reuse value. Not every observation earns an entry.

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The per-session retro

1. Back every health claim with a runnable probe

No bare status claims. Each line that asserts the state of the world carries the exact command that proves it and the observed result -- so the next session re-runs the probe instead of trusting your prose.

• Bad: "Test suite passes."

• Good: "Test suite passes -- task test:unit -> 214 examples, 0 failures (run at close)."

• Bad: "The new endpoint works."

• Good: "New endpoint works -- curl -s localhost:8080/health -> {"ok":true}; drove the full create->read flow, not just the unit test."

Rules:

• A probe is a command anyone can paste, plus its observed output. "I checked" is not a probe.
• Prefer end-to-end drives over test-only evidence. A green test proves the test is green; it does not prove the feature works. Where it matters, exercise the real flow.
• If a claim has no probe, either find one or downgrade the claim to an open question. Do not ship an unbacked green.