find-related-work

Find Related Work Skill

You have the ability to search the journal for past work related to the current task.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill proactively when:

1. Facing similar problems

   • Current task resembles past work
   • User asks to implement something you may have done before
   • Pattern recognition suggests related history

2. Making technical decisions

   • Architecture choices similar to past decisions
   • Technology selection (libraries, frameworks)
   • Design patterns or approaches

3. Troubleshooting issues

   • Bug seems familiar
   • Similar error messages or symptoms
   • Related to previously fixed issues

4. Building on past work

   • Extending existing features
   • Integrating with previous implementations
   • Following established patterns

5. User explicitly asks

   • "Have we done something like this before?"
   • "When did we implement X?"
   • "How did we solve Y last time?"
   • "Find anything about Z"

How to Find Related Work

Method 1: Keyword search

journal_search(
  query="authentication",  # Technology, concept, or feature
  limit=10
)

Method 2: Time-based search

journal_time_query(
  time_expression="last month",
  query="caching"  # Optional: narrow down results
)

Method 3: Project-specific search

journal_search(
  query="database migration",
  project="my-api"  # Focus on specific project
)

Method 4: Project history

journal_list_recent(
  project="mobile-app",
  limit=20  # Get comprehensive project context
)

Search Strategies

Broad to narrow:

1. Start with general terms ("auth", "cache")
2. Narrow if too many results ("OAuth2", "Redis cache")
3. Add project filter if needed

Technology-focused:

• Framework names: "React", "FastAPI", "PostgreSQL"
• Library names: "JWT", "Redis", "SQLAlchemy"
• Tool names: "Docker", "GitHub Actions", "pytest"

Concept-focused:

• Features: "authentication", "notifications", "file upload"
• Patterns: "caching", "rate limiting", "error handling"
• Operations: "deployment", "migration", "refactoring"