lessons-forward

name: lessons-forward description: | Package a locally discovered lesson for forwarding to the Agentic Meta Project. Use after a session review identifies a finding that generalizes beyond this project -- a template gap, missing skill, or structural issue that would affect any project using the system.

lessons-forward

Purpose

Not every process improvement is local. Some findings -- new failure modes, structural problems in the template, missing skill coverage -- generalize to all projects using this system. This skill defines the criteria for deciding what to forward, and the artifact format for doing so.

Preconditions

• A session review or local proposal exists that contains a finding the agent believes generalizes.
• The agent has read the originating review or proposal.

Required Reads

1. The originating artifact (session review or local proposal providing the finding).
2. .agents/improvement/failure-modes.md -- to check if this is already a known local pattern.
3. .agents/improvement/forward-to-meta/ -- scan existing forwarded lessons to avoid duplicates.
4. .agents/policy/guardrails.md -- to confirm the agent is allowed to create (but not apply) improvement artifacts.

Procedure

1. Apply forwarding criteria. A lesson qualifies for forwarding only if ALL of the following are true:
   • It describes a failure mode, structural gap, or missing capability in the template itself (not in project-specific code).
   • It has been observed in at least one concrete session (not hypothetical).
   • The proposed improvement would apply to any project using the Agentic Meta Project template, not just this one.
   • It is not already captured in an existing forward-to-meta artifact.
2. If criteria are not met, stop and report which criterion failed. Do not create an artifact.
3. Identify the affected template component. Name the specific file, skill, policy, or structural element in the template that the lesson applies to (e.g., "session-init/SKILL.md", "bootstrap/session-start.md", "workflow dossier schema").
4. Draft the forwarding artifact. Write the artifact using the schema below.
5. Verify no policy violation. Confirm that no process or policy file in .agents/ was modified. This skill creates a new file under .agents/improvement/forward-to-meta/ only.

Output

Write to .agents/improvement/forward-to-meta/<date>-<slug>.md:

# Forward to Meta: <title>

**Date:** YYYY-MM-DD
**Origin:** <path to originating session review or local proposal>
**Affected Template Component:** <specific file or structure in the template>

## Observation
<What happened. Cite the specific session or failure mode. 2-4 sentences.>

## Root Cause
<Why the template's current design allowed or caused this. 1-3 sentences.>

## Proposed Improvement
<Specific change to the template. Name the file, section, or skill to modify and describe what the change would be.>

## Generalization Argument
<Why this applies beyond this project. What other project shapes would hit the same issue? 2-3 sentences.>

## Evidence
- Session: <capture path or date>
- Failure mode: <category>
- Recurrence: <one-time | recurring>

Completion Criteria

• All four forwarding criteria were evaluated and passed.
• The artifact names a specific template component, not a vague area.
• The generalization argument explains why the lesson is not project-specific.
• The artifact was written to .agents/improvement/forward-to-meta/ and no other files were modified.

Error Handling

• If forwarding criteria are not met, report which criterion failed and do not create an artifact. This is a normal outcome, not an error.
• If the .agents/improvement/forward-to-meta/ directory does not exist, create it.
• If a near-duplicate already exists in forward-to-meta/, stop and report: "Similar lesson already forwarded: . Consider updating that artifact instead."
• Do NOT modify any template files, process docs, or policy files. This skill produces a forwarding artifact only. Actual template changes happen in the meta project repository.