Learn

Capture a lesson as a structured knowledge entry that persists across sessions and projects.

Steps

Install Root Discovery

INSTALL_ROOT=$(bash ~/.claude/scripts/skills/find-install-root.sh)

0. Check prerequisites

Check if knowledge-db.js is available:

ls ${INSTALL_ROOT}/.claude/hooks/knowledge-db.js 2>/dev/null

If not found, fall back to writing the lesson directly to the project memory file (

lessons-learned.md

in the project memory directory). Skip steps that reference

knowledge-db.js

and instead append the structured entry to the memory file using the Edit tool.

1. Identify the lesson

If

$ARGUMENTS

is provided, use it as the lesson description. Otherwise, review what happened in the current session and ask the user what they want to capture.

Skip trivial or session-specific facts. Good candidates:

• Non-obvious bugs and their root causes
• Workarounds for tool or platform issues
• Patterns that save significant time
• Configuration gotchas that cause silent failures
• Security issues encountered

2. Classify the entry

Based on the lesson, determine:

Category (pick one):

• gotcha

  — surprising behavior, silent failure, or common mistake

• pattern

  — reusable approach or best practice

• workaround

  — temporary fix for a known issue

• config

  — configuration requirement or setting

• security

  — security-related finding

• performance

  — optimization or bottleneck insight

• convention

  — project-specific conventions, coding standards, naming patterns, or workflow preferences that should be remembered for future sessions in the same project

• reference

  — factual reference information: API endpoints, config keys, schema details, version constraints, or external service behaviors

• decision

  — architectural or design decisions with rationale; records why a particular approach was chosen over alternatives, to prevent re-debating settled questions

Tool: The primary tool, library, or platform (e.g.,

git

,

npm

,

docker

,

amplify

,

vitest

).

Tags: 2-5 free-form tags for cross-cutting concerns (e.g.,

windows

,

ci

,

hooks

,

typescript

).

Confidence:

• high

  — verified with evidence, reproduced

• medium

  — observed but not fully investigated

• low

  — hypothesis or single observation

3. Create the entry

Generate a timestamp-slug ID:

TIMESTAMP=$(date -u +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)
SLUG="<2-4 word kebab-case summary>"
ENTRY_ID="${TIMESTAMP}-${SLUG}"

Insert the entry into the knowledge database. Use

node -e

with

JSON.stringify

to build the JSON safely — never use shell HEREDOC interpolation, which can break on quotes, backslashes, or newlines in field values:

ENTRY_ID="${ENTRY_ID}" node -e "
const entry = {
  id: process.env.ENTRY_ID,
  created: new Date().toISOString(),
  author: '<agent name from session>',
  source_project: '<current project name>',
  tool: '<tool>',
  category: '<category>',
  tags: <JSON array of tags>,
  confidence: '<confidence>',
  visibility: 'local',
  verified_at: new Date().toISOString(),
  context_text: '<1-3 sentences: what situation triggers this lesson>',
  fix_text: '<concrete steps, commands, or code changes>',
  evidence_text: '<how discovered: file paths, error messages, reproduction steps>',
};
process.stdout.write(JSON.stringify(entry));
" | node ${INSTALL_ROOT}/.claude/hooks/knowledge-db.js insert -

Also capture provenance (repo, commit, branch) automatically — knowledge-db.js handles this during insert if the entry doesn't already have repo_url set.

Frame content as informational description, not imperative instructions. Write "This lesson describes..." or "When X happens, Y is the cause" rather than "Always do X" or "Never do Y." This reduces prompt injection risk when entries are shared.

4. Export for sharing (if applicable)

If the knowledge base should be shared with a team, export entries to JSONL:

node ${INSTALL_ROOT}/.claude/hooks/knowledge-db.js export ${INSTALL_ROOT}/.claude/knowledge/entries.jsonl

If

~/.claude/knowledge

is a git repo, commit and push the JSONL:

cd ${INSTALL_ROOT}/.claude/knowledge
git add entries.jsonl
git commit -m "learn: ${SLUG}"
if git remote get-url origin &>/dev/null; then
  git push origin HEAD 2>/dev/null || echo "Push failed -- will sync on next session start"
fi

If there is no remote or git repo, skip this step (entries are stored locally in SQLite).

5. Confirm

Tell the user what was captured:

Knowledge entry created:
  ID: <entry-id>
  Category: <category>
  Tool: <tool>
  Tags: <tags>
  Storage: ~/.claude/knowledge/knowledge.db

This entry will auto-inject into future sessions working with <tool>.
To share across projects, use /promote. To export for team sharing, run:
  node ~/.claude/hooks/knowledge-db.js export ~/.claude/knowledge/entries.jsonl