annotate

/annotate — Persist a Learned Lesson

You are adding a persistent annotation to the project's learned knowledge base. Annotations survive across sessions and auto-load when working with relevant services.

Arguments: $ARGUMENTS — format: <service> <description of gotcha/caveat>

Phase 1 — Parse the Annotation

Extract from $ARGUMENTS:

• Service/Library: The specific service, library, or area (e.g., stripe, next.js, postgresql)
• Annotation text: The gotcha, caveat, or learned lesson

If $ARGUMENTS is empty or unclear, ask:

"What service/library does this apply to, and what did you discover?"

Phase 2 — Format the Entry

Format the annotation as:

- [YYYY-MM-DD] <clear, specific description of the issue> — <workaround if applicable>

Good example:

- [2026-04-07] Stripe webhook signature verification requires raw body buffer, not parsed JSON. 
  Pass rawBody to stripe.webhooks.constructEvent() instead of req.body

Bad example:

- Stripe webhooks broken  ← too vague, no date, no solution

Apply this quality check before writing:

• ✅ Specific enough to be actionable without additional research?
• ✅ Includes the date?
• ✅ Includes workaround if one exists?
• ✅ Would a new developer understand this without context?

Phase 3 — Find or Create the Section

Read .claude/memory/annotations.md.

1. Find the existing section that matches the service (case-insensitive)
2. If no matching section exists, create one:

## <Service Name>

- [YYYY-MM-DD] <your annotation>

1. If the section exists and has (no annotations yet), replace that line with the entry.
2. If the section exists with entries, append the new entry below the last one.

Phase 4 — Write and Confirm

Edit .claude/memory/annotations.md with the new entry.

Then confirm:

✅ Annotation saved to .claude/memory/annotations.md

Service: <service>
Entry: [YYYY-MM-DD] <annotation text>

This will auto-load in future sessions when working with <service>.

Annotation Quality Rules

• Never write vague entries like "be careful with X" — always explain WHY
• Always include the date (use current date: 2026-04-07)
• Always include the workaround if you found one
• Prefer short entries (1-2 lines) — link to docs if more context needed
• Mark if issue is version-specific: (affects v2.x, fixed in v3.0)
• Group related gotchas under the same service header

When Agents Should Use This Automatically

You do NOT need to wait for /annotate to be called explicitly. Proactively add annotations when you:

1. Spend more than 10 minutes debugging an unexpected API or library behavior
2. Find that official docs are wrong, incomplete, or misleading
3. Discover a version incompatibility not mentioned in release notes
4. Work around a bug with a non-obvious solution
5. Find that a library's "default" behavior causes problems in this project's setup

Pattern from Context Hub: The value compounds over time.

Each annotation means the NEXT session starts smarter — not from zero.