retrospect

/retrospect — Release retrospective with validation enforcement (cowork variant)

Run a structured retrospective on a shipped commit range (or single commit, release, deployment, PR, or current session). Produces a 10-section markdown report with per-fix verdicts, validation status, action recommendations, and re-diagnosis when fixes failed. Writes findings to <knowledge_folder>/logs/retrospect/ and runs aria's standard intake.

Cowork variant of aria-knowledge's /retrospect. Output schema (10-section report shape, frontmatter, logs/retrospect/ destination) byte-identical per #19i + #19j. Three input-discovery divergences (per #19c + #19e + #19f):

• Git-bound scopes use user-paste fallback instead of shelling git (#19c). aria-knowledge runs git log, git diff, gh pr view, etc. directly for commit / range / pr / deployment scopes. Cowork has no shell access — these scopes prompt the user to paste git output at scope-start (e.g., "Paste git log --oneline <range> output", "Paste gh pr view <num> output"). Once data is in conversation context, the downstream analysis is identical to aria-knowledge. Session and decision scopes work unmodified — they don't require git.
• Step 0.5 ledger uses in-memory dedup if /tmp/ is not writable (#19e + cross-ref to #18d). Same shape as /aria-cowork:prospect Step 0.5 substep 7 — opportunistic /tmp/aria-active-* check + in-skill in-memory fallback.
• Step 11 Tracked artifacts surfacing (CODEMAP/STITCH) SKIPPED per ADR-005 + #19f. Same shape as /aria-cowork:prospect Step 11 skip — cowork excludes /codemap + /stitch, retrospective verdict doesn't depend on codebase-structure validation.

Per-fix validation enforcement (#19g), Evidence-Sourcing Pass at Step 3.5 (#19h), failure-mode pattern library reads/writes to shared rules/retrospect-patterns.md + project-tier projects/aria/retrospect-patterns.md (#19k) port byte-faithfully. Cross-plugin output coordination per #19n: cowork's /retrospect writes to the same logs/retrospect/ directory as aria-knowledge's. Filename collisions handled via timestamp slug. Both plugins reading the same dir produces unified retrospective history.

Source spec: aria-knowledge's docs/specs/2026-05-03-retrospect-skill-design.md (cross-plugin shared spec).

Runtime Gate (per ADR-094)

Canonical resolution: This is the Claude Cowork variant — namespaced-only. When both plugin-claude-code and plugin-claude-cowork are loaded in the same session (most common in Claude Desktop), bare /retrospect resolves to aria-knowledge's variant — Code is the canonical owner of all 24 dual-port skills per ADR-094 §Part 1. To reach this skill, use the namespaced form: /aria-cowork:retrospect. Do NOT match bare /retrospect — that belongs to aria-knowledge.

Before Step 0: Check whether the Bash tool is available in this session. If Bash IS available (you are running in Claude Code or another runtime with shell access), surface the following notification and wait for explicit user confirmation:

⚠️ Runtime mismatch — you invoked aria-cowork's /retrospect from a runtime with shell access.

This variant uses user-paste fallback for git output (Cowork has no shell access). For the Code-native variant (runs git log / git diff / gh pr view directly via Bash), use /retrospect (the aria-knowledge canonical).

Use /retrospect instead? (y / n)

Wait for an explicit reply:

• y / yes — Use the Skill tool to invoke retrospect (the bare-slash canonical, which routes to aria-knowledge when both ports are loaded) with the same arguments the user provided to this invocation. Do not proceed with this skill's steps; the aria-knowledge variant takes over and runs to completion. This is the default-yes path — auto-redirect is the helpful action.
• n / no — Proceed with this (aria-cowork) variant anyway despite the runtime mismatch. The user has explicitly opted in.
• No response / any other reply — Treat as "do not proceed" and exit cleanly without running either variant.

This gate applies even when mode = auto per ADR-094 §Part 3. Auto mode's "implicit-yes on all gates" rule is suspended for the runtime-mismatch check — auto trusts that the user invoked the correct variant, and this gate enforces that precondition. All other auto-mode gates remain bypassed. The friction cost is now low: on y, the auto-redirect runs the correct variant with the original args.

If Bash is NOT available (normal Cowork runtime), proceed to Step 0.

When to use

• After a release ships and the bug is partially or fully unresolved
• When the user reports a regression and a recent change set could be the cause
• Before proposing another fix to a bug that's already been "fixed" once
• As a soft-suggested response to user pushback ("review what you did," "are these changes necessary")

Step 0: Inputs & Mode Detection

Parse the invocation arguments. The first positional argument is the scope keyword; subsequent positional arguments are scope-specific. Seven scopes plus a no-args default:

| Scope | Trigger | Backward-compat flag (still accepted) | Bundle source | |---|---|---|---| | (no args) | /retrospect | — | Auto-range: last push on current branch — git log @{push}..HEAD if upstream is set, else git log -10 and ask user to confirm range | | commit | /retrospect commit <hash> | --commit <hash> | Single commit | | range | /retrospect range <ref1>..<ref2> | --range <ref1>..<ref2> | git log <ref1>..<ref2> | | pr | /retrospect pr <num> | --pr <num> | gh pr view <num> --json commits then resolve to commit SHAs | | session | /retrospect session | --session | Files Claude has touched in the current conversation (read from session state, not git). No deploy yet — all fixes auto-tag 🚫 unvalidatable. | | release (NEW) | /retrospect release | (none) | Commits since the most recent semver tag. git describe --tags --abbrev=0 to find the tag, then git log <tag>..HEAD. If no tags exist on the repo, fall back to auto-range and warn the user. | | deployment (NEW) | /retrospect deployment | (none) | Commits since the last deployment marker — see "Deployment detection cascade" below. |

Argument parsing rules:

• If the first positional arg matches a scope keyword (case-insensitive), use it. Otherwise treat it as auto-range and try to parse the args under the legacy flag form.
• Backward-compat flag forms (--range, --pr, --session, --commit) remain accepted indefinitely. Both /retrospect range a..b and /retrospect --range a..b resolve identically.
• Modifier flags (apply to any scope): --linear-post (post the retrospective verdict to detected Linear tickets at end), --no-source (skip Step 3.5's Evidence-Sourcing Pass), --lens=overbuild (run the over-build review pass — see "Over-build lens" section; opt-in, off by default).

Cowork scope-handling per #19c (user-paste fallback for git-bound scopes):

| Scope | Cowork behavior | |---|---| | session | Native. Uses files Claude has touched in the current conversation — no git needed. | | decision | Native (cowork-relevant scope). Reviews decisions surfaced in the current conversation — no git needed. | | commit / range / pr / release / deployment / (no args = auto-range) | User-paste fallback. Cowork has no shell access to run git log, git diff, gh pr view, gh release view, etc. At scope-start, prompt the user to paste the equivalent output. Example prompts: "Paste the output of git log --oneline <range> (or just the commit subjects, one per line):", "Paste gh pr view <num> JSON or human-readable output:". Accept whatever shape the user provides and parse the commit SHAs / subjects / file lists from there. Once data is in conversation context, downstream Step 1+ analysis is IDENTICAL to aria-knowledge — same anchor