---

name: observation-capture-cycle description: 4 questions for genuine reflection before work closure. Hard gate on non-empty. recipes:

• scaffold-observations generated: 2026-01-10 last_updated: '2026-01-18T22:10:20'

---

Observation Capture

Capture observations before closing work. Invoked by /close command.

Questions

Answer these 4 questions about the work just completed:

1. What surprised you?

   • Unexpected behaviors, bugs encountered
   • Things easier or harder than anticipated
   • Assumptions that proved wrong
   • Principles revealed through the work
   • Operator insights that shifted understanding

2. What's missing?

   • Gaps in tooling, docs, or infrastructure
   • Features that would have helped
   • AgentUX friction points
   • Schema or architectural concepts not yet codified
   • Patterns that should exist but don't

3. What should we remember?

   • Learnings for future work
   • Patterns worth reusing or naming
   • Warnings for similar tasks
   • Decisions that should become ADRs
   • Principles worth adding to L3/L4

4. What drift did you notice?

   • Reality vs documented behavior
   • Code vs spec misalignment
   • Principles violated or bent
   • Patterns that have evolved past their docs

Gate

MUST provide:

• At least one substantive answer, OR
• Explicit "None observed" with brief justification

Empty responses BLOCK closure.

Output

Write answers to docs/work/active/{id}/observations.md using simplified template.