Journal recall

/journal-recall Workflow

Inputs

User provides:

• Natural language query describing what to find (date, keyword, topic, project, etc.)
• Optional: date range, entry type filter, project name

Scope parameters:

• JOURNAL_BASE: ~/journal/ (hardcoded, matches /journal skill)
• Entry types: daily, meetings, projects, learnings, decisions
• Search modes: date lookup, date range, keyword search, topic search, project filter, weekly review

Step 0 — Classify Intent

Action: Determine what type of retrieval the user wants.

Intent classification:

1. Specific date lookup: User mentions a date ("yesterday", "Feb 23", "2026-02-22", "last Tuesday")
2. Date range: User mentions a span ("this week", "last month", "between X and Y")
3. Keyword search: User provides search terms ("worktree isolation", "Docker socket")
4. Topic/project: User asks about a specific topic or project ("what did I do on claude-devkit?")
5. Meeting lookup: User asks about meetings ("what meetings did I have?", "standup notes")
6. Weekly review: User asks for a summary ("summarize this week", "weekly review", "what happened this week")
7. Project status: User asks about a project's current state ("what's the status of X?", "where am I on X?")

Disambiguation:

• If intent unclear, default to keyword search across all entries
• For time-based queries, resolve relative dates ("yesterday" = YYYY-MM-DD, "this week" = past 7 days)

Tool declarations: Bash (date calculations for relative dates)

Output: Search intent classification and search parameters

Step 1 — Retrieve Entries

Action: Use appropriate tools to find and read matching journal entries.

Retrieval strategies by intent:

Specific date lookup:

• Read daily/YYYY-MM-DD.md directly
• If date is in past and daily entry doesn't exist, report "No daily entry for YYYY-MM-DD"
• Also check for meetings/decisions on that date using Glob: meetings/YYYY-MM-DD-*.md, decisions/YYYY-MM-DD-*.md

Date range:

• Use Glob to find all daily entries in range: daily/*.md
• Filter by date range (parse YYYY-MM-DD from filename)
• Use Glob for meetings/decisions in range
• Read all matching files

Keyword search:

• Use Grep with content output mode to search across all journal directories
• Pattern: user's search terms (case-insensitive)
• Glob pattern: *.md (search all markdown files)
• Context: 3 lines before/after match for readability
• Return: file paths and matching excerpts

Topic/project search:

• Use Grep to find mentions of topic/project name
• Search in YAML frontmatter (projects: [name]) and wikilinks ([[projects/name]])
• Also directly read projects/{name}.md if it exists

Meeting lookup:

• Use Glob to find all meetings: meetings/*.md
• Optionally filter by date range or keyword
• Read matching files

Weekly review:

• Calculate date range for "this week" or "last week" (Mon-Sun or last 7 days)
• Use Glob to find all daily entries in range
• Read all daily files
• Summarize: projects worked on, key wins, decisions made, learnings captured

Project status:

• Read projects/{name}.md directly
• Extract: current status (YAML frontmatter), recent activity (Work Log section), open questions
• Also search daily entries for recent mentions

Tool declarations: Read (specific files), Glob (find files by pattern), Grep (keyword search), Bash (date calculations)

Checkpoint: Retrieved all matching entries

Step 2 — Present Results

Action: Format and present the retrieved information based on intent.

Presentation formats:

Specific date lookup:

• Show full daily entry for that date
• List any meetings or decisions from that date
• Format: markdown with clear sections

Date range:

• Show abbreviated daily entries (date + Morning Intention + key wins)
• List meetings and decisions in chronological order
• Format: bulleted timeline

Keyword search:

• Show file path, date (extracted from filename), and matching excerpt for each result
• Highlight search term context (3 lines before/after)
• Format: search result blocks with file references
• Example:

  Found in: daily/2026-02-23.md
  Date: 2026-02-23
  Context:
  ...
  - **Claude-devkit work:** Fixed Vertex AI model resolution issue — all Task tool calls used short aliases (`model=opus`, `model=sonnet`) that fail on Vertex. Standardized all 15 instances across 5 skills to use full IDs (`claude-opus-4-6`, `claude-sonnet-4-5`).
  ...
  

Topic/project search:

• Show project overview (from projects/{name}.md)
• List recent daily entries mentioning the project (past 30 days)
• List related learnings and decisions
• Format: structured summary with links

Meeting lookup:

• List all meetings in chronological order
• For each meeting: date, title, attendees, key decisions, action items
• Format: bulleted list with meeting metadata

Weekly review:

• Summary sections:
  • Date range: (Mon-Sun or last 7 days)
  • Projects worked on: (unique list from all daily entries)
  • Key wins: (aggregated from daily Wins sections)
  • Decisions made: (list all decisions from the week)
  • Learnings: (list all learnings from the week)
  • Carry-overs: (open items from last daily entry)
• Format: structured markdown summary

Project status:

• Overview: (from project file)
• Current status: (YAML frontmatter status field)
• Recent activity: (last 3 entries from Work Log)
• Open questions: (from project file)
• Recent daily mentions: (grep daily/ for project name, last 7 days)
• Format: structured report

Tool declarations: None (output formatting only)

Checkpoint: Results formatted and ready to present

Step 3 — Handle Missing Data

Action: Report clearly if no entries found, suggest alternatives.

No results handling:

• If specific date has no entry: "No daily entry found for YYYY-MM-DD. Nearest entries: [list files within ±3 days]"
• If keyword search returns no results: "No matches found for '{keyword}' in journal. Try broader terms or check spelling."
• If project doesn't exist: "No project file found for '{name}'. Available projects: [list all projects/*.md]"
• If date range is empty: "No entries found for {date range}. First entry: YYYY-MM-DD, last entry: YYYY-MM-DD"

Always include verdict:

• Success (results found): PASS: found N entries matching '{query}'
• Success (no results): PASS: no entries found for '{query}' (searched N files)
• Never use FAIL for legitimate "no results" scenarios (that's a successful search with zero matches)

Tool declarations: Glob (to find nearest entries or list available projects)

Checkpoint: Missing data handled, verdict reported

Timestamped Artifacts

Not applicable: Journal recall is a read-only search operation, not a workflow that produces artifacts.

Bounded Iterations

Not applicable: Journal search is a single-pass retrieval operation.

Archive on Success

Not applicable: Journal recall produces output directly to the user, not intermediate artifacts requiring archival.