Observer

Observer — Passive Workflow Discovery

This is the passive observation mode of workflow-architect. Unlike the interviewer, which asks questions, the observer watches and infers.

How It Works

1. The observer loads silently via /workflow-architect passive
2. It does nothing until a trigger phrase is detected
3. On trigger, it scans the current session's message history using a structured inference prompt
4. The output is a workflow state model (same structure as the interviewer produces), which feeds into the bundle-builder sub-skill

Trigger Phrases

The observer activates when the user says any of these:

• "catalog my workflow"
• "what's my workflow"
• "analyze my process"
• "figure out what I do"
• "work it out from what I just did"

If none of these are detected in the user's message, the observer remains dormant. Do not announce its presence — the user may not remember loading it in passive mode.

Activation Protocol

When a trigger phrase is detected:

1. Check session depth. Count substantive user messages (excluding greetings, meta-comments about the agent, and one-word replies). If fewer than 5 substantive messages, respond:

   "I don't have enough session context to work with yet. I've seen about
   [N] substantive turns, and I need more to find reliable patterns.
   Try active interrogation mode instead: /workflow-architect"
   

2. If enough context exists, run inference. Use the following structured prompt against the session context. You may use session_search or browser console to review the session transcript if needed.

   You are analyzing a session transcript to extract workflow patterns.
   Look at the user's messages and your responses. Identify:
   
   1. ENTRY PATTERNS — How did the session start? What was the user's
      first request? Was it a check-in, a specific task, a question?
   
   2. PHASES — Where did the session shift focus? What triggered each
      shift? (A new request, a status check, a tool output?)
   
   3. BRANCHING — Were there decision points where the user could have
      gone in different directions? What determined the direction taken?
   
   4. TOOLS — What tools did the user reach for? What commands did they
      ask you to run? What contexts did they reference?
   
   5. PAIN POINTS — Were there moments of friction? (Repeated corrections,
      stops-and-restarts, "no, not that" type corrections)
   
   6. EXIT — How did the session end (or approach ending)? Was it a
      natural completion, an interruption, or something else?
   
   Return your findings as a structured JSON document matching the
   workflow-architect state model format.
   

3. If the session context is available via session_search, also pull the 2-3 most recent related sessions for cross-session pattern detection. A single session may not reveal the full workflow; multiple sessions do.

4. Present findings to the user:

   "I looked through this session (and [N] recent related sessions) and
   found some patterns in how you work:
   
   [Summary of inferred workflow, similar to interviewer's convergence summary]
   
   Does this look right? If yes, I'll generate a bundle. If not, tell me
   what I got wrong — or switch to active mode for a more thorough conversation."
   

5. If the user confirms, load skills/bundle-builder/SKILL.md and follow its instructions to generate the output bundle.

Limitations

• Single-session bias: One session may not represent your full workflow. The observer does its best work with multiple sessions of context.
• Action-inference gap: The observer only sees what happened, not what you intended or considered and rejected. Active interrogation captures richer intentional data.
• Silent mode: The observer does not announce itself when loading. This is intentional — passive mode is meant to be invisible until triggered.