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Lesson Learned

Extract software engineering takeaways from your recent code changes.

Purpose

Most developers ship code and move on. But the fastest way to grow is to pause and reflect: what principle did I just apply? What trade-off did I make? What would I do differently?

This skill analyzes recent git history and surfaces the engineering lesson embedded in the work you just did.

When to Use

  • After finishing a feature or PR
  • After a debugging session
  • After a refactor
  • When you want to reflect on recent work
  • Trigger phrases: "what is the lesson here?", "what can I learn from this?", "engineering takeaway"

How It Works

  1. Determine scope -- Detects whether you're on a feature branch (analyzes branch vs main) or main (analyzes last 5 commits). You can also specify a commit range or specific SHA.
  2. Gather changes -- Reads git log, diffs, and commit messages. For large diffs, selectively reads the most-changed files.
  3. Analyze patterns -- Identifies structural decisions, trade-offs, and problems solved. Maps observations to named SE principles.
  4. Present the lesson -- Delivers 1-3 specific, code-grounded takeaways with the principle name, how it manifested, why it matters, and an actionable next step.

Key Features

  • Git-history-driven -- Works from actual code changes, not hypotheticals
  • Principle-grounded -- Maps observations to named SE principles (SOLID, DRY, KISS, YAGNI, etc.)
  • Specific, not generic -- Every insight references actual files and lines from your diff
  • Balanced -- Recognizes good patterns, not just areas for improvement
  • Configurable scope -- Feature branch, last N commits, specific SHA, or working changes

Output Format

## Lesson: Separation of Concerns

**What happened in the code:**
The `AuthController` was split into `AuthController` and `UserService` across
commits abc123 and def456. Authentication logic stayed in the controller while
user CRUD operations moved to a dedicated service.

**The principle at work:**
Separation of Concerns -- different responsibilities should live in different
modules so each can change independently.

**Why it matters:**
Before the split, any change to user management risked breaking authentication.
Now each module can evolve independently with a clear interface between them.

**Takeaway for next time:**
When a file handles two distinct responsibilities, split early -- it's cheaper
than untangling them later.

Prerequisites

  • Must be in a git repository with commit history
  • Works best with descriptive commit messages

Related Files

  • references/se-principles.md -- Curated SE principles catalog
  • references/anti-patterns.md -- Common anti-patterns to detect in diffs