skills/avad-retro/SKILL.md
Weekly engineering retrospective. Analyzes commit history, work patterns, and code quality metrics with persistent history and trend tracking. Team-aware: breaks down per-person contributions with praise and growth areas.
npx skillsauth add agwacom/avadbot avad-retroInstall this skill globally with one command. Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and Windsurf.
3 of 9 scanners reported clean
Some scanners were skipped, did not run, or reported a non-clean status. Review each row below.
Before gathering data, detect the repo's default branch name:
gh repo view --json defaultBranchRef -q .defaultBranchRef.name
If this fails, fall back to main. Use the detected name wherever the instructions
say origin/<default> below.
Generates a comprehensive engineering retrospective analyzing commit history, work patterns, and code quality metrics. Team-aware: identifies the user running the command, then analyzes every contributor with per-person praise and growth opportunities. Designed for a senior IC/CTO-level builder using Claude Code as a force multiplier.
When the user types /avad-retro, run this skill.
/avad-retro — default: last 7 days/avad-retro 24h — last 24 hours/avad-retro 14d — last 14 days/avad-retro 30d — last 30 days/avad-retro compare — compare current window vs prior same-length window/avad-retro compare 14d — compare with explicit window/avad-retro global — cross-project retro across all AI coding tools (7d default)/avad-retro global 14d — cross-project retro with explicit windowParse the argument to determine the time window. Default to 7 days if no argument given. All times should be reported in the user's local timezone (use the system default — do NOT set TZ).
Midnight-aligned windows: For day (d) and week (w) units, compute an absolute start date at local midnight, not a relative string. For example, if today is 2026-03-18 and the window is 7 days: the start date is 2026-03-11. Use --since="2026-03-11T00:00:00" for git log queries — the explicit T00:00:00 suffix ensures git starts from midnight. Without it, git uses the current wall-clock time (e.g., --since="2026-03-11" at 11pm means 11pm, not midnight). For week units, multiply by 7 to get days (e.g., 2w = 14 days back). For hour (h) units, use --since="N hours ago" since midnight alignment does not apply to sub-day windows.
Argument validation: If the argument doesn't match a number followed by d, h, or w, the word compare (optionally followed by a window), or the word global (optionally followed by a window), show this usage and stop:
Usage: /avad-retro [window | compare | global]
/avad-retro — last 7 days (default)
/avad-retro 24h — last 24 hours
/avad-retro 14d — last 14 days
/avad-retro 30d — last 30 days
/avad-retro compare — compare this period vs prior period
/avad-retro compare 14d — compare with explicit window
/avad-retro global — cross-project retro across all AI tools (7d default)
/avad-retro global 14d — cross-project retro with explicit window
If the first argument is global: Skip the normal repo-scoped retro (Steps 1-14). Instead, follow the Global Retrospective flow at the end of this document. The optional second argument is the time window (default 7d). This mode does NOT require being inside a git repo.
First, fetch origin and identify the current user:
git fetch origin <default> --quiet
# Identify who is running the retro
git config user.name
git config user.email
The name returned by git config user.name is "you" — the person reading this retro. All other authors are teammates. Use this to orient the narrative: "your" commits vs teammate contributions.
Run ALL of these git commands in parallel (they are independent):
# 1. All commits in window with timestamps, subject, hash, AUTHOR, files changed, insertions, deletions
git log origin/<default> --since="<window>" --format="%H|%aN|%ae|%ai|%s" --shortstat
# 2. Per-commit test vs total LOC breakdown with author
# Each commit block starts with COMMIT:<hash>|<author>, followed by numstat lines.
# Separate test files (matching test/|spec/|__tests__/) from production files.
git log origin/<default> --since="<window>" --format="COMMIT:%H|%aN" --numstat
# 3. Commit timestamps for session detection and hourly distribution (with author)
# Commit timestamps for session detection and hourly distribution (with author)
git log origin/<default> --since="<window>" --format="%at|%aN|%ai|%s" | sort -n
# 4. Files most frequently changed (hotspot analysis)
git log origin/<default> --since="<window>" --format="" --name-only | grep -v '^$' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn
# 5. PR numbers from commit messages (extract #NNN patterns)
git log origin/<default> --since="<window>" --format="%s" | grep -oE '#[0-9]+' | sed 's/^#//' | sort -n | uniq | sed 's/^/#/'
# 6. Per-author file hotspots (who touches what)
git log origin/<default> --since="<window>" --format="AUTHOR:%aN" --name-only
# 7. Per-author commit counts (quick summary)
git shortlog origin/<default> --since="<window>" -sn --no-merges
# 8. Bot review triage history (if available)
REMOTE_SLUG=$(basename "$(gh repo view --json nameWithOwner --jq '.nameWithOwner' 2>/dev/null)" 2>/dev/null || basename "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)")
cat ~/.avadbot/projects/$REMOTE_SLUG/bot-review-history.md 2>/dev/null || true
# 9. TODOS.md backlog snapshot (if available)
cat TODOS.md 2>/dev/null || true
# 10. Test file count
find . -name '*.test.*' -o -name '*.spec.*' -o -name '*_test.*' -o -name '*_spec.*' 2>/dev/null | grep -v node_modules | wc -l
# 11. Regression test commits in window
git log origin/<default> --since="<window>" --oneline --grep="test(qa):" --grep="test(design):" --grep="test: coverage"
# 12. Test files changed in window
git log origin/<default> --since="<window>" --format="" --name-only | grep -E '\.(test|spec)\.' | sort -u | wc -l
Calculate and present these metrics in a summary table:
| Metric | Value | |--------|-------| | Commits to main | N | | Contributors | N | | PRs merged | N | | Total insertions | N | | Total deletions | N | | Net LOC added | N | | Test LOC (insertions) | N | | Test LOC ratio | N% | | Version range | vX.Y.Z.W → vX.Y.Z.W | | Active days | N | | Detected sessions | N | | Avg LOC/session-hour | N | | Backlog Health | N open (X P0/P1, Y P2) · Z completed this period | | Bot review signal | N% (Y catches, Z FPs) | | Test Health | N total tests · M added this period · K regression tests |
Backlog Health (if TODOS.md exists): Read TODOS.md (fetched in Step 1, command 9). Count total open items, P0/P1 items, P2 items. Use git log to detect items moved to ## Completed within the time window (completed this period) and new items added (added this period). If TODOS.md doesn't exist, skip the Backlog Health metric row. Save to the JSON snapshot as the backlog field.
Bot review signal (if history exists): Read ~/.avadbot/projects/<repo>/bot-review-history.md (fetched in Step 1, command 8). Filter entries within the retro time window by date. Count entries by type: fix, fp, already-fixed. Compute signal ratio: (fix + already-fixed) / (fix + already-fixed + fp). If no entries exist in the window or the file doesn't exist, skip the Bot review signal metric row. Skip unparseable lines silently.
Then show a per-author leaderboard immediately below:
Contributor Commits +/- Top area
You (jane) 32 +2400/-300 browse/
alice 12 +800/-150 app/services/
bob 3 +120/-40 tests/
Sort by commits descending. The current user (from git config user.name) always appears first, labeled "You (name)".
Show hourly histogram in local time using bar chart:
Hour Commits ████████████████
00: 4 ████
07: 5 █████
...
Identify and call out:
Detect sessions using 45-minute gap threshold between consecutive commits. For each session report:
Classify sessions:
Calculate:
Categorize by conventional commit prefix (feat/fix/refactor/test/chore/docs). Show as percentage bar:
feat: 20 (40%) ████████████████████
fix: 27 (54%) ███████████████████████████
refactor: 2 ( 4%) ██
Flag if fix ratio exceeds 50% — this signals a "ship fast, fix fast" pattern that may indicate review gaps.
Show top 10 most-changed files. Flag:
From commit diffs, estimate PR sizes and bucket them:
Focus score: Calculate the percentage of commits touching the single most-changed top-level directory (e.g., app/services/, app/views/). Higher score = deeper focused work. Lower score = scattered context-switching. Report as: "Focus score: 62% (app/services/)"
Ship of the week: Auto-identify the single highest-LOC PR in the window. Highlight it:
For each contributor (including the current user), compute:
For the current user ("You"): This section gets the deepest treatment. Include all the detail from the solo retro — session analysis, time patterns, focus score. Frame it in first person: "Your peak hours...", "Your biggest ship..."
For each teammate: Write 2-3 sentences covering what they worked on and their pattern. Then:
If only one contributor (solo repo): Skip the team breakdown and proceed as before — the retro is personal.
If there are Co-Authored-By trailers: Parse Co-Authored-By: lines in commit messages. Credit those authors for the commit alongside the primary author. Note AI co-authors (e.g., [email protected]) but do not include them as team members — instead, track "AI-assisted commits" as a separate metric.
If the time window is 14 days or more, split into weekly buckets and show trends:
Count consecutive days with at least 1 commit to origin/<default>, going back from today. Track both team streak and personal streak:
# Team streak: all unique commit dates (local time) — no hard cutoff
git log origin/<default> --format="%ad" --date=format:"%Y-%m-%d" | sort -u
# Personal streak: only the current user's commits
git log origin/<default> --author="<user_name>" --format="%ad" --date=format:"%Y-%m-%d" | sort -u
Count backward from today — how many consecutive days have at least one commit? This queries the full history so streaks of any length are reported accurately. Display both:
Before saving the new snapshot, check for prior retro history:
ls -t .context/avad-retros/*.json 2>/dev/null
If prior retros exist: Load the most recent one using the Read tool. Calculate deltas for key metrics and include a Trends vs Last Retro section:
Last Now Delta
Test ratio: 22% → 41% ↑19pp
Sessions: 10 → 14 ↑4
LOC/hour: 200 → 350 ↑75%
Fix ratio: 54% → 30% ↓24pp (improving)
Commits: 32 → 47 ↑47%
Deep sessions: 3 → 5 ↑2
If no prior retros exist: Skip the comparison section and append: "First retro recorded — run again next week to see trends."
After computing all metrics (including streak) and loading any prior history for comparison, save a JSON snapshot:
mkdir -p .context/avad-retros
Determine the next sequence number for today (substitute the actual date for $(date +%Y-%m-%d)):
# Count existing retros for today to get next sequence number
today=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
existing=$(ls .context/avad-retros/${today}-*.json 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')
next=$((existing + 1))
# Save as .context/avad-retros/${today}-${next}.json
Use the Write tool to save the JSON file with this schema:
{
"date": "2026-03-08",
"window": "7d",
"metrics": {
"commits": 47,
"contributors": 3,
"prs_merged": 12,
"insertions": 3200,
"deletions": 800,
"net_loc": 2400,
"test_loc": 1300,
"test_ratio": 0.41,
"active_days": 6,
"sessions": 14,
"deep_sessions": 5,
"avg_session_minutes": 42,
"loc_per_session_hour": 350,
"feat_pct": 0.40,
"fix_pct": 0.30,
"peak_hour": 22,
"ai_assisted_commits": 32
},
"authors": {
"Jane Doe": { "commits": 32, "insertions": 2400, "deletions": 300, "test_ratio": 0.41, "top_area": "browse/" },
"Alice": { "commits": 12, "insertions": 800, "deletions": 150, "test_ratio": 0.35, "top_area": "app/services/" }
},
"version_range": ["1.16.0.0", "1.16.1.0"],
"streak_days": 47,
"tweetable": "Week of Mar 1: 47 commits (3 contributors), 3.2k LOC, 38% tests, 12 PRs, peak: 10pm",
"backlog": {
"total_open": 12,
"p0_p1": 3,
"p2": 5,
"completed_this_period": 2,
"added_this_period": 1
},
"bot_review": {
"fixes": 3,
"fps": 1,
"already_fixed": 2,
"signal_pct": 83
}
}
Note: Only include the bot_review field if ~/.avadbot/projects/<repo>/bot-review-history.md exists and has entries within the time window. Only include the test_health field if test files were found (command 10 returns > 0). If any has no data, omit the field entirely.
Include test health data in the JSON when test files exist:
"test_health": {
"total_test_files": 47,
"tests_added_this_period": 5,
"regression_test_commits": 3,
"test_files_changed": 8
}
Structure the output as:
Tweetable summary (first line, before everything else):
Week of Mar 1: 47 commits (3 contributors), 3.2k LOC, 38% tests, 12 PRs, peak: 10pm | Streak: 47d
(from Step 2)
(from Step 11, loaded before save — skip if first retro)
(from Steps 3-4)
Narrative interpreting what the team-wide patterns mean:
(from Steps 5-7)
Narrative covering:
test(qa): and test(design): and test: coverage commits from command 11test_health: show delta "Test count: {last} → {now} (+{delta})"(from Step 8)
(from Step 9, for the current user only)
This is the section the user cares most about. Include:
(from Step 9, for each teammate — skip if solo repo)
For each teammate (sorted by commits descending), write a section:
AI collaboration note: If many commits have Co-Authored-By AI trailers (e.g., Claude, Copilot), note the AI-assisted commit percentage as a team metric. Frame it neutrally — "N% of commits were AI-assisted" — without judgment.
Identify the 3 highest-impact things shipped in the window across the whole team. For each:
Specific, actionable, anchored in actual commits. Mix personal and team-level suggestions. Phrase as "to get even better, the team could..."
Small, practical, realistic. Each must be something that takes <5 minutes to adopt. At least one should be team-oriented (e.g., "review each other's PRs same-day").
(if applicable, from Step 10)
When the user runs /avad-retro compare (or /avad-retro compare 14d):
--since="2026-03-11T00:00:00")--since and --until with midnight-aligned dates to avoid overlap (e.g., for a 7d window starting 2026-03-11: prior window is --since="2026-03-04T00:00:00" --until="2026-03-11T00:00:00").context/avad-retros/ (same as a normal retro run); do not persist the prior-window metrics.When the user runs /avad-retro global (or /avad-retro global 14d), follow this flow instead of the repo-scoped Steps 1-14. This mode works from any directory — it does NOT require being inside a git repo.
Same midnight-aligned logic as the regular retro. Default 7d. The second argument after global is the window (e.g., 14d, 30d, 24h).
Locate and run the discovery script using this fallback chain:
DISCOVER_BIN=""
[ -x ~/.claude/skills/avadbot/bin/avad-global-discover ] && DISCOVER_BIN=~/.claude/skills/avadbot/bin/avad-global-discover
[ -z "$DISCOVER_BIN" ] && [ -x .claude/skills/avadbot/bin/avad-global-discover ] && DISCOVER_BIN=.claude/skills/avadbot/bin/avad-global-discover
[ -z "$DISCOVER_BIN" ] && which avad-global-discover >/dev/null 2>&1 && DISCOVER_BIN=$(which avad-global-discover)
[ -z "$DISCOVER_BIN" ] && [ -f bin/avad-global-discover.ts ] && DISCOVER_BIN="bun run bin/avad-global-discover.ts"
echo "DISCOVER_BIN: $DISCOVER_BIN"
If no binary is found, tell the user: "Discovery script not found. Run bun run build in the avadbot directory to compile it." and stop.
Run the discovery:
$DISCOVER_BIN --since "<window>" --format json 2>/tmp/avad-discover-stderr
Read the stderr output from /tmp/avad-discover-stderr for diagnostic info. Parse the JSON output from stdout.
If total_sessions is 0, say: "No AI coding sessions found in the last <window>. Try a longer window: /avad-retro global 30d" and stop.
For each repo in the discovery JSON's repos array, find the first valid path in paths[] (directory exists with .git/). If no valid path exists, skip the repo and note it.
For local-only repos (where remote starts with local:): skip git fetch and use the local default branch. Use git log HEAD instead of git log origin/$DEFAULT.
For repos with remotes:
git -C <path> fetch origin --quiet 2>/dev/null
Detect the default branch for each repo: first try git symbolic-ref refs/remotes/origin/HEAD, then check common branch names (main, master), then fall back to git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD. Use the detected branch as <default> in the commands below.
# Commits with stats
git -C <path> log origin/$DEFAULT --since="<start_date>T00:00:00" --format="%H|%aN|%ai|%s" --shortstat
# Commit timestamps for session detection, streak, and context switching
git -C <path> log origin/$DEFAULT --since="<start_date>T00:00:00" --format="%at|%aN|%ai|%s" | sort -n
# Per-author commit counts
git -C <path> shortlog origin/$DEFAULT --since="<start_date>T00:00:00" -sn --no-merges
# PR numbers from commit messages
git -C <path> log origin/$DEFAULT --since="<start_date>T00:00:00" --format="%s" | grep -oE '#[0-9]+' | sort -n | uniq
For repos that fail (deleted paths, network errors): skip and note "N repos could not be reached."
For each repo, get commit dates (capped at 365 days):
git -C <path> log origin/$DEFAULT --since="365 days ago" --format="%ad" --date=format:"%Y-%m-%d" | sort -u
Union all dates across all repos. Count backward from today — how many consecutive days have at least one commit to ANY repo? If the streak hits 365 days, display as "365+ days".
From the commit timestamps gathered in Step 3, group by date. For each date, count how many distinct repos had commits that day. Report:
From the discovery JSON, analyze tool usage patterns:
Structure the output with the shareable personal card first, then the full team/project breakdown below. The personal card is designed to be screenshot-friendly — everything someone would want to share on X/Twitter in one clean block.
Tweetable summary (first line, before everything else):
Week of Mar 14: 5 projects, 138 commits, 250k LOC across 5 repos | 48 AI sessions | Streak: 52d
This section is the shareable personal card. It contains ONLY the current user's stats — no team data, no project breakdowns. Designed to screenshot and post.
Use the user identity from git config user.name to filter all per-repo git data.
Aggregate across all repos to compute personal totals.
Render as a single visually clean block. Left border only — no right border (LLMs can't align right borders reliably). Pad repo names to the longest name so columns align cleanly. Never truncate project names.
╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
║ [USER NAME] — Week of [date]
╠═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
║
║ [N] commits across [M] projects
║ +[X]k LOC added · [Y]k LOC deleted · [Z]k net
║ [N] AI coding sessions (CC: X, Codex: Y, Gemini: Z)
║ [N]-day shipping streak
║
║ PROJECTS
║ ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
║ [repo_name_full] [N] commits +[X]k LOC [solo/team]
║ [repo_name_full] [N] commits +[X]k LOC [solo/team]
║ [repo_name_full] [N] commits +[X]k LOC [solo/team]
║
║ SHIP OF THE WEEK
║ [PR title] — [LOC] lines across [N] files
║
║ TOP WORK
║ • [1-line description of biggest theme]
║ • [1-line description of second theme]
║ • [1-line description of third theme]
║
║ Powered by avadbot · github.com/agwacom/avadbot
╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Rules for the personal card:
analyze_transcripts
not analyze_trans). Pad the name column to the longest repo name so all columns
align. If names are long, widen the box — the box width adapts to content.Personal streak: Use the user's own commits across all repos (filtered by
--author) to compute a personal streak, separate from the team streak.
Everything below is the full analysis — team data, project breakdowns, patterns. This is the "deep dive" that follows the shareable card.
| Metric | Value | |--------|-------| | Projects active | N | | Total commits (all repos, all contributors) | N | | Total LOC | +N / -N | | AI coding sessions | N (CC: X, Codex: Y, Gemini: Z) | | Active days | N | | Global shipping streak (any contributor, any repo) | N consecutive days | | Context switches/day | N avg (max: M) |
For each repo (sorted by commits descending):
Your Contributions (sub-section within each project):
For each project, add a "Your contributions" block showing the current user's
personal stats within that repo. Use the user identity from git config user.name
to filter. Include:
If the user is the only contributor, say "Solo project — all commits are yours." If the user has 0 commits in a repo (team project they didn't touch this period), say "No commits this period — [N] AI sessions only." and skip the breakdown.
Format:
**Your contributions:** 47/244 commits (19%), +4.2k/-0.3k LOC
Key work: Writer Chat, email blocking, security hardening
Biggest ship: PR #605 — Writer Chat eats the admin bar (2,457 ins, 46 files)
Mix: feat(3) fix(2) chore(1)
Per-tool breakdown with behavioral patterns:
Highest-impact PR across ALL projects. Identify by LOC and commit messages.
What the global view reveals that no single-repo retro could show.
Considering the full cross-project picture.
ls -t ~/.avadbot/retros/global-*.json 2>/dev/null | head -5
Only compare against a prior retro with the same window value (e.g., 7d vs 7d). If the most recent prior retro has a different window, skip comparison and note: "Prior global retro used a different window — skipping comparison."
If a matching prior retro exists, load it with the Read tool. Show a Trends vs Last Global Retro table with deltas for key metrics: total commits, LOC, sessions, streak, context switches/day.
If no prior global retros exist, append: "First global retro recorded — run again next week to see trends."
mkdir -p ~/.avadbot/retros
Determine the next sequence number for today:
today=$(date +%Y-%m-%d)
existing=$(ls ~/.avadbot/retros/global-${today}-*.json 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')
next=$((existing + 1))
Use the Write tool to save JSON to ~/.avadbot/retros/global-${today}-${next}.json:
{
"type": "global",
"date": "2026-03-21",
"window": "7d",
"projects": [
{
"name": "avadbot",
"remote": "https://github.com/agwacom/avadbot",
"commits": 47,
"insertions": 3200,
"deletions": 800,
"sessions": { "claude_code": 15, "codex": 3, "gemini": 0 }
}
],
"totals": {
"commits": 182,
"insertions": 15300,
"deletions": 4200,
"projects": 5,
"active_days": 6,
"sessions": { "claude_code": 48, "codex": 8, "gemini": 3 },
"global_streak_days": 52,
"avg_context_switches_per_day": 2.1
},
"tweetable": "Week of Mar 14: 5 projects, 182 commits, 15.3k LOC | CC: 48, Codex: 8, Gemini: 3 | Focus: avadbot (58%) | Streak: 52d"
}
.context/avad-retros/ JSON snapshot).context/avad-retros/ JSON snapshot.origin/<default> for all git queries (not local main which may be stale)TZ)~/.avadbot/retros/ (not .context/avad-retros/). Gracefully skip AI tools that aren't installed. Only compare against prior global retros with the same window value. If streak hits 365d cap, display as "365+ days".Use your full model name and version as your agent identifier in all GitHub output. Examples: "claude Opus 4.6", "codex o3", "gemini 2.5 Pro"
When creating or commenting on GitHub issues, discussions, or pull requests:
Title prefix: Include the reviewer role in the title.
Format: [phase-N] Retro review: {short description}
Example: [phase-4] Retro review: weekly engineering retrospective
Labels:
retro-review#C5DEF5, description: "Engineering retrospective").Both title prefix and label are required.
Prefix all comment, issue, discussion, and PR section headings with your agent identity. Example: "## claude Opus 4.6 Retro Review Response"
End every GitHub issue, discussion post, PR description, review comment, or review response with a signature line:
---
_Review by {agent identity} Engineering Manager · /avad-retro · {YYYY-MM-DD}_
Example: _Review by claude Opus 4.6 Engineering Manager · /avad-retro · 2026-03-14_
data-ai
Clear the freeze boundary set by /avad-freeze, allowing edits to all directories again. Use when you want to widen edit scope without ending the session. Use when asked to "unfreeze", "unlock edits", "remove freeze", or "allow all edits".
testing
Ship workflow: validate branch state, sync with target branch, run tests, pre-landing review, push, and create PR. Project-aware — reads target branch, test commands, and review checklist from docs/GIT_WORKFLOW.md.
development
Pre-landing code review. Analyzes diff for structural issues using a project-specific checklist. Two modes: local (review current branch) or PR (review and comment on a GitHub PR by number). Proactively suggest when the user is about to merge or land code changes.
development
Systematically QA test a web application and fix bugs found. Runs QA testing, then iteratively fixes bugs in source code, committing each fix atomically and re-verifying. Use when asked to "qa", "QA", "test this site", "find bugs", "test and fix", or "fix what's broken". Four modes: diff-aware (automatic on feature branches), full (systematic exploration), quick (30-second smoke test), regression (compare against baseline). Three tiers: Quick (critical/high only), Standard (+medium), Exhaustive (+cosmetic). Produces before/after health scores, fix evidence, and ship-readiness summary. Supports report-only mode — asks whether to fix or just report.