course-correct

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• SKILL.md

SKILL.md (first lines)

# Course correct

Bad path. Capture what was tried + learned, write the summary to disk, then tell the user how to rewind their session context. Does not modify git history or the working tree — files stay; the user manages git state separately if they want to discard them.

## When to use

- An approach has failed and circling back to a prior approach is the right call
- The agent's been going in circles on a problem and a clean restart would help
- The user wants to undo recent decisions but keep the learnings
- User says "course correct", "rewind", "we went down the wrong path", "start over from <point>", "this isn't working"

## Workflow

### 1. Reflect on the session

The agent reviews the recent session and answers internally:
- What was the goal at the rewind point?
- What approach(es) were tried?
- What didn't work and why?
- What concrete learnings should survive the rewind (so future-you doesn't re-tread the same dead-end)?

### 2. Inventory recent changes

```bash
echo '---recent commits on this branch---'
git log --oneline -20 "$(git merge-base HEAD main 2>/dev/null || echo HEAD~10)..HEAD" 2>/dev/null \
  || git log --oneline -10
echo '---uncommitted changes---'
git status --porcelain | head -20
echo '---files modified this session (uncommitted)---'
git diff --name-only HEAD 2>/dev/null | head -20
```

### 3. Draft the summary

Compose a draft summary covering:
- **Goal**: what we were trying to do
- **What was tried**: specific approaches, in order
- **Why it didn't work**: root causes if known, symptoms if not
- **Learnings**: things to remember next time
- **Suggested rewind point**: which conversation point or commit to fall back to

Show the draft to the user. Get explicit confirmation OR `$EDITOR` for editing.

If `$EDITOR` is unset, fall back to `vi`. Use a temp file:

```bash
TMPFILE=$(mktemp -t course-correct.XXXXXX.md)
cat > "$TMPFILE" <<EOF
# Course correction: <topic>

## Goal
...

## What was tried
...

## Why it didn't work
...

## Learnings
...

## Rewind point
...
EOF
${EDITOR:-vi} "$TMPFILE"
```

### 4. Save the summary

Write the final summary to `docs/course-corrections/YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-<topic>.md`. Topic is derived from the summary's title (slugified) or asked-for if absent.

```bash
mkdir -p docs/course-corrections
TOPIC=<slugified-from-title>
DEST="docs/course-corrections/$(date +%Y-%m-%d-%H-%M)-$TOPIC.md"
cp "$TMPFILE" "$DEST"
echo "Saved: $DEST"
```

Optionally `git add` the summary if the user wants it tracked. Don't commit automatically — let the user decide if course-correction artifacts belong in git history for this repo.

### 5. Tell the user how to rewind

Per harness:

- **Claude Code**: "Press Esc twice to rewind to a prior conversation point. Reference the summary at `<path>` to re-orient."
- **Codex / Gemini / Copilot CLI / Pi**: "These harnesses don't have a native rewind. Reference the summary at `<path>` going forward; treat the work above as discarded mentally. If you want a hard reset, exit the session and start a new one."

The skill prints the appropriate guidance based on detected harness (env vars: `CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR`, `CODEX_HOME`, `GEMINI_CLI`, etc.). When in doubt, print the Claude Code instruction with a fallback note.

### 6. No git operations

`course-correct` does NOT run `git reset`, `git checkout`, `git stash`, or any other git mutation. The course correction is a documentation artifact, not a destructive operation.

If the user wants to discard uncommitted changes after the summary is saved:

```bash
git stash push -m "course-correct-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M)"  # safer
# OR
git checkout .  # destructive, prompt user
```

These are user-driven follow-up actions, not part of the skill's flow.

## Composition with other skills

- After invoking `course-correct`, the user typically restarts work with `flight-deck:takeoff` (fresh inventory) OR `superpowers:brainstorming` (if rethinking the design from scratch).
- If the dead-end happened during plan execution, `flight-deck:course-correct` saves the learnings; the user then revises the plan via `superpowers:writing-plans` and re-invokes execution.

## Safety rules

- **Never** modify git history (`git reset`, `git rebase`, `git checkout`).
- **Never** delete files from the working tree.
- **Never** invoke the harness's rewind mechanism for the user — that's their action.
- The summary is the artifact. Everything else is the user's call.

## Tone

From danmestas/wardrobe, MIT.

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