/dex-whats-new

name: dex-whats-new
description: "Show recent system improvements — captured learnings plus new Claude capabilities. Use when the user says 'what's new', 'any updates to how Dex works'. Not for previewing and applying a version update; use `dex-update`. Not for unused existing features; use `dex-level-up`."

Check for improvements to your Dex system from TWO sources: 1. **Learnings from your usage** - Mistakes, patterns, opportunities captured during sessions 2. **New Claude Code capabilities** - Features that could enhance your workflows

Usage

/dex-whats-new              # Review learnings + check for Claude updates
/dex-whats-new --full       # Include detailed explanations
/dex-whats-new --learnings  # Only review session learnings
/dex-whats-new --claude     # Only check Claude Code updates

Arguments

$MODE: Optional flags

• `--full` - Detailed explanations of each feature
• `--learnings` - Only review learnings (skip Claude check)
• `--claude` - Only check Claude updates (skip learnings)

---

Process

Step 0: Review Session Learnings (Unless --claude flag)

**Check for learnings to review:**

1. Read files in `System/Session_Learnings/` from last 30 days 2. Read `06-Resources/Learnings/Mistake_Patterns.md` - check for new patterns 3. Read `06-Resources/Learnings/Working_Preferences.md` - check for trends

**Extract improvement opportunities:**

• Recurring mistakes → suggest preventive measures
• Gaps in documentation → suggest additions
• Workflow inefficiencies → suggest automations
• User patterns → suggest customizations

**Present findings:**

🧠 LEARNINGS FROM YOUR USAGE

Since last review: [X] session learnings captured

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

📊 PATTERNS IDENTIFIED

1. [Pattern name]
   Observed: [frequency] times
   Impact: [what this affects]
   Suggestion: [concrete improvement]
   
2. [Pattern name]
   ...

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

💡 SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS

Based on what you've learned, here's how to improve Dex:

1. [Improvement name]
   Problem: [What's not working smoothly]
   Solution: [Specific change to make]
   Files: [What to update]
   Effort: Low/Medium/High
   
2. [Improvement name]
   ...

Want me to implement any of these? (Enter number)

**If no learnings:** Skip this section or show: "No session learnings captured yet. The system will learn as you use it."

---

Step 1: Read Current State (Unless --learnings flag)

Load `System/claude-code-state.json`:

{
  "last_check": "2026-01-15",
  "last_version_seen": "1.0.28",
  "features_seen": ["hooks", "sub-agents", "skills", "commands", "mcp"]
}

If file missing or `last_check` is null, treat as first run.

Step 2: Fetch Current Changelog

Use `WebSearch` to find the latest Claude Code changelog:

• Search: "Claude Code changelog 2026" or "Anthropic Claude Code releases"
• Primary source: Anthropic's official documentation
• Fallback: GitHub releases, official blog posts

Focus on:

• New features and capabilities
• Breaking changes
• Deprecations
• Performance improvements

Step 3: Compare and Surface Changes

Identify what's new since `last_check`:

**For each new feature:** 1. What it does (plain English, 1-2 sentences) 2. Why it matters for PKM users 3. How you could use it in Dex (concrete example) 4. Effort to adopt (Low/Medium/High)

Step 4: Present Claude Findings

**If Claude Code updates found:**

🆕 CLAUDE CODE UPDATES

Last checked: [date] (X days ago)
Current version: [version]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🆕 NEW FEATURES

1. [Feature Name]
   What: [Plain English description]
   For you: [How this could improve Dex]
   Effort: Low

2. [Feature Name]
   What: [Description]
   For you: [Specific improvement idea]
   Effort: Medium

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

💡 SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS

Based on what's new, here are concrete things you could add to Dex:

1. [Improvement name]
   Uses: [Which new feature]
   What it does: [Specific description]
   Pillar: [Which pillar it supports]

Want me to implement any of these? (Enter number)
Or run `/dex-improve` to workshop custom ideas.

**If no Claude updates:**

✅ Claude Code is up to date!

Last checked: Today
Current version: [version]

No new features since your last check.

---

Combined View (Default)

When running without flags, show BOTH sections:

🔄 DEX SYSTEM IMPROVEMENT REVIEW

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🧠 FROM YOUR USAGE
[Session learnings section]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

🆕 FROM CLAUDE CODE
[Claude updates section]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

💡 COMBINED IMPROVEMENTS

Pulling together learnings + new capabilities:

1. [Improvement combining both]
   Uses: [Your pattern] + [New Claude feature]
   Impact: [What this unlocks]
   
Want me to implement any of these? (Enter number or 'all')

Step 5: Update State

**CRITICAL:** After presenting findings, you MUST update `System/claude-code-state.json` using the Write tool.

**Steps:** 1. Read current state file to preserve existing `features_seen` array 2. Add any newly discovered features to the array (avoid duplicates) 3. Update `last_check` to today's date (YYYY-MM-DD format) 4. Update `last_version_seen` if a new version was found 5. Write the updated JSON back to `System/claude-code-state.json`

**Example update:**

{
  "last_check": "2026-01-28",
  "last_version_seen": "1.0.32",
  "features_seen": [
    "hooks",
    "sub-agents",
    "skills", 
    "commands",
    "mcp",
    "parallel-sub-agents",
    "async-hooks"
  ]
}

**Verification:** After writing, confirm to user: "State file updated - next check will compare against today's findings."

---

Step 6: Backlog Synthesis (NEW — Innovation Concierge)

After presenting findings to the user, automatically create or enrich backlog ideas:

1. **Call `synthesize_changelog()`** from Improvements MCP

• This scans the changelog for Dex-relevant features
• C