/learn-eval

description: "Extract reusable patterns from the session, self-evaluate quality before saving, and determine the right save location (Global vs Project)."

/learn-eval - Extract, Evaluate, then Save

Extends `/learn` with a quality gate, save-location decision, and knowledge-placement awareness before writing any skill file.

What to Extract

Look for:

1. **Error Resolution Patterns** — root cause + fix + reusability 2. **Debugging Techniques** — non-obvious steps, tool combinations 3. **Workarounds** — library quirks, API limitations, version-specific fixes 4. **Project-Specific Patterns** — conventions, architecture decisions, integration patterns

Process

1. Review the session for extractable patterns 2. Identify the most valuable/reusable insight

3. **Determine save location:**

• Ask: "Would this pattern be useful in a different project?"
• **Global** (`~/.claude/skills/learned/`): Generic patterns usable across 2+ projects (bash compatibility, LLM API behavior, debugging techniques, etc.)
• **Project** (`.claude/skills/learned/` in current project): Project-specific knowledge (quirks of a particular config file, project-specific architecture decisions, etc.)
• When in doubt, choose Global (moving Global → Project is easier than the reverse)

4. Draft the skill file using this format:

---
name: pattern-name
description: "Under 130 characters"
user-invocable: false
origin: auto-extracted
---

# [Descriptive Pattern Name]

**Extracted:** [Date]
**Context:** [Brief description of when this applies]

## Problem
[What problem this solves - be specific]

## Solution
[The pattern/technique/workaround - with code examples]

## When to Use
[Trigger conditions]

5. **Quality gate — Checklist + Holistic verdict**

5a. Required checklist (verify by actually reading files)

Execute **all** of the following before evaluating the draft:

• [ ] Grep `~/.claude/skills/` and relevant project `.claude/skills/` files by keyword to check for content overlap
• [ ] Check MEMORY.md (both project and global) for overlap
• [ ] Consider whether appending to an existing skill would suffice
• [ ] Confirm this is a reusable pattern, not a one-off fix

5b. Holistic verdict

Synthesize the checklist results and draft quality, then choose **one** of the following:

| Verdict | Meaning | Next Action | |---------|---------|-------------| | **Save** | Unique, specific, well-scoped | Proceed to Step 6 | | **Improve then Save** | Valuable but needs refinement | List improvements → revise → re-evaluate (once) | | **Absorb into [X]** | Should be appended to an existing skill | Show target skill and additions → Step 6 | | **Drop** | Trivial, redundant, or too abstract | Explain reasoning and stop |

**Guideline dimensions** (informing the verdict, not scored):

• **Specificity & Actionability**: Contains code examples or commands that are immediately usable
• **Scope Fit**: Name, trigger conditions, and content are aligned and focused on a single pattern
• **Uniqueness**: Provides value not covered by existing skills (informed by checklist results)
• **Reusability**: Realistic trigger scenarios exist in future sessions

6. **Verdict-specific confirmation flow**

• **Improve then Save**: Present the required improvements + revised draft + updated checklist/verdict after one re-evaluation; if the revised verdict is **Save**, save after user confirmation, otherwise follow the new verdict
• **Save**: Present save path + checklist results + 1-line verdict rationale + full draft → save after user confirmation
• **Absorb into [X]**: Present target path + additions (diff format) + checklist results + verdict rationale → append after user confirmation
• **Drop**: Show checklist results + reasoning only (no confirmation needed)

7. Save / Absorb to the determined location

Output Format for Step 5

### Checklist
- [x] skills/ grep: no overlap (or: overlap found → details)
- [x] MEMORY.md: no overlap (or: overlap found → details)
- [x] Existing skill append: new file appropriate (or: should append to [X])
- [x] Reusability: confirmed (or: one-off → Drop)

### Verdict: Save / Improve then Save / Absorb into [X] / Drop

**Rationale:** (1-2 sentences explaining the verdict)

Design Rationale

This version replaces the previous 5-dimension numeric scoring rubric (Specificity, Actionability, Scope Fit, Non-redundancy, Coverage scored 1-5) with a checklist-based holistic verdict system. Modern frontier models (Opus 4.6+) have strong contextual judgment — forcing rich qualitative signals into numeric scores loses nuance and can produce misleading totals. The holistic approach lets the model weigh all factors naturally, producing more accurate save/drop decisions while the explicit checklist ensures no critical check is skipped.

Notes

• Don't extract trivial fixes (typos, simple syntax errors)
• Don't extract one-time issues (specific API outages, etc.)
• Focus on patterns that will save time in future sessions
• Keep skills focused — one pattern per skill
• When the verdict is Absorb, append to the existing skill rather than creating a new file

Navigation

• [Command → Agent / Skill Map](../docs/COMMAND-AGENT-MAP.md)
• [Agents index](../AGENTS.md)
• [Contexts directory](../contexts)
• [Contributing guide](../CONTRIBUTING.md)