Write one line of structured, append-only history per load-bearing interaction
inside an OpenSpec change, so a change's journal.jsonl becomes a session log
that survives context compaction and long-running work — not a full
transcript, and not optional narration.
Route
Run the bundled helper that ships with this skill. Resolve
scripts/openspec-journal.py next to this skill's SKILL.md (the host skill
install path). Do not look for it under the product repo's scripts/ —
that path is never installed. Keep the product repo as the working directory
so the helper can find openspec/changes/:
python3 <skill-dir>/scripts/openspec-journal.py <change> <event> [k=v ...]
python3 <skill-dir>/scripts/openspec-journal.py <change> show [--limit N]
python3 <skill-dir>/scripts/openspec-journal.py <change> doctor
python3 <skill-dir>/scripts/openspec-journal.py --schema
Run with no arguments for the full usage contract, and --schema for the
authoritative event-name -> required-field table. Read those outputs instead
of memorizing the vocabulary — the script is the single source of truth for
it, so a caller who invents its own field name or event name gets a rejection,
not a silent write.
Turn bookending is the default discipline
Whenever the active working directory is inside an OpenSpec change, bookend every user turn with two writes, independent of whether any file changed:
- Before starting work, log
turn.start input="<paraphrase of the ask, <=200 chars>". - After finishing, log
turn.end output="<what changed, was decided, or was answered>".
Writing the input before doing the work is a commitment device against post-hoc rationalization. This applies to every prompt, including pure Q&A turns with no file changes.
Ordering and length
Events describe things that already happened — log change.created after
openspec new change <name> succeeds, not before. input/output are
rejected (exit 2) above 200 characters so the caller rewrites shorter rather
than truncating silently; move long content into design.md or an ADR and
point at it (output="See design.md §3 for full rationale.").
--input-file / --output-file paths must resolve under the change
directory. Change names . and archive are rejected. Reserved fields
ts, event, and phase cannot be forged via k=v.
Precompact hook
scripts/openspec-journal-precompact-hook.sh emits context.compacted for
the most recently active change when an agent host fires a pre-compaction
lifecycle hook (for example Claude Code's PreCompact). It is self-contained,
silent on any failure, and never blocks compaction. Wire it once per host;
skills never call it directly.
Completion
Complete when the event was accepted (exit 0) and, for show/doctor, the
requested output was returned. A rejected write (exit 1 usage error, exit 2
validation error) is not silently swallowed — surface the helper's exact error
to the caller so it can fix the event name, field, or length and retry.