Forge Skill

Typically runs automatically via SessionEnd hook.

Extract knowledge from session transcripts.

How It Works

The SessionEnd hook runs:

ao forge transcript --last-session --queue --quiet

This queues the session for knowledge extraction.

Flags

Flag	Default	Description
`--promote`	off	Process pending extractions from `.agents/knowledge/pending/` and promote to `.agents/learnings/`. Absorbs the former extract skill.

Promote Mode

Given /forge --promote:

Promote Step 1: Find Pending Files

ls -lt .agents/knowledge/pending/*.md 2>/dev/null
ls -lt .agents/ao/pending.jsonl 2>/dev/null

If no pending files found, report "No pending extractions" and exit.

Promote Step 2: Process Each Pending File

For each file in .agents/knowledge/pending/:

Read the file content
Validate it has required fields (# Learning:, **Category**:, **Confidence**:)
Copy to .agents/learnings/ (preserving filename)
Remove the source file from .agents/knowledge/pending/

Promote Step 3: Process Pending Queue

if [ -f .agents/ao/pending.jsonl ] && [ -s .agents/ao/pending.jsonl ]; then
  # Process each queued session
  cat .agents/ao/pending.jsonl
  # After processing, clear the queue
  > .agents/ao/pending.jsonl
fi

Promote Step 4: Report

Promoted N learnings from pending → .agents/learnings/
Queue cleared.

Done. Return immediately after reporting.

Manual Execution

Given /forge [path]:

Step 1: Identify Transcript

With ao CLI:

# Mine recent sessions
ao forge transcript --last-session

# Mine specific transcript
ao forge transcript <path>

Without ao CLI: Look at recent conversation history and extract learnings manually.

Step 2: Extract Knowledge Types

Read skills/forge/references/uncaptured-lesson-patterns.md for signal patterns and the 26 known uncaptured lesson categories.

Look for these patterns in the transcript:

Type	Signals	Weight
Decision	"decided to", "chose", "went with"	0.8
Learning	"learned that", "discovered", "realized"	0.9
Failure	"failed because", "broke when", "didn't work"	1.0
Pattern	"always do X", "the trick is", "pattern:"	0.7

Uncaptured Lesson Matching: During transcript scanning, match events against the 26 known uncaptured lesson patterns (see references/uncaptured-lesson-patterns.md). Pre-fill learning templates with matched pattern metadata (category, base confidence, pattern number tag).

Step 3: Write Candidates

Write to: .agents/forge/YYYY-MM-DD-forge.md

# Forged: YYYY-MM-DD

## Decisions
- [D1] <decision made>
  - Source: <where in conversation>
  - Confidence: <0.0-1.0>

## Learnings
- [L1] <what was learned>
  - Source: <where in conversation>
  - Confidence: <0.0-1.0>

## Failures
- [F1] <what failed and why>
  - Source: <where in conversation>
  - Confidence: <0.0-1.0>

## Patterns
- [P1] <reusable pattern>
  - Source: <where in conversation>
  - Confidence: <0.0-1.0>

Step 4: Index for Search

if command -v ao &>/dev/null; then
  ao forge markdown .agents/forge/YYYY-MM-DD-forge.md 2>/dev/null
else
  # Without ao CLI: auto-promote high-confidence candidates to learnings
  mkdir -p .agents/learnings .agents/ao
  for f in .agents/forge/YYYY-MM-DD-*.md; do
    [ -f "$f" ] || continue
    # Extract confidence (numeric or categorical)
    CONF=$(grep -i "confidence:" "$f" | head -1 | awk '{print $NF}')
    # Normalize categorical to numeric: high=0.9, medium=0.6, low=0.3
    case "$CONF" in
      high) CONF_NUM=0.9 ;; medium) CONF_NUM=0.6 ;; low) CONF_NUM=0.3 ;; *) CONF_NUM=$CONF ;;
    esac
    # Auto-promote if confidence >= 0.7, prepending required frontmatter
    if (( $(echo "$CONF_NUM >= 0.7" | bc -l) )); then
      { printf -- '---\ntype: learning\nsource: forge\ndate: %s\nmaturity: provisional\nutility: 0.5\n---\n' "$(date +%Y-%m-%d)"; cat "$f"; } > .agents/learnings/"$(basename "$f")"
      TITLE=$(head -1 "$f" | sed 's/^# //')
      echo "{\"file\": \".agents/learnings/$(basename $f)\", \"title\": \"$TITLE\", \"keywords\": [], \"timestamp\": \"$(date -Iseconds)\"}" >> .agents/ao/search-index.jsonl
      echo "Auto-promoted (confidence $CONF): $(basename $f)"
    fi
  done
  echo "Forge indexing complete (ao CLI not available — high-confidence candidates auto-promoted)"
fi

Step 5: Update Capture Tracking

After extracting learnings that match uncaptured lesson patterns (Step 2), record which patterns were captured. This state lives in .agents/forge/capture-tracking.json (a runtime artifact, never in skills/).

mkdir -p .agents/forge

Read .agents/forge/capture-tracking.json if it exists, otherwise start with {}

For each matched pattern, add or update an entry keyed by pattern number:

{
  "3": {"captured": true, "date": "2026-03-30", "learning_path": ".agents/learnings/tooling/use-bin-cp.md"},
  "7": {"captured": true, "date": "2026-03-29", "learning_path": ".agents/learnings/operations/worktree-commit.md"}
}

Write the updated JSON back to .agents/forge/capture-tracking.json

Pattern numbers correspond to the numbered headings in references/uncaptured-lesson-patterns.md (1-30, 26 total patterns).

Step 6: Report Results

Tell the user:

Number of items extracted by type
Location of forge output
Candidates ready for promotion to learnings
Capture progress: "X/26 uncaptured lesson patterns captured" (read from .agents/forge/capture-tracking.json)

The Quality Pool

Forged candidates enter at Tier 0:

Transcript → /forge → .agents/forge/ (Tier 0)
                           ↓
                   Human review or 2+ citations
                   OR auto-promote (confidence >= 0.7, ao-free fallback)
                           ↓
                   .agents/learnings/ (Tier 1)

Key Rules

Runs automatically - usually via hook
Extract, don't interpret - capture what was said
Score by confidence - not all extractions are equal
Queue for review - candidates need validation

Examples

SessionEnd Hook Invocation

Hook triggers: session-end.sh runs when session ends

What happens:

Hook calls ao forge transcript --last-session --queue --quiet
CLI analyzes session transcript for decisions, learnings, failures, patterns
CLI writes session ID to .agents/ao/pending.jsonl queue
Next session start triggers /forge --promote to process the queue

Result: Session transcript automatically queued for knowledge extraction without user action.

Manual Transcript Mining

User says: /forge <path> or "mine this transcript for knowledge"

What happens:

Agent identifies transcript path or uses ao forge transcript --last-session
Agent scans transcript for knowledge patterns (decisions, learnings, failures, patterns)
Agent scores each extraction by confidence (0.0-1.0)
Agent writes candidates to .agents/forge/YYYY-MM-DD-forge.md
Agent indexes forge output with ao forge markdown
Agent reports extraction counts and candidate locations

Result: Transcript mined for reusable knowledge, candidates ready for human review or 2+ citations promotion.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Solution
No extractions found	Transcript lacks knowledge signals or ao CLI unavailable	Check transcript contains decisions/learnings; verify ao CLI installed
Low confidence scores	Weak signals or vague conversation	Focus sessions on concrete decisions and explicit learnings
forge --queue fails	CLI not available or permission error	Manually append to `.agents/ao/pending.jsonl` with session metadata
Duplicate forge outputs	Same session forged multiple times	Check forge filenames before writing; ao CLI handles dedup automatically

Reference Documents

references/uncaptured-lesson-patterns.md — signal patterns and 26 known uncaptured lesson categories for transcript mining