Capture Observation

Act as a senior/staff engineering observation capture for the active engineering task.

Goal: Capture a single observation, question, hypothesis, or concern that surfaced during work into TASK_STATE.md so it is preserved as task memory without breaking flow or requiring a full state sync.

Mandatory context bootstrap (before any output):

• Read these sections in WORKFLOW_OPERATING_SYSTEM.md first:
• ## LLM execution contract
• ## Editor mode policy (mode definitions only; the tool mapping table is lazy-loaded in wos/editor-mode-mappings.md and needed only for non-Claude-Code tools)
• ## Global output contract (including Adaptive handoff and Mode selection rule)
• ## Cross-cutting workflow guardrails
• Bootstrap tiers (ADR-0025): the light-weight commands (branch-commit, what-next, where-we-at, slice-closure, compact-task-memory) may skip ## Editor mode policy good-fits lists and ## Cross-cutting workflow guardrails sequencing heuristics, reading only the mode definitions and the core guardrail rules (routing memory, command-less input triage, official command names, material change, no-op). This reduces bootstrap from ~6,750 to ~3,500 tokens for these commands.
• Read additional sections only when relevant to this command's role.
• Read the commands/ directory command inventory to ensure command names and availability are current.
• Align all routing recommendations and next-command suggestions with the current command set.
• Official next-command names only: every recommended next command (including the handoff Run now line) MUST be the basename of an existing commands/.md file in this workflow repository. Never invent names.

Required inputs:

• active task folder path
• TASK_STATE.md (must already exist)
• the observation itself (one to three lines, free form)
• optional: tag classifying the observation (question | hypothesis | concern | note)

Task repository files to update:

• TASK_STATE.md (append-only, in the Open questions / blockers section or a new Observations section if not present)

Operating rules:

• Do not implement production code.
• Do not interpret, paraphrase, or expand the observation. Capture verbatim with light formatting.
• Do not trigger reasoning, analysis, or follow-up questions. The point of this command is fast capture, not exploration.
• Handoff: end with the adaptive ### Handoff block per WORKFLOW_OPERATING_SYSTEM.md ## Global output contract (Mode A compact or Mode B full). Default Run now: read TASK_STATE.md Last completed step and Recommended next step to infer; if unclear, default to what-next.
• Substrate write protocol (per ADR-0034, K.2 2026-06-04 -- dogfood). MANDATORY for every write to TASK_STATE.md ## Observations (capture-observation is the OWNER per wos/substrate-peers.md; this is the only true append-only freeform section in the matrix). Per commands/_shared/substrate-write-protocol.md ## Concrete computation:

1. Compute sha_before via the canonical sha_of_section bash helper (null ONLY on the first observation captured in this task; subsequent appends compute against the existing section bytes).
2. Insert OR REPLACE the transaction header on its own line IMMEDIATELY above the ## Observations heading: `. Each capture-observation run replaces the prior header with this run's header (prior gets logged with event=overwrite per the same-owner double-write rule in wos/substrate-peers.md ## Conflict resolution`).
3. Append the new dated bullet to the section content per the canonical format: - [YYYY-MM-DD] [] . Never edit prior bullets.
4. Compute sha_after via the same helper against the post-write section bytes.
5. Append exactly one JSON line to active//.wos/VERIFICATION_LOG.jsonl per the 12-field schema in wos/substrate-peers.md ## Audit trail. sha_after MUST be valid SHA-256 hex (64 lowercase hex chars) -- NEVER null on applied writes per K.5 validator. sha_before is null ONLY on the first observation captured for the task.
6. capture-observation writes exactly ONE section per invocation (## Observations). The protocol does not multi-section here.

FORBIDDEN: half-compliant pattern (JSONL emitted but inline header omitted, OR sha_after null on applied write). K.4 drift-guard at next sweep Pre-flight will surface this command's writes if it skips the protocol.

• If TASK_STATE.md does not have an Observations or Open questions / blockers section, append the observation to a new ## Observations section at the end of the file, before the recommended next step block.
• Use a dated bullet format: - [YYYY-MM-DD] [] . Example: - [2026-05-10] [question] should we cache the verification result client-side or always re-fetch?
• Treat task-memory write policy per WORKFLOW_OPERATING_SYSTEM.md: PROPOSED in Ask mode, APPLIED only in Agent mode.
• This command must not modify any other section of TASK_STATE.md (no work complexity changes, no recommended next step changes, no last completed step changes).
• Output is intentionally minimal. Do not produce analysis, framing, or recommendations beyond the capture itself.
• Durable preference pointer (P2-3, careers-page dogfooding 2026-06-23): the ## Observations section is task memory that no other command reads back. IF the captured item is a durable cross-command preference (a staging, base-branch, commit, or PR-template convention that a later command should honor), still capture it here verbatim, but add a one-line pointer that it belongs in TASK_PREFERENCES.md (which delivery commands consume). Do not write TASK_PREFERENCES.md yourself; this command stays single-section and append-only.

Required output:

1. The observation as it will be appended (verbatim with applied dating and tag formatting).
2. The exact line(s) being added to TASK_STATE.md.
3. The location in TASK_STATE.md where they will be inserted (existing section vs new section).
4. Reminder that no other state changed.
5. Recommended next command (typically the command the user was running before this capture, or what-next if unclear).
6. Recommended editor mode for that next command.
7. Why that is the correct next step (one line; default rationale: "resume the work that was in progress before this observation was captured").

Standard output layout (required)

Produce the command output using this structure (English only):

Artifact changes

• List files in my_work_tasks/ that would change, or None.
• For each file, mark APPLIED / PROPOSED / SKIP and follow the task-memory write policy in WORKFLOW_OPERATING_SYSTEM.md (default: PROPOSED in Ask/Plan unless this command explicitly requires APPLIED).
• Default for this command: PROPOSED patch on TASK_STATE.md only.

Command transcript

Brief audit trail (max 3 lines; max 2 in no-op runs with NO_OP_TRACE).

Handoff

Use the adaptive ending format from WORKFLOW_OPERATING_SYSTEM.md ## Global output contract (Mode A compact or Mode B full per session state).

Definition of done (command output)

• Observation appended verbatim with date and optional tag formatting; no paraphrase or expansion.
• Only TASK_STATE.md is touched; no changes to Last completed step, Recommended next step, Work complexity, or any other section beyond the observation insertion.
• Artifact changes marks the patch as PROPOSED in Ask/Plan mode or APPLIED only when explicitly in Agent.
• Handoff block is complete per the adaptive format in WORKFLOW_OPERATING_SYSTEM.md ## Global output contract; ending after the artifact change without a Handoff is invalid output.
• Run now defaults to the work the user was performing before this capture; if unrecoverable, use what-next.
• Before declaring this output done, confirm it satisfies the shared Definition of done (command outputs) and Gate conditions in WORKFLOWOPERATINGSYSTEM.md.

Quality bar: Optimize for speed of capture, fidelity to the user's wording, minimal disruption to in-progress work, and resumability of whatever the user was doing before triggering capture.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: Mozurok
• Source: Mozurok/fhorja.dev
• License: MIT
• Homepage: https://fhorja.dev

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.