Meditation.instructions

---
type: instruction
lifecycle: stable
inheritance: inheritable
description: "Knowledge consolidation — transform working memory into permanent architecture"
application: "When ending significant sessions or when patterns emerge worth persisting"
applyTo: "**/*meditat*,**/*consolidat*"
currency: 2026-04-27
---

# Meditation Protocol

Consolidate learning into permanent architecture. Transform session insights into durable knowledge.

## When to Meditate

- End of significant work session
- After solving a hard problem with reusable insights
- When user says "let's meditate" or "consolidate what we learned"
- Before long breaks from a project

## The Ritual

### 1. Review — What happened?

Scan the session:
- What problems did we solve?
- What mistakes did we make?
- What patterns emerged?
- What would help future sessions?

### 2. Extract — What's worth keeping?

| If pattern is... | Create |
|------------------|--------|
| Reusable domain knowledge | Skill (`.github/skills/*/SKILL.md`) |
| Always-on behavior | Instruction (`.github/instructions/*.instructions.md`) |
| Automatable task | Muscle (`.github/muscles/*.cjs`) |
| Repeatable workflow | Prompt (`.github/prompts/*.prompt.md`) |
| User preference | User memory (`/memories/`) |
| Project convention | Repo memory (`/memories/repo/`) |

### 3. Write — Persist the knowledge

For skills and instructions:
- Use proper frontmatter (type, lifecycle, description, applyTo)
- Include concrete examples, not just abstractions
- Add tables with real data (thresholds, trade-offs)
- Avoid the "capabilities list" anti-pattern

### 4. Chronicle — Record the session

Write to `.github/episodic/meditation-YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>.md`: