Continuous Improvement Workflow¶

Purpose: Systematically improve system quality over time

When to use: - Weekly/monthly reviews (extract learnings) - After major milestones (retrospective) - Pattern refinement (improve reusable patterns) - Technical debt reduction (systematic cleanup)

Token budget: 30-50k tokens per cycle

Workflow Phases¶

Text Only

Phase 1: Review (10-15% context)
   ↓
Phase 2: Identify (5-10% context)
   ↓
Phase 3: Prioritize (5-10% context)
   ↓
Phase 4: Improve (10-15% context)

Phase 1: Review¶

Goal: Assess recent work

Commands:

Bash

/retro --retrospective --since "30 days ago"

Activities: - Review git commits - Analyze patterns used - Identify repeated problems - Note what worked well

Output: Review summary

Phase 2: Identify¶

Goal: Find improvement opportunities

Activities: - Code quality issues - Documentation gaps - Process inefficiencies - Pattern opportunities

Output: Improvement candidates list

Phase 3: Prioritize¶

Goal: Rank by impact and effort

Matrix:

Text Only

High Impact, Low Effort → DO FIRST
High Impact, High Effort → PLAN
Low Impact, Low Effort → MAYBE
Low Impact, High Effort → SKIP

Output: Prioritized improvement backlog

Phase 4: Improve¶

Goal: Execute improvements

Commands:

Bash

# For each improvement:
/plan [improvement]
/implement [improvement]-plan
/vibe recent
/retro --quick [improvement]

Output: Improved system + new patterns

Example: Monthly Improvement Cycle¶

Bash

# Phase 1: Review
/retro --retrospective --since "2025-10-01"
# Findings:
# - 15 commits reviewed
# - 3 patterns emerged (used 5+ times each)
# - 2 repeated issues (test failures, linting)

# Phase 2: Identify
# Opportunities:
# 1. Extract 3 patterns to pattern catalog
# 2. Fix recurring test flakiness
# 3. Add pre-commit hook for linting

# Phase 3: Prioritize
# Priority 1: Pre-commit hook (high impact, low effort)
# Priority 2: Fix test flakiness (high impact, medium effort)
# Priority 3: Extract patterns (medium impact, low effort)

# Phase 4: Improve
/plan pre-commit-hook
/implement pre-commit-hook-plan
/vibe recent
/retro --quick pre-commit-improvement
# Result: 90% reduction in linting issues

Start continuous improvement with: /retro --retrospective