BTW (By-The-Way) Skill

Capture improvement suggestions on the fly without disrupting your workflow

Commands

Command	Description	Example
/btw "text"	Record a new suggestion	/btw "Consider adding input validation to user form"
/btw list	Show all collected suggestions	/btw list
/btw analyze	Analyze and categorize suggestions	/btw analyze
/btw promote [id]	Promote suggestion to PDCA feature	/btw promote 3

How It Works

Recording a Suggestion

1. Read .bkit/btw.json (create if it does not exist)
2. Append a new entry with:
   • id: Auto-incrementing integer
   • text: The suggestion text
   • timestamp: ISO 8601 date string
   • context: Current file or feature being worked on
   • status: pending (default)
   • category: Auto-detected (perf, ux, refactor, security, docs, other)
3. Write the updated array back to .bkit/btw.json using write_file

Storage Format

{
  "entries": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "text": "Consider caching API responses for /users endpoint",
      "timestamp": "2026-04-09T14:30:00Z",
      "context": "src/api/users.js",
      "status": "pending",
      "category": "perf"
    }
  ]
}

Listing Suggestions

1. Read .bkit/btw.json
2. Display entries in a table sorted by newest first
3. Show status indicators: pending, promoted, dismissed

Analyzing Suggestions

1. Read all entries from .bkit/btw.json
2. Group by category
3. Identify patterns and recurring themes
4. Suggest which items to prioritize
5. Estimate effort for each (low/medium/high)

Promoting to PDCA Feature

1. Read the specified entry by ID
2. Create a new PDCA plan document: docs/01-plan/features/{slug}.plan.md
3. Pre-fill the plan with the suggestion details
4. Update the entry status to promoted
5. Inform user to continue with /pdca design {slug}

Categories

Category	Detection Keywords
perf	cache, speed, optimize, slow, performance, latency
ux	user, UI, UX, interface, experience, accessibility
refactor	refactor, cleanup, simplify, DRY, extract, reorganize
security	security, auth, validation, sanitize, XSS, CSRF
docs	document, README, comment, explain, JSDoc
other	Everything else

Integration with PDCA

BTW feeds into the Act phase:

1. Collect suggestions during Do phase with /btw "..."
2. Review collected items with /btw list
3. Analyze patterns with /btw analyze
4. Promote actionable items with /btw promote [id]
5. Continue with standard PDCA flow for promoted items