/cs:post-mortem — Honest Retrospective

SkillDev tools

Once added, your AI can run an honest retrospective on a decision you have already made and executed, scoring the outcome against the success criteria, assumptions, and concerns you set beforehand. This gives you a clear read on whether the decision actually worked. It is meant for moments like a 90-day review checkpoint or when the kill criteria you defined have been met.

Available today. Use it from your connected AI after setup.

After adding it, ask your AI to run a post-mortem on a specific decision, such as last quarter's pricing change. Have the success criteria and concerns you set at the time ready so the retrospective can be scored against them.

Then ask your AI: use the /cs:post-mortem — Honest Retrospective skill

What your AI can do with it

  • Run an honest retrospective on a decision you have already executed
  • Score the outcome against the success criteria set beforehand
  • Check results against the original assumptions made when the decision was taken
  • Weigh how things turned out against concerns and dissent raised in advance
  • Review a decision when its 90-day checkpoint arrives or its kill criteria trigger
  • Close the loop on a strategic sprint

What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by hashangit/openfusion in .agents/skills/post-mortem/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.

Command: /cs:post-mortem <decision-path>

Closes the strategic sprint loop. Scores a decision against the success and kill criteria written before the decision (not retro-fitted) and revisits the preserved dissent. This is the rigor that compounds over time.

Pipeline Position

/cs:office-hours  →  /cs:brief  →  /cs:boardroom  →  /cs:decide  →  /cs:execute  →  /cs:post-mortem
                                                                                       ↑ you are here

When to Run

  • At the 90-day checkpoint (auto-scheduled by /cs:decide)
  • When a kill criterion triggers
  • After a major decision is reversed
  • Quarterly on all decisions of the past quarter

Inputs

  • The decision record (output of /cs:decide)
  • The execution plan (output of /cs:execute)
  • Actual outcomes (metrics, events, customer signals)

Output: Post-Mortem Record

Saved to ~/.claude/postmortems/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md:

# Post-Mortem: <decision title>
**Decision date:** YYYY-MM-DD
**Post-mortem date:** YYYY-MM-DD
**Status:** WIN / PARTIAL / LOSS / MIXED

## Outcome Scoring (against pre-committed criteria)

| Success Criterion | Threshold | Actual | Met? |
|---|---|---|---|
| <metric 1> | <threshold> | <actual> | ✅ / ❌ |
| <metric 2> | <threshold> | <actual> | ✅ / ❌ |

| Kill Criterion | Threshold | Actual | Triggered? |
|---|---|---|---|
| <metric> | <threshold> | <actual> | ✅ / ❌ |

**Overall:** WIN / PARTIAL / LOSS / MIXED

## What We Got Right
- <factor 1>
- <factor 2>

## What We Got Wrong
- <factor 1>
- <factor 2>

## Preserved Dissent — Revisited
[Original dissent from the boardroom memo, scored:]

- **<dissenter>:** <original concern>
  - **Did it materialize?** YES / NO / PARTIAL
  - **Cost if YES:** <quantified impact>
  - **Lesson:** <one sentence>

## Assumption Audit
[Original brief's assumptions, scored:]

- **Assumption 1:** <text>
  - **Held?** YES / NO / PARTIAL
  - **Why:** <explanation>

## Process Lessons
- **Phase 2 isolation worked?** YES / NO
- **Devil's advocate concerns played out?** YES / NO / PARTIAL
- **Cadence was right?** YES / TOO LOOSE / TOO TIGHT

## Forward Actions
- [ ] <change to operating system or routing logic>
- [ ] <new decision to make based on this learning>
- [ ] <update company-context.md>

## Status
- WIN → archive, log lesson
- LOSS → schedule follow-up boardroom: `/cs:brief` for the next call

Why Pre-Committed Criteria Matter

The biggest temptation in post-mortems is retroactive justification: "we always knew X, that's why we did Y." Pre-committed criteria, signed at /cs:decide time, eliminate that move. The numbers either matched or they didn't.

Why Revisit Dissent

The dissent column from /cs:boardroom is the single most useful piece of organizational memory. Most of the time, the dissenter was directionally right. Revisiting and scoring it builds calibration over years.

Routing

  • /cs:brief — if the post-mortem surfaces a new decision
  • /cs:freeze — if the post-mortem reveals a process gap that needs cooldown enforcement
  • Updates to company-context.md via cs-onboard

Related


Version: 1.0.0

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Sep 2026
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Source
github.com/hashangit/openfusion