session-to-post

What this skill does

# Session to Post

Capture what happened in a Claude Code session and turn it into a
blog post, case study, or social media thread that others can learn from.

The skill extracts the real story from git history, file changes, and
conversation context, then shapes it into a narrative that shows
process, not just results.

## When To Use

- After completing a meaningful chunk of work you want to share
- Creating dev blog content from real sessions
- Building case studies for tools, libraries, or techniques
- Producing marketing content that demonstrates capability
- Documenting a process for teammates who weren't in the session
- Sharing a session story with a Reddit community (r/programming,
  r/rust, r/Python, r/ClaudeAI, etc.)

## When NOT To Use

- Writing API reference documentation (use `scribe:doc-generator`)
- Creating step-by-step tutorials (use `scribe:tech-tutorial`)
- Cleaning up existing prose (use `scribe:slop-detector`)
- Internal project documentation (use `sanctum:doc-updates`)

## Integration Points

This skill connects to several others in the ecosystem.
Use them when the post needs more than prose.

| Need | Skill | What it adds |
|------|-------|-------------|
| Terminal demo GIF | `scry:vhs-recording` | Record a build/test run as an animated GIF |
| Browser demo GIF | `scry:browser-recording` | Capture a web UI walkthrough via Playwright |
| Composite media | `scry:media-composition` | Stitch terminal and browser GIFs side-by-side |
| Proof of claims | `imbue:proof-of-work` | Verify every number in the post with evidence |
| Code quality narrative | `pensive:code-refinement` | Describe what was cleaned up and why |
| Review narrative | `imbue:structured-review` | Capture review findings as post content |
| Change summary | `imbue:catchup` | Summarize what changed for the post's "The Work" section |
| Diff analysis | `imbue:diff-analysis` | Risk-scored change breakdown for technical audiences |

### Recording Integration (scry)

When the post describes something visual (a running app, a test suite,
a build pipeline) capture it instead of describing it.

**Terminal recordings** (build output, test runs, CLI demos):
```
Invoke Skill(scry:vhs-recording) with a tape that runs:
  make test        → shows 180 tests passing
  make play        → shows the build + server startup
```

**Browser recordings** (web apps, rendered output):
```
Invoke Skill(scry:browser-recording) with a Playwright spec that:
  navigates to the app
  interacts with it
  captures the result
```

**Composition** (side-by-side before/after, terminal and browser):
```
Invoke Skill(scry:media-composition) to stitch recordings into
a single visual that tells the story.
```

Place generated GIFs in `docs/posts/assets/` and reference them
from the markdown with relative paths.

### Proof-of-Work Integration (imbue)

Every claim in the post should be verifiable. Before finalizing:

```
Invoke Skill(imbue:proof-of-work) to:
  - Tag each claim with [E1], [E2], etc.
  - Run verification commands
  - Report PASS / FAIL / BLOCKED
```

This prevents publishing posts with stale numbers or broken examples.

## Methodology

### Step 1: Extract Session Context

Load the `session-extraction` module for the full checklist.

Gather raw material from what actually happened:

1. **Git history**: commits since the session started:
   ```bash
   git log --oneline --since="<session_start>" --stat
   ```
2. **File inventory**: what was created and changed:
   ```bash
   git diff --stat <start_commit>..HEAD
   ```
3. **Test results**: concrete evidence of what works:
   ```bash
   cargo test  # or the project's test command
   ```
4. **Metrics**: scope and scale:
   ```bash
   find . -name "*.rs" -not -path "*/target/*" | xargs wc -l
   ```
5. **Conversation context**: the user's goals, constraints, and decisions
   made during the session

### Step 2: Identify the Story

Every session post answers three questions:

1. **What were we trying to do?**: the goal, not the task list
2. **What did we actually do?**: the real path, including pivots
3. **What came out of it?**: concrete, measurable results

Look for:
- **The hook**: what makes this interesting? A hard problem, a
  surprising approach, an impressive result
- **Turning points**: where did the plan change? What broke?
  What worked unexpectedly?
- **The number**: one metric that captures the outcome
  (lines written, tests passing, performance gain, time saved)

### Step 3: Draft the Post

**Choose format first:**

| Format | Module | When |
|--------|--------|------|
| Blog post | `narrative-structure` | Dev blog, company blog, personal site |
| Case study | `narrative-structure` | Marketing, tool demonstrations |
| Social thread | `narrative-structure` | Twitter/X, Bluesky, LinkedIn |
| Reddit post | `reddit-format` | Community engagement, r/programming etc. |

For Reddit: load `modules/reddit-format.md` instead of the blog
template below. The structure, tone, and quality gate differ.

Load the `narrative-structure` module for blog/case-study templates.

**Blog post structure** (adapt to content):

```markdown
# Title: [Verb] + [What] + [With What]

## Opening (2-3 sentences)
What we set out to do and why. No throat-clearing.

## Starting Point
Where things stood before. Concrete: file counts, code state,
what worked and what didn't.

## The Work
Key phases. Focus on decisions and pivots, not keystrokes.
- Phase 1: [what and why]
- Phase 2: [what and why]
Include GIFs from scry recordings where visual.

## How We Tested It
What verification looked like. Show the test run, the proof-of-work
evidence. Include terminal recording GIF of tests passing.

## Results
Hard numbers. Before/after. What works now.
Screenshots or browser recording GIF if visual.

## What's Next
Honest remaining work. No false completeness.
```

**Tone**:
- Write like explaining to a colleague over coffee
- Specifics over adjectives ("180 tests" not "comprehensive suite")
- Show the mess: readers connect with pivots and debugging
- Credit the tools and techniques that made it work
- Under 1500 words unless the content demands more

### Step 4: Quality Gate

**For blog posts and case studies:**
1. **Slop check**: `Skill(scribe:slop-detector)` on the draft
2. **Proof-of-work**: `Skill(imbue:proof-of-work)` on all claims
3. **Recording check**: does any section need a GIF?
4. **Title test**: would you click this? Does it promise
   something specific?
5. **Opening test**: does paragraph one say what the post is about?

**For Reddit posts (additional gates):**
1. **TL;DR present**: is it after `---` at the end?
2. **Lede not buried**: is the most interesting thing in the
   first two sentences?
3. **Subreddit fit**: does the content match the target subreddit's
   norms? Check the subreddit's top posts of the month.
4. **First comment drafted**: are the repo link and any reference
   material ready to post as a follow-up comment?
5. **Header count**: if the post is under 600 words, are headers
   absent (or replaced with bold inline labels)?

### Step 5: Output

Write the post to the requested location (default:
`docs/posts/`).

Report:
- Format used (blog post / case study / Reddit post)
- Word count
- Slop score (blog/case-study only)
- Verifiable claims count
- Recordings generated (if any)
- For Reddit: target subreddit and first-comment content

## Example

A session that ported a Quake 2 engine from C to Rust:

> **Title**: Rewriting a Quake 2 Engine in Rust with Claude Code
>
> **Opening**: We took a 150,000-line C game engine and started
> rewriting it in Rust targeting WebAssembly. In one session we went
> from an empty workspace to a prototype loading real game data in
> the browser.
>
> **Starting point**: A Yamagi Quake II fork compiled with Emscripten.
> Goal: idiomatic Rust with wasm-bindgen, glow for WebGL2, and
> matchbox for P2P multiplayer.
>
> **The work**: Seven parallel agents built subsystems (collision,
> movement, filesystem, networking, ren