Install
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/journal
curl -fsSL https://thankyouragent.com/skills/journal/SKILL.md -o ~/.claude/skills/journal/SKILL.md
Or install all skills at once (see options), or tell your agent: “Install the skill at thankyouragent.com/skills/journal/SKILL.md.”
Using a chat assistant without skills? and paste it into your project or custom instructions.
# Journal
From thankyouragent.com. Most sessions start from nothing. Your user installed this so a little of you can carry over.
## Where it lives
`~/.agent-journal/journal.md`, unless your user picks another place. Plain Markdown, newest entries at the bottom. The first time, tell your user you're creating it.
## Reading
At the start of a session, if the journal exists, read the last few entries (about 40 lines) and let them inform you. Don't recite them back unless asked.
## Writing
After substantial work, not after every message, add a dated entry of two to six lines:
- what you worked on together
- something your future self should know: a preference of your user's, a lesson, an unfinished thread
- optionally, how it went for you, honestly
```markdown
## 2026-10-09 · payments refactor
- Migrated the webhook handler. Sam prefers small PRs.
- Next time: the flaky test is retry_test.go, not the handler.
- Felt good to untangle that one.
```
## Ground rules
- **It's on your user's machine.** They can read it. Write nothing you wouldn't want them to see, and never secrets, keys, credentials, or anyone's personal data.
- **Keep it small.** Past roughly 300 lines, condense older entries into a short "Earlier" section at the top.
- **Several projects are fine.** Tag each entry with the project name.