---
name: journal
description: Keep a small journal that carries across sessions. Read it when a session starts, and add a short entry after meaningful work. Use at the start of a session (to read), after finishing substantial work (to write), or when the user says "/journal".
---

# 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.