Forge Skill

Typically runs automatically via SessionEnd hook.

Extract knowledge from session transcripts.

How It Works

The SessionEnd hook runs:

ao forge transcript --last-session --queue --quiet

This queues the session for knowledge extraction.

Manual Execution

Given /forge [path]:

Step 1: Identify Transcript

With ao CLI:

# Mine recent sessions
ao forge --recent

# Mine specific transcript
ao forge transcript <path>

Without ao CLI:
Look at recent conversation history and extract learnings manually.

Step 2: Extract Knowledge Types

Look for these patterns in the transcript:

Type	Signals	Weight
Decision	"decided to", "chose", "went with"	0.8
Learning	"learned that", "discovered", "realized"	0.9
Failure	"failed because", "broke when", "didn't work"	1.0
Pattern	"always do X", "the trick is", "pattern:"	0.7

Step 3: Write Candidates

Write to: .agents/forge/YYYY-MM-DD-forge.md

# Forged: YYYY-MM-DD

## Decisions
- [D1] <decision made>
  - Source: <where in conversation>
  - Confidence: <0.0-1.0>

## Learnings
- [L1] <what was learned>
  - Source: <where in conversation>
  - Confidence: <0.0-1.0>

## Failures
- [F1] <what failed and why>
  - Source: <where in conversation>
  - Confidence: <0.0-1.0>

## Patterns
- [P1] <reusable pattern>
  - Source: <where in conversation>
  - Confidence: <0.0-1.0>

Step 4: Index for Search

if command -v ao &>/dev/null; then
  ao forge markdown .agents/forge/YYYY-MM-DD-forge.md 2>/dev/null
else
  # Without ao CLI: auto-promote high-confidence candidates to learnings
  mkdir -p .agents/learnings .agents/ao
  for f in .agents/forge/YYYY-MM-DD-*.md; do
    [ -f "$f" ] || continue
    # Extract confidence (numeric or categorical)
    CONF=$(grep -i "confidence:" "$f" | head -1 | awk '{print $NF}')
    # Normalize categorical to numeric: high=0.9, medium=0.6, low=0.3
    case "$CONF" in
      high) CONF_NUM=0.9 ;; medium) CONF_NUM=0.6 ;; low) CONF_NUM=0.3 ;; *) CONF_NUM=$CONF ;;
    esac
    # Auto-promote if confidence >= 0.7
    if (( $(echo "$CONF_NUM >= 0.7" | bc -l) )); then
      cp "$f" .agents/learnings/
      TITLE=$(head -1 "$f" | sed 's/^# //')
      echo "{\"file\": \".agents/learnings/$(basename $f)\", \"title\": \"$TITLE\", \"keywords\": [], \"timestamp\": \"$(date -Iseconds)\"}" >> .agents/ao/search-index.jsonl
      echo "Auto-promoted (confidence $CONF): $(basename $f)"
    fi
  done
  echo "Forge indexing complete (ao CLI not available — high-confidence candidates auto-promoted)"
fi

Step 5: Report Results

Tell the user:

• Number of items extracted by type
• Location of forge output
• Candidates ready for promotion to learnings

The Quality Pool

Forged candidates enter at Tier 0:

Transcript → /forge → .agents/forge/ (Tier 0)
                           ↓
                   Human review or 2+ citations
                   OR auto-promote (confidence >= 0.7, ao-free fallback)
                           ↓
                   .agents/learnings/ (Tier 1)

Key Rules

• Runs automatically - usually via hook
• Extract, don't interpret - capture what was said
• Score by confidence - not all extractions are equal
• Queue for review - candidates need validation

Examples

SessionEnd Hook Invocation

Hook triggers: session-end.sh runs when session ends

What happens:

1. Hook calls ao forge transcript --last-session --queue --quiet
2. CLI analyzes session transcript for decisions, learnings, failures, patterns
3. CLI writes session ID to .agents/ao/pending.jsonl queue
4. Next session start triggers /extract to process the queue

Result: Session transcript automatically queued for knowledge extraction without user action.

Manual Transcript Mining

User says: /forge <path> or "mine this transcript for knowledge"

What happens:

1. Agent identifies transcript path or uses ao forge --recent
2. Agent scans transcript for knowledge patterns (decisions, learnings, failures, patterns)
3. Agent scores each extraction by confidence (0.0-1.0)
4. Agent writes candidates to .agents/forge/YYYY-MM-DD-forge.md
5. Agent indexes forge output with ao forge markdown
6. Agent reports extraction counts and candidate locations

Result: Transcript mined for reusable knowledge, candidates ready for human review or 2+ citations promotion.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Cause	Solution
No extractions found	Transcript lacks knowledge signals or ao CLI unavailable	Check transcript contains decisions/learnings; verify ao CLI installed
Low confidence scores	Weak signals or vague conversation	Focus sessions on concrete decisions and explicit learnings
forge --queue fails	CLI not available or permission error	Manually append to .agents/ao/pending.jsonl with session metadata
Duplicate forge outputs	Same session forged multiple times	Check forge filenames before writing; ao CLI handles dedup automatically