---
name: session-log
description: Write a durable session log capturing completed work, findings, open questions, and next steps. Use when the user asks to log progress, save session notes, write up what was done, or create a research diary entry.
---

# Session Log

Write a durable, readable log of the current research session. This is a lab-notebook entry, not a task tracker.

## Output location

`notes/session-logs/<YYYY-MM-DD>-<slug>.md`

Where `<slug>` is 1–5 hyphenated words describing the session's focus (e.g. `scaling-laws-comparison`, `nanogpt-replication`).

If more than one session happens in a day, append a suffix: `2026-04-18-nanogpt-replication-2.md`.

## Required sections

```markdown
# Session: <topic>

**Date:** YYYY-MM-DD
**Duration:** <approx. hh:mm or start/end>
**Slug:** <slug>

## What was done
- bulleted list of concrete actions: files written, experiments run, papers read
- cite the artifacts by path (e.g. `outputs/attention-scaling.md`, `papers/my-draft.md`)

## Key findings
- strongest claims, results, or decisions from the session
- mark each as `verified`, `unverified`, `inferred`, or `blocked` — match the honesty of the underlying evidence

## Open questions
- things you wanted to settle but couldn't
- each question should be concrete enough to hand off to another session

## Next steps
- one or two concrete actions the next session should take
- name the artifact or command to resume from

## Sources
- direct URLs for any external claim that matters
```

## Tie-in to `CHANGELOG.md`

If the workspace has a `CHANGELOG.md` (repo-level lab notebook), the session log and the changelog are complementary:

- Session log = the full narrative of one sitting
- CHANGELOG.md entry = a 2–4 line summary pointing at the session log

Append a changelog entry after writing the session log, referencing it by path.

## When to write

- At the end of any substantive research session
- Before switching projects or stepping away for more than a day
- When the user explicitly asks to "log progress" or "save session notes"

## When to skip

- Trivial one-question lookups that produced no artifacts
- Pure clarification exchanges with no research output
