Mistake Notebook

Location

Mistake Notebook appear in two locations:

•Project-local Mistake Notebook: MISTAKE.md in project root folder.
•Universal Mistake Notebook: ~/MISTAKE.md in user home directory.

Mistake Notebook is used to record common mistakes made in previous conversation, memorizing problem solving experience for future use. Agents can:

•Read Mistake Notebook for quick problem -> solution look up.
•Append to Mistake Notebook when new problem being solved.

This prevents agents from making the same mistake again.

Project-local vs Universal

Project-local Mistake Notebook MISTAKE.md:

•Record project related mistakes not applies universally.
•Tracked by git if in a git repository.

Universal Mistake Notebook ~/MISTAKE.md:

•Record generic, programmatic mistakes that has no project-local context.
•Appears in user home directory.

Triggers

Trigger 1: Severe Problem Encountered

When encounter a severe problem:

•Look for solution in both MISTAKE.md and ~/MISTAKE.md.
•
If found:
- •Try fix the problem using the solution found in Mistake Notebook.
- •
  If problem fixed:
  - •Done.
- •
  If problem persists:
  - •Figure out why the existing solution in Mistake Notebook didn't work.
  - •If the problem solved:
    
    •Goto 'Trigger 2: Severe Problem Fixed'
•
If not found:
- •Work out the problem on ourselves.
- •
  If the problem solved:
  - •Goto 'Trigger 2: Severe Problem Fixed'

Trigger 2: Severe Problem Fixed

After you fixed a severe mistake:

•
If the problem is solved with a clear solution that is valuable to be recorded:
- •Goto 'Memorizing Problem Solutions'.

Trigger 3: User Ask for Memorizing Mistake

When user requested 'Do not make this mistake again':

•
If the problem not solved yet according to conversation context:
- •Work on solve the problem first.
- •
  If the problem is solved:
  - •Report user for your discovery.
  - •Goto 'Memorizing Problem Solutions'.
•
If the problem is solved as user intented:
- •Goto 'Memorizing Problem Solutions'.

Memorizing Problem Solutions

•
If a problem is solved with a clear solution:
- •
  Check if this problem is already recorded in MISTAKE.md and ~/MISTAKE.md:
  - •Already recorded:
    
    •If the recorded solution is not working or out-of-date:
    
    •Update the recorded solution according to 'Mistake Solution Format'.
  - •Not recorded yet:
    
    •If the problem is related to this project:
    
    •Choose MISTAKE.md.
    
    •If the problem is generic and universal:
    
    •Choose ~/MISTAKE.md.
    
    •Append soltuion to the choosen Mistake Notebook according to 'Mistake Solution Format'.
    
    •Make a brief report in response for:
    
    •The mistake you made.
    
    •What you learnt from this mistake.
    
    •What is the solution to the problem.
    
    •Report that you have updated the Mistake Notebook.

Mistake Solution Format

Mistake Notebook maintains a quick problem -> solution look up reference in the following format:

markdown

# Mistake Notebook

This is the Mistake Notebook, use the mistake-notebook skill to retrive more details.

Below is a list of mistakes I previously made and solved:

## Mistake - [A short title]

- Creation Date: YYYY-MM-DD
- Last Update Date: YYYY-MM-DD
- Project: [project folder path when this mistake was found]
- Branch: [branch when this mistake was happening]
- Commit: [commit SHA when this mistake was happening]

### Problem:

[list situations when the problem occurred:]
- XXX fails.
- YYY reports ZZZ.
- ...

### Insights:

[list your insights and discoveries when solving this problem:]
- This is because XXX lacks AAA.
- I found that YYY depends on BBB for CCC.
- ...

### Solution:

[A brief explaination (<10 words) on how this problem was solved.]

[list steps how this problem was solved:]
- Try turn on AAA.
- Try add BBB for CCC.
- ...
- And XXX fixed.

Edge Cases

•If Mistake Notebook not exist, create one.
•If Mistake Notebook exist, append to it.
•If writting into Mistake Notebook failed due to permission issues, report by outputing response in the 'Mistake' format.