pi-captains-log

Captain's log, stardate today. An engineering logbook for pi and oh-my-pi.

Lots of good engineers keep a log of what they worked on, so weeks or years later they can pick a problem back up, or answer "when did we change X, and why?" Most stop after a few weeks because writing it is one more chore. Your coding agent was there for the whole session: the question you started with, what you tried, what you ruled out, what you measured and what you decided. pi-captains-log asks at real stopping points whether to save that into your Markdown vault (Obsidian or any folder of notes), then has the agent distill it into a note you can resume from without redoing the investigation.

What it does

• Notices stopping points. Opening a PR (gh pr create), merging one (gh pr merge) or publishing a release (gh release create) is a stopping point. Successful git pushes are collected quietly and go into the next entry; they don't prompt on their own, so fix-up pushes to an open PR stay silent. Failed or no-op commands count for nothing, including a rejected push hidden behind | tail.
• Asks once, and you can shush it. When the agent finishes a turn after a stopping point, you get one prompt: Make it so, Not now, or Stop asking this session. No status-bar counter; /log always works.
• /log [note] writes an entry at any time, with an optional note in your own words. Asking the agent to "write this up" uses the same skill.
• Writes a session note you can resume from, following the bundled captains-log skill and its templates. It distills the conversation rather than transcribing it or listing commands: bottom line and current status, the original goal and constraints, the explanation you arrived at, decisions with the paths ruled out, evidence kept apart from hypotheses, and the next concrete step. Research-only sessions count; detected pushes and PRs are just references. If part of the session isn't visible to the agent, the note says so instead of guessing.
• Keeps a daily log (05 Daily Log/YYYY-MM-DD.md), appended under a time heading: a short outcome, what's still open, and a link to the session note.
• Meeting notes from what you paste or dictate, and career wins when you ask ("add this to my brag doc").
• Sets up your vault. Before each entry it makes sure the layout below exists. A vault that already has Projects/ or 2 - Research/ keeps those; only missing folders are created, and no note is moved or renamed.
• Fits your vault. It searches before writing, extends an existing note on the same topic with a dated section instead of rewriting it, files new notes in the folder where related notes already live (the inbox only when nothing fits), and never writes secrets.
• Answers questions later. "When did we switch the importer to streaming, and why?" Ask the agent; the skill tells it to search the log and cite the note.

Install

pi install npm:pi-captains-log   # pi
omp install pi-captains-log      # oh-my-pi

To try it from a checkout without installing:

pi -e ./pi-captains-log
omp -e ./pi-captains-log

Configure

Layout

pi-captains-log/
├── extensions/captains-log/index.ts   stopping-point detection, prompt, /log
├── src/                               milestone rules, vault layout, request builder
├── skills/captains-log/
│   ├── SKILL.md                       session notes, what goes where, how to search the log
│   └── templates/                     research-note.md (session note), daily-log.md, meeting-note.md
└── test/

your-vault/
├── 00 Inbox/        notes with no suitable home yet
├── 05 Daily Log/    2026-10-07.md
├── 10 Projects/     widgets/CSV importer.md
├── 20 Research/     Postgres partial index planning.md
├── 30 Meetings/     2026-10-07 importer kickoff.md
├── 40 Career/       2026 accomplishments.md (only on request)
└── 90 Archive/      finished projects (moved only on request)

Each role first looks for a folder you already have: the number prefix and case are ignored, and Daily Notes or Journal count as the daily log. The numbers only apply to folders it has to create, and they keep the layout in reading order in Obsidian's sidebar.

How it works

flowchart LR
  A[bash tool result] -->|push / PR / release succeeded| B[pending milestones]
  B --> C{agent turn ends}
  C -->|new milestones| D[prompt: save or later]
  D -->|save| E[agent writes session note + daily entry linking it]
  F["/log note"] --> E

The extension only decides when to ask and hands the agent a precise request: vault, file, heading, milestones, your note and the git policy. The captains-log skill decides how to write. Keeping the trigger in code makes it reliable; a skill alone tends to forget to offer mid-session.

Develop

Requires Node 22.18 or later (TypeScript runs natively, no build step).

npm install
npm run check   # tsc
npm test        # node --test

License

MIT. A fan's nod to a certain starship; not affiliated with or endorsed by the owners of Star Trek.