Pattern Automation
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What is an agent retrospective?

An agent retrospective reviews a period of agent operations — what shipped, what failed, correction categories, spend, and skill changes — to improve roles the way engineering teams run sprint retros.

In depth

Continuous operation without reflection repeats mistakes. A agent retro (weekly or monthly) asks:

- What did roles ship vs plan? - Where did humans override or reject output? - Which correction categories repeated? - Any incidents, near-misses, or budget surprises? - What skill or eval changes do we commit to?

Output: 1–3 concrete skill PRs, not vague 'prompt better.'

Link retros to accountability logs and evaluation trends — data beats opinions.

Founders running one-person companies benefit most: 30 minutes Friday beats discovering the same support failure every Monday.

Examples

  • Weekly — support reject reasons → 2 new eval cases
  • Monthly — cost per accepted task down 12% after model routing tweak
  • Retro action — add escalation skill for billing edge cases
  • Share retro notes in git next to skill folder

Related terms

FAQ

Retro frequency?

Weekly for new roles; monthly when stable.

Who runs it?

Role owner with optional ops lead; founder for solo companies.

Run governed agent roles on a company OS — not only definitions in a glossary.