Skill: Retrospective

What This Skill Does

Reconstructs "why" documentation from git history that generate-docs cannot produce. While generate-docs analyzes the current codebase (what exists now), retrospective analyzes the project's evolution (how it got here and why).

Produces:

• Architecture Decision Records (ADRs): significant technical decisions detected from large refactors, dependency changes, or structural reorganizations
• Module Chronology: when each module was introduced, major changes, and growth patterns
• Pattern Evolution: how coding patterns changed over time (e.g., callback → promise → async/await migration)
• Contributor Map: who owns which areas of the codebase (based on commit concentration)

When to Use

• When onboarding to an existing project with no documentation
• When the team asks "why was this built this way?"
• When preparing architecture documentation for a project with years of history
• After generate-docs has created the "what" docs, to add the "why" context