Reference doc · Every session

Session
end.

Run through this before closing anything. Takes 5 to 10 minutes. This is what separates a professional workflow from winging it.

How to write notes like a professional

The four questions

Answer these in order. One line per answer. That is a complete session note.

What did I finish?

Specific completed things only. Not "worked on booking form" — Built BookingForm, sends email via Resend. If it is not done it goes in Q2.

What is next?

First thing next session — specific enough to start without thinking. Not "continue building" — Add Zod validation to /api/booking route.

What broke and how did I fix it?

Error then fix, one line each. This becomes your personal troubleshooting library. Write none if nothing broke — never leave it blank.

Did anything change that affects the docs?

Tool swapped, folder renamed, phase advanced, file path changed. If yes — copy that line into doc-audit-log.txt. Write none if not.

Good vs bad examples

COMPLETED — what good looks like

bad Worked on the app for a few hours good Built BookingForm component — sends email to artist via Resend API route bad Did some Supabase stuff good Ran 001_initial.sql — all 4 tables created. Seeded Aspen as first market. bad Almost finished the artist page good none — artist page still in progress, goes in NEXT SESSION

NEXT SESSION — what good looks like

bad Keep building good Add Zod validation to /api/booking route — see route.ts line 8 bad Supabase good Create first test artist row in Supabase dashboard then fetch it on profile page

CHANGES THIS SESSION — what triggers an audit entry

not a doc change Added BookingForm component is a doc change Switched email from Resend to Postmark — update docs mentioning Resend not a doc change Fixed a TypeScript error is a doc change Advanced to Phase 2 — update session-prompt.html default phase dropdown not a doc change Ran npm install is a doc change Renamed /components/features/artist to /components/artist — update file-organization.html

The professional rules

01Write notes immediately when you stop coding. Not an hour later. Not tomorrow. Right now while it is fresh. Notes written from memory the next day are always incomplete.

02Never leave a section blank — write none. A blank section makes you wonder if you forgot to fill it in. None is a deliberate answer. It means something.

03Completed means done, not almost done. If it is not finished it goes in Next Session. Half-finished work in Completed is how you lose track of what is actually working.

04One line per thing. No paragraphs. No combining two things on one line. Short, scannable, specific. Future you is reading this in 30 seconds before a session.

05Copy CHANGES THIS SESSION straight into the audit log. Do not rewrite it. Copy, paste, done. The audit log should never have information the session notes do not also have.

06Audit needed YES vs NO is a decision, not a feeling. YES if any tool name, folder name, phase, or file path changed. NO if changes were purely internal code. When in doubt — YES.

07Commit message and COMPLETED should match. If your commit says feat: BookingForm sends email then your session note says the same thing. Consistency across systems.

⚡

Coming soon — one button automation

Once Supabase is connected in Phase 1, we will build a close session button inside DevOS that writes your session notes, updates the audit log, and commits everything to GitHub automatically. One button, fully automated. Until then — this checklist is your system.