My coding agents keep a record of what they decided and why, not just what they built
A session with a coding agent ends and whatever it figured out along the way goes with it. The code survives, since it's on disk. The reasoning behind the code doesn't: why this table got a composite index instead of two separate ones, why the retry logic gave up after three attempts instead of five, which approach got tried first and thrown out. Open a new session next week on the same project…
Claude Code agents record their reasoning behind their decisions in a manner that goes beyond just the code they build. When a session ends, the code itself remains on disk, but the reasoning process behind it does not. To capture the agent's thought process, a system is in place using three hooks that are triggered at different points in the session. These hooks ensure that the reasoning is saved and available for future sessions.
The first hook, session-start-wiki.sh, runs when the session begins and provides the agent with the last three devlog entries as well as an index of all projects in the wiki. This allows the agent to start with some context about previous work. The second hook, wiki-nudge.sh, checks in every fifth turn and prompts the agent to write plans, decisions, spikes, and devlog entries as it works. If no wiki file has been updated during the session, this reminder is repeated at regular intervals until something is written.
The third hook, stop-wiki-enforce.sh, comes into play when the session is about to end. It checks how many Write, Edit, or NotebookEdit calls were made during the session. If there have been three or more code changes without a corresponding devlog or index update, the session does not close cleanly. Instead, the reason for writing the devlog entry is fed back to the agent as the next prompt, requiring it to either write the entry or explain why it was not necessary. This ensures that the agent's reasoning is captured and not lost when the session ends.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
