attempt-ledger

Productivity

Knowledge about attempt tracking and gating patterns for task execution

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Attempt Ledger Pattern

Purpose

The attempt ledger tracks execution attempts for tasks, enabling:

Retry with context: Each attempt includes previous failure information
Gating: Prevents infinite retry loops when tasks consistently fail
Progress persistence: Resume execution after interruption
Receipt tracking: Structured summaries instead of full transcripts

Schema

# .majestic/attempt-ledger.yml
version: 1
epic_id: "20260111-feature-name"
started_at: "2026-01-11T17:30:00Z"

settings:
  max_attempts_per_task: 3
  timeout_minutes: 15
  review:
    enabled: true
    provider: repoprompt  # repoprompt | gemini | none

task_status:
  T1: completed
  T2: in_progress
  T3: pending
  T4: blocked

attempts:
  T1:
    - id: 1
      started_at: "..."
      ended_at: "..."
      result: success
      receipt:
        summary: "Created migration and model"
        files_changed: [file1.rb, file2.rb]

  T2:
    - id: 1
      result: failure
      receipt:
        error_category: missing_dependency
        error_summary: "Database not migrated"
        suggestion: "Run db:migrate first"

gated_tasks:
  T5:
    reason: "max_attempts_exceeded"
    gated_at: "..."

Gating Rules

Tasks are gated (blocked from retry) when:

Condition	Gating Action
`attempts >= max_attempts`	Gate with `max_attempts_exceeded`
Same error repeated 2+ times	Gate with `repeated_failure`
Manual block by user	Gate with `user_blocked`

Receipt Structure

Success Receipt

receipt:
  summary: "Brief description of what was done"
  files_changed: [list, of, files]
  tests_passed: true

Failure Receipt

receipt:
  error_category: missing_dependency | code_error | test_failure | timeout
  error_summary: "What went wrong"
  approach_taken: "What was attempted"
  suggestion: "What to try differently"

Task Status Flow

pending → in_progress → completed
                ↓
            failure → pending (retry)
                ↓
            max_attempts → gated

Integration with Re-anchoring

Each fresh Claude instance receives:

Git state: Current branch, last commit, uncommitted changes
Epic context: Title, description, overall progress
Task details: Files, acceptance criteria, dependencies
Previous receipts: What was tried, what failed, why

This prevents context drift and ensures each attempt builds on prior learnings.

Commands

Command	Purpose
`/relay:init`	Create epic and ledger from blueprint
`/relay:status`	Show progress and gated tasks
`/relay:work`	Execute tasks with attempt tracking

Configuration

In .agents.yml:

relay:
  max_attempts_per_task: 3
  timeout_minutes: 15
  review:
    enabled: true
    provider: none  # repoprompt | gemini | none

Override locally in .agents.local.yml (gitignored).