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Workflow Toolkit
Get up to speed in any codebase, any size.
A non-opinionated workflow plugin for Claude Code that keeps track of what you're working on and what you need to do next. Session journaling, local task tracking, GitHub issue sync, knowledge base generation, and a handful of lifecycle hooks — all backed by a local SQLite database. Nothing leaves your machine.
Built by Doug Silkstone
A note on slash commands: This README is full of examples like
/workflow-toolkit:task-createand/workflow-toolkit:journal-read. You don't have to use them that way. In fact, I'd recommend you don't — at least not at first. Just talk to Claude in natural language. Say "create a task for fixing the login bug" or "what did I work on yesterday?" and the skills will fire automatically when they're relevant. The slash commands are there when you know exactly what you want. Natural language is there for everything else. The best part of this plugin is that you can extend it and make it your own — the skills are just starting points.
The Problem
You drop into an unfamiliar codebase — maybe it's a monorepo with 200 packages, maybe it's a legacy app with zero documentation. You start exploring, fixing bugs, shipping features. A few sessions later you can't remember what you changed on Tuesday, which issue you were investigating, or what you decided to do next.
Claude Code sessions are ephemeral. Context disappears when the terminal closes. There's no trail of what happened, no way to pick up where you left off, and no structure to keep things moving forward. Multiply that across a team and it gets messy fast.
Workflow Toolkit gives you that structure — without imposing opinions about how you work. It sits in the background, records what's happening, and gives you tools to query it, act on it, and build on it.
Why SQLite and Not Just Markdown?
Markdown files are great for reading. They're terrible for querying.
When you need to answer "what did I work on last week?", "which issues are still untriaged?", or "how many tool calls did that refactor take?" — you need structured data. SQLite gives you that. You can filter tasks by priority, search journal entries by keyword, aggregate session stats, and join issues to tasks — all with simple queries.
But we still write markdown too. Every session summary, every task, every journal entry also gets a human-readable .md file. You get the best of both: queryable data for Claude, browsable files for you.
The database auto-initializes on your first session. One file at .claude/journal/journal.db. No server, no config, no dependencies beyond sqlite3.
Quick Start
Install Claude Code
# Native installer (recommended — auto-updates, no Node.js required)
curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash
# Or via npm (requires Node.js 18+)
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
Install the Plugin
# From inside Claude Code
/plugin marketplace add dougwithseismic/workflow-toolkit
/plugin install workflow-toolkit@dougwithseismic
Or clone and load directly:
git clone https://github.com/dougwithseismic/workflow-toolkit.git
claude --plugin-dir ./workflow-toolkit
The database initializes automatically on your first session. No config files to edit, no setup steps.
How to Wrangle a Codebase
Here's the workflow. You land in a new project — could be 10 files, could be 10,000. Here's how to start making sense of it and writing consistent code that matches the existing patterns.
Step 1: Let It Journal
Just start working. The hooks run silently in the background:
Session Summary: abc123
Started: 2026-03-05 14:00:00
Ended: 2026-03-05 15:45:00
| Metric | Count |
|-----------------|-------|
| Prompts | 47 |
| Tool Uses | 183 |
| Subagents | 3 |
| Compactions | 1 |
| Journal Entries | 2 |
Top Tools Used:
Edit (52x) Read (41x) Bash (38x) Grep (27x) Glob (25x)
Every session gets a timestamped markdown file at .claude/journal/entries/. Come back next week and run /workflow-toolkit:journal-read last 5 — instant context on where you left off.
Capture decisions as you make them:
> /workflow-toolkit:journal-write Decided to use repository pattern — matches existing UserRepository and OrderRepository
Step 2: Distill What You Learn
This is where it gets powerful. As you explore the codebase, distill the patterns you find:
> /workflow-toolkit:distill-concept react-hooks