Skip to content

Journal

The journal pipeline generates daily developer journal entries from your Claude Code and Codex CLI sessions.

Basic usage

uv run python -m distill journal --output ./insights --global

The --global flag scans ~/.claude and ~/.codex for session data.

What it produces

A markdown journal entry for each day you had coding sessions, written by Claude based on what you actually built. Example output in ./insights/journal/2026-03-04.md.

Styles

uv run python -m distill journal --output ./insights --style dev-journal
Style Description
dev-journal Technical narrative of what you built (default)
tech-blog Blog-ready writeup of your work
team-update Standup-style summary for team
building-in-public Public-facing progress update

Configuration

[journal]
style = "dev-journal"
target_word_count = 600
model = "claude-sonnet-4-6"
memory_window_days = 7

Memory

The journal keeps a rolling memory (.working-memory.json) so entries can reference previous days. This avoids repetition and builds narrative continuity.

Specific dates

# Generate for a specific date
uv run python -m distill journal --output ./insights --date 2026-03-01

# Generate for all days since a date
uv run python -m distill journal --output ./insights --since 2026-03-01

Project-scoped

uv run python -m distill journal --output ./insights --project MyApp

Only includes sessions related to the specified project.