Group: Engagement Conventions · Codified per-engagement
When a session produces reusable knowledge — a confirmed rate, a new team
member, a deal outcome, a clarified relationship — update the relevant file
in reference/ before closing. Reference docs are the upstream source for
every future session. Stale reference = missing context.
The rule
If you learned something in this session that another session would benefit
from knowing, update reference/ for it before you close. Not later. Now.
Examples (from VG)
| Type of knowledge | Update file |
|---|---|
| New person | reference/people/roster.md |
| Loan term or lender detail | reference/financing/loan-terms.md |
| Property status change | reference/properties/active-projects.md |
| Realized deal outcome | reference/business/deal-performance.md |
| Rate or cost benchmark | reference/cost-codes/rate-cards.md |
Why it matters
Every Claude Code session starts cold. The only context that survives is
what's in reference/ (plus what's in CLAUDE.md). If a confirmed rate from
Tuesday's call doesn't make it into the rate card, Wednesday's session has
no way to know that number is current — it'll either fall back to an old
number or ask you to confirm again.
The cost of updating reference at session-end: ~30 seconds. The cost of not updating: a session that wastes time re-deriving what you already knew, or worse, ships an answer based on stale data.
How to apply
- At the end of any session that produced new reusable knowledge, ask:
"Is there a file in
reference/that should know this now?" - Update the file in the same session that produced the knowledge — never in a separate "I'll come back to this later" batch.
- Reference updates are first-class work. They don't belong on the next list; they belong in this session.
Canonical source
📎 VG repo → 02_active/vg/CLAUDE.md → Reference Update Convention