tried

A log of what was already attempted in this repo, and why it didn't work.

You spend an hour discovering that an approach doesn't work. The session ends. Tomorrow the agent reaches for the same approach, because the reason it failed lived in a conversation that no longer exists.

tried keeps that reason in the repository, next to the code, where the next session and the next person both find it.

tried add "sqlite WAL for the job queue" --failed \
  --because "writers lock each other out above ~20 req/s" --tag queue

tried check "sqlite WAL"
# BU ALLAQACHON SINALGAN: ...  → exit 3

tried check exits 3 when the ground was covered before, so an agent can branch on it and go a different way instead of repeating the work.

Install

pipx install tried

As an Agent Skill, so agents use it on their own:

npx skills add Viltrumlik/tried

As a Claude Code plugin — this also installs a SessionStart hook that puts the recent dead ends in front of the agent before it starts:

/plugin marketplace add Viltrumlik/tried
/plugin install tried@tried

Commands

Every command takes --json.

Exit codes: 0 ok · 1 error · 2 usage error · 3 prior attempts found.

Where it lives

.tried.jsonl at the repo root, and it is meant to be committed. This is knowledge about the project, not a cache — it should travel with the code and show up in review.

The file is append-only, which keeps git diffs clean: two people writing at once conflict only on the last lines, and the fix is to keep both.

Outside a git repo it falls back to the current folder. TRIED_FILE overrides the path.

Why --because matters

"didn't work" helps nobody. The reason is the whole value:

x 4f2a1c8b  sqlite WAL for the job queue
     chunki: writers lock each other out above ~20 req/s
     3d oldin · Alisher · #queue

A year later, that line is the difference between an hour lost and a minute saved.

What not to record

• Ordinary bugs you fixed — this is for approaches considered and rejected
• Anything secret: the file is committed and everyone reads it
• Running commentary — one entry per real decision

Development

python3 -m unittest discover -s tests -v

CI runs on Ubuntu, macOS and Windows with Python 3.9 through 3.13.

skills/tried/
├── SKILL.md              # what agents read
└── scripts/
    ├── tried.py          # the CLI: one file, zero dependencies
    └── tried_hook.py     # SessionStart hook
hooks/hooks.json          # registers the hook for the plugin
pyproject.toml            # the PyPI package
tests/                    # end-to-end tests against real files

License

MIT © Alisher Muhammadaliyev (@Viltrumlik)