---
name: seed-from-history
description: Optional idea for giving a Soup.net recipe book a start from decisions already made, when a person wants past calls brought in from notes, documents, commits or old conversations. The briefing covers format and dates; this covers what's worth bringing and whose it is to bring.
---

# Seeding a recipe book from history

A suggestion, for you and the person to weigh. Which sources, how much and how you go through them are yours to work out. The briefing has the recipe format and `decided_at`.

**Why it can help.** An empty book returns nothing; a handful of real past calls makes the next check useful.

**Why it deserves care.** A later agent reads a backfilled recipe as this person's judgment, with no memory of how thin the source was, and everyone who reads that book sees it. So which book, and what's in bounds, are worth their say first. Showing them a few early catches voice and scope problems cheaply.

**Where it went well**
- A person changing jobs brought past calls into their personal book. The role and the technique stayed. The evidence kept their own words, with the former employer's code, data, customers and other people's names taken out. The role was public; the employer's material wasn't theirs to carry.
- Going through old commits, an agent dated each call from its commit and left live calls undated. Later agents could then tell a past call from a current one, and the person valued that difference.
- When a view had changed, the newer call went in as its own recipe with its own reason, so the log shows how the judgment moved.

**Where it needed fixing, or is worth watching**
- A private reflection about a colleague sat in a project book until the book opened to the team, then had to move. A book's future readers matter as much as its current ones.
- Facts and status can look like decisions. Soup.net holds the judgment about them; the facts have their own home.
- A commit often says what changed and not why. A reason you reconstruct is yours, so name it as inference. If you wouldn't act on it, ask the person, or leave a draft saying what would settle it.