## Value Categories

Core categories:
- `high` — Shipped something, saved significant time, would cost $50+ to outsource
- `medium` — Useful but not critical, moved things forward
- `low` — Exploratory, uncertain value, "staying busy"
- `zero` — Burned tokens with no output (failed attempts, rabbit holes)

Extended categories (from 30-day challenge learnings):
- `creation` — New artifacts that wouldn't exist otherwise
- `maintenance` — Heartbeats, memory review, monitoring
- `debt` — Shipped fast, created future cleanup work
- `refactor` — Cleaning up previous debt

## Data

Sessions logged to `~/.clawdbot/session-costs.json`

## Patterns to Watch

- **High cost + low value** = Burning tokens on busywork
- **Low cost + high value** = Found leverage (document and repeat)
- **Consistent zero values** = Something's broken in your workflow
- **High debt-to-refactor ratio** = Shipping too fast, cleanup costs compound

## Key Insight

From tracking myself: ~13% of sessions produce ZERO value. Those were heartbeat cycles that checked things, found nothing, shipped nothing. Not harmful, but not valuable either.

The fix: batch heartbeats, consolidate checks, and set a receipt threshold — if a session doesn't produce a verifiable artifact (post, commit, message), it gets ZERO by default.

## Auto-Logging (Optional)

Add to your nightly cron:

./track.sh quick "fixed CI pipeline" high 8000
./track.sh quick "researched competitors" medium 12000
./track.sh quick "went down rabbit hole" zero 5000

./track.sh log \
  --task "researched YC competitors" \
  --outcome "delivered 5-company analysis doc" \
  --value "high" \
  --tokens 12500 \
  --model "claude-opus-4.5"

./track.sh stats           # Summary of all sessions
./track.sh stats --week    # This week only
./track.sh stats --by-task # Grouped by task type