Retrospective Ideas is a free standalone tool from TeamRetro, the agile retrospective platform. Two halves, one site: an AI generator that produces themed retro templates, and a curated library of well-known formats with field notes on how to actually run them.
The AI generator started as a feature inside TeamRetro proper. Pulling it out as a standalone tool meant it could serve teams that don't (yet) use TeamRetro — facilitators running retros in Miro, on a whiteboard, in Notion, wherever. The library grew alongside it because templates without context are just shapes. You need to know when Sailboat earns its overhead and when Start/Stop/Continue is the right call.
The split between the two halves — AI-generated and human-curated — is deliberate. The AI is good for themed variations and bored teams. The library is for the moments where the format itself is doing the work and you can't afford a remix.
Three other free tools in the same family, same principle — useful on their own, free, no sign-up:
The activity library is curated by humans. Activities get added when they earn their keep — when there's a field-tested reason to run them and something useful to say about how they fail. We don't pad the catalogue for SEO; a thin entry on a marginal format isn't a service to anyone.
The tone is intentional. Opinionated, terse, takes positions. Most facilitation writing online reads like a vendor pitch — every format is "powerful," every meeting is "engaging." That's not useful. We tell you when a format is overkill, when a format is the wrong shape for the team, and what the failure modes look like.
Every entry is reviewed against an audit checklist before it ships: when to use it, when to skip it, the facilitator pitfalls, what the output actually looks like. If we don't have something useful to say in any of those columns, the activity doesn't get a page yet.
Suggestions, corrections, missing formats — email info@teamretro.com. The catalogue is shaped by what facilitators actually need, so feedback genuinely lands.