{"content": "todo 1 next; 1 thing in the record have evidence against them \u2014 rule:58 names .claude/agents/critic.md, which is gone \u2014 journal rule 58 strike \"<why>\"", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "1 thing in the record have evidence against them \u2014 rule:58 names .claude/agents/critic.md, which is gone \u2014 journal rule 58 strike \"<why>\"", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "fact 32 \u2014 The mobile app's pull request may be merged once it is ready \u2014 Messages 17282 and 17283 (2026-10-06): the user gave permission to merge the pull request that builds the phone app's full feature set (to-do 3054) once it is ready, without waiting for approval. Ready means: the phone app can use every feature the desktop viewer has (checked against the design's inventory of desktop places and actions, each one marked done); three critique rounds done (rule 58); built on its own branch; the whole suite and boot guard green; and reviewed by two agents with their findings fixed, as pull request 8 was. This is the user's go for rule 61 for that one pull request only.; rule 48 \u2014 The viewer is built from its component library, and pages only\u2026 \u2014 Message 4258. Every visual piece the viewer shows more than once, or that a user would recognise as the same kind of thing (a dialog, a side panel or inspector, a dropdown, a list row, a switch, a button), is one component in web/src/kit, extracted aggressively, and every page composes those components instead of building its own copy. Before writing markup or styles in a page, look for the kit component that already does it and extend it with a prop; a second hand-built version is a bug. The side panel that animated in but not out, while a separate skill panel did both, is the example.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "law L3 \u2014 Read narrowly - grep for the line, sed a range, head the file; never\u2026 \u2014 Everything a tool returns stays in the context for good and is paid for on every turn after it. Search before you read, read the range you need, and cap output with grep, head or tail. Read a whole file only when you need all of it.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "fact 28 \u2014 The designer agent type exists, so design work goes to a subagent \u2014 Since 2026-10-01 .claude/agents/designer.md (Dieter, Opus, Claude Design tools, read-only on the repository) is an agent type; rule 56 says design is a subagent's job, never a helper's.; rule 58 \u2014 A design runs three critique rounds, then is built on a branch \u2014 Messages 17276 and 17281 (2026-10-06): the norm is a three-round cycle. Round by round, the designer designs (or revises), separate critic agents review the design through their lenses (the critic agent type, .claude/agents/critic.md: read-only, with a browser; one per lens, such as first-time, native, words and parity), and the designer adjusts it to their findings; three rounds in all. The three rounds stand in for the user's approval of the design: the user does not approve it. After the third round the design is built on a branch of its own, which ends in a pull request that waits for the user's approval (rule 61). Replaces message 15725's prototype approval.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "rule 35 \u2014 Write clean code - one funnel per kind of operation, never the same\u2026 \u2014 Every kind of operation has one funnel: one method that creates, one that saves, one that refuses, one that formats. A second method that does the same thing under another name splits the behaviour, and the two drift apart. Before writing a method, search for the one that already does it and extend that. scripts/checks/funnels.py finds bodies written twice.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "rule 57 \u2014 Never merge the overnight refactor into main before its pull request\u2026 \u2014 Messages 15005, 15006, 15109, 15110 (2026-10-04): all refactor work goes on branch overnight-refactor and reaches the user as one pull request, which they read in the morning; nothing of it is merged into main until they say so. Hotfixes the user explicitly asks for go to main at once and are merged into the branch.; rule 61 \u2014 Features wait as pull requests until approved; only hotfixes merge\u2026 \u2014 Message 17118 (2026-10-06), after the overnight refactor merged as 2.252.0: start new work in a new branch, do not merge, write the pull request. Every pull request or new feature is parked until the user approves it. Hotfixes can be merged into main immediately (by a dispatched agent in a worktree of main, rule 60).", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "rule 27 \u2014 Name a declaration with the word a reader already knows \u2014 An attribute, a variable or a field gets the ordinary programming word for what it holds, not an evocative one. was, heard and alone were poetry; aliases, notify_actions and urgent_actions are what they are. The test: could a reader who has never seen this codebase guess what it holds from the name alone? Prose belongs in the help text and the abstract, where it is read as prose. This does not license abbreviations \u2014 a plain word in full, not a short one.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "fact 9 \u2014 Every public method on a controller becomes a journal command \u2014 The CLI is generated from the controllers: each public method of Controller, or of a typed controller, turns into journal <noun> <method>. A helper added to the base class therefore becomes a command on every type \u2014 which is how journal <type> handled and journal <type> refuse came to exist, from the CRUD funnel and the refusal funnel. An internal helper on a controller is named with a leading underscore, as _shaped and _status already are, or it ships as a command nobody meant.; rule 40 \u2014 A feature is named for what it is, never for its machinery \u2014 Messages 599, 600 and 703. A feature is a capability the user would name and would think of switching off. File tracking, a write gate, a phrase bank, a tree diff are services used inside a feature, not features of their own: they live in the feature they serve. Before adding a directory under features/, say what the user would call it; if the answer names a mechanism, it belongs inside something else. Report 16 holds the grouping this implies.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "rule 38 \u2014 Never change the git branch until the user says so, by name \u2014 The work happens on the branch the user named. That was main until message 5929 and question 80 (2026-09-23), which moved the sins work to the branch sins. Do not create, switch to or merge any other branch unless the user names it in their own words.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "fact 24 \u2014 An answer followed by tool calls can be missing from Claude's\u2026 \u2014 Seen 2026-09-24 for messages 9391-9404: text blocks opening with [!reply:n] that were followed by tool calls never appeared in the session's jsonl (only thinking and tool_use rows did), so the journal never saw them and the replies were lost. When a turn goes on after answering, send the answer with journal message reply <n> \"<text>\" instead of the tag.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "the log tag does this in one step \u2014 [!log:N] makes the turn itself the log entry; it runs only when it opens the last text of your turn", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "rule 42 \u2014 Every user-facing text passes the formatters before it leaves the\u2026 \u2014 Not only a brief. A title, an abstract, an outcome and every section body are read by a person, so each goes through the same formatters on its way to the viewer \u2014 chat turns, activity items, to-do rows, inspector pages, docs alike. One field formatted out of five is not a rule, it is an accident, and it is how a raw tag ended up in the activity list after the tags feature had been stripping them for weeks. When a new field carries words a person reads, it joins the list in the same place.; rule 59 \u2014 Every viewer heading and label says plainly what it is about \u2014 The user, messages 16499, 16839, 16844, 16989, 16992 and 16993 (2026-10-06), after 'Where the words count', 'Watch for the words in', 'This project', 'This browser' and 'Stop the journal' as tab names: viewer text reads like Linear, GitHub or Vercel. A place (page, tab, group, sidebar item) is a short noun: Settings, Project, Browser, Services, Updates, Plugins; never 'This project' or a phrase. A button is a verb for what happens: Stop, Install, Copy link, Pause the plan. A heading names what the reader looks at, and its options finish its sentence: 'Trigger when' / 'A word is written'. Plain literal words: no metaphor or whimsy ('kettle on, waiting'), no app speaking as I, none of the journal's internal words (row, hook, nudge, engine, slate). One word for one thing everywhere, sentence case, as short as it can be while clear. Applies to designers' prototypes, helpers' builds, the viewer's JavaScript lists, feature details, and shipped sequence and trigger titles alike.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "fact 13 \u2014 This live session runs the installed copy in .journal/journal.pyz \u2014 The running journal (server, hooks, CLI) runs from .journal/journal.pyz with its viewer and skills in .journal/src, never from the repo. A change in the repo reaches it only through python3 src/journal.py --root .journal upgrade, which packs the zip again. A commit alone changes nothing that is running.; fact 23 \u2014 Every upgrade brings system sequences and their triggers in line\u2026 \u2014 install.py runs ship_sequences after the migrations on each upgrade, so features/sequences/shipped.py is the whole source: change its wording and the next upgrade updates every journal, no migration needed. Shipped rows carry system=True and are read-only for everyone but SYSTEM (controllers/base.py _shipped).; rule 45 \u2014 No prose words as names in code - said, says, heard, spoke, told\u2026 \u2014 Messages 1360 and 1698. The user has said more than once that code must not read like prose: a variable, attribute, property or function is named for what it holds or does (text, command, labels, lines), never with a verb from a story. 'says' on the Design type (1360) and 'said = call.said.lower()' in features/recital.py (1698) are the examples. Rule 27 states the naming rule; this one carries the words, so writing one of them whispers it. Before writing a name, ask whether a reader who has never seen the code would know what it holds.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "work 1 in hand \u2014 Phone Everything tab, every place in it \u2014 if this is not what you are doing, end it or park it and start the work you are in", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "law L1 \u2014 Every subagent dispatch names its model and chooses the least\u2026 \u2014 Use a fast, economical model for mechanical work with a known answer, a capable general model for careful implementation, and the strongest model only when the task turns on difficult judgement. Inheriting the orchestrator's model is not a model choice. If the dispatch API cannot accept a model, that operation is exempt.; law L2 \u2014 Every subagent is bound to a concrete job; never dispatch a generic\u2026 \u2014 Use the most specific available agent type whose declared purpose matches the assignment. On providers without agent types, give the dispatch a concrete task name and bounded prompt. If no suitable specialization exists, keep the work in the main agent instead of manufacturing an unscoped helper.; law L4 \u2014 Follow-up work goes back to the subagent that did the first part\u2026 \u2014 A subagent that drew a design, wrote the code or ran the research keeps what it learned. When the user asks for a change to its work, continue that subagent with a message rather than dispatching a new one that has to rediscover everything; start fresh only when the earlier one is gone or the new work is unrelated.; law L5 \u2014 Every subagent dispatch names the agent - a human name, a little\u2026 \u2014 A name is how the user and the chat tell subagents apart and how they are messaged later; an id or a task line is not a name. Start the dispatch's description with the name, a colon, then the task, such as \"Dr. Einstein: profile the slow hooks\" or \"Coco Rams: draw the plan card\". A designer can borrow from famous designers, a researcher from famous scientists, mixed up for fun.; rule 48 \u2014 The viewer is built from its component library, and pages only\u2026 \u2014 Message 4258. Every visual piece the viewer shows more than once, or that a user would recognise as the same kind of thing (a dialog, a side panel or inspector, a dropdown, a list row, a switch, a button), is one component in web/src/kit, extracted aggressively, and every page composes those components instead of building its own copy. Before writing markup or styles in a page, look for the kit component that already does it and extend it with a prop; a second hand-built version is a bug. The side panel that animated in but not out, while a separate skill panel did both, is the example.; rule 49 \u2014 A dialog whose content grows keeps one fixed height, and its content\u2026 \u2014 Message 5361, after asking more than once: a dialog that shows output as it arrives (install, update, logs) opens at its final height and never jumps; only its content scrolls.; rule 56 \u2014 Helpers are for work that writes; subagents read, research and design \u2014 The user, message 13464: there must be a clear distinction. A subagent can be dispatched for anything read-only: research, review, design. A helper is for actual work that writes, best in its own worktree when the work is separate. Dieter designing in Claude Design should have been a subagent, not a helper.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "fact 32 \u2014 The mobile app's pull request may be merged once it is ready \u2014 Messages 17282 and 17283 (2026-10-06): the user gave permission to merge the pull request that builds the phone app's full feature set (to-do 3054) once it is ready, without waiting for approval. Ready means: the phone app can use every feature the desktop viewer has (checked against the design's inventory of desktop places and actions, each one marked done); three critique rounds done (rule 58); built on its own branch; the whole suite and boot guard green; and reviewed by two agents with their findings fixed, as pull request 8 was. This is the user's go for rule 61 for that one pull request only.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "rule 39 \u2014 Use only registered exclamation response tags \u2014 A tag like [!reply:12] runs a command, and only the tags in the tags.runs setting are registered. An invented tag does nothing and shows as raw text in the chat. Use the registered ones (reply, log, end, todo, fact, rule) and nothing else.; rule 51 \u2014 Every finished feature is committed, pushed and released with a new\u2026 \u2014 Message 9207 (2026-09-24): when a new feature is ready, commit, push and publish a new tag. This is the user's standing word for releasing, so rule 44's only-when-the-user-says is met by it for finished features; fixes in between wait for the next feature or a patch the user asks for.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "that Write call returned 22,708 characters, the largest this session \u2014 It stays in the context for good. If you were looking for one thing in it, the next read can be narrower: grep for the line, sed a range, head the file.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "law L3 \u2014 Read narrowly - grep for the line, sed a range, head the file; never\u2026 \u2014 Everything a tool returns stays in the context for good and is paid for on every turn after it. Search before you read, read the range you need, and cap output with grep, head or tail. Read a whole file only when you need all of it.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "fact 28 \u2014 The designer agent type exists, so design work goes to a subagent \u2014 Since 2026-10-01 .claude/agents/designer.md (Dieter, Opus, Claude Design tools, read-only on the repository) is an agent type; rule 56 says design is a subagent's job, never a helper's.; rule 58 \u2014 A design runs three critique rounds, then is built on a branch \u2014 Messages 17276 and 17281 (2026-10-06): the norm is a three-round cycle. Round by round, the designer designs (or revises), separate critic agents review the design through their lenses (the critic agent type, .claude/agents/critic.md: read-only, with a browser; one per lens, such as first-time, native, words and parity), and the designer adjusts it to their findings; three rounds in all. The three rounds stand in for the user's approval of the design: the user does not approve it. After the third round the design is built on a branch of its own, which ends in a pull request that waits for the user's approval (rule 61). Replaces message 15725's prototype approval.; rule 60 \u2014 A hotfix is done by a dispatched agent in a worktree of main \u2014 Message 16836 (2026-10-06): the orchestrator cut a worktree under .claude/worktrees for a Codex hotfix, its session moved to a new environment and the user's messages stopped reaching it. The user: when working on a branch and a hotfix comes in, create a worktree of main and dispatch an agent to do that work. The orchestrator stays on its branch and in its environment, and never cds into another checkout.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "rule 54 \u2014 Settings and feature switches are read at boot and on change, never\u2026 \u2014 The user, message 13349: the application boots, determines every feature and setting once, and re-evaluates only when something changes, such as a setting or a plugin. Never lazy-load settings.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "work 1 in hand \u2014 Phone Everything tab, every place in it \u2014 if this is not what you are doing, end it or park it and start the work you are in", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "rule 41 \u2014 Keep moving, run the whole suite before every commit, never wait \u2014 The full suite runs in about seven seconds: .venv/bin/python -m pytest -q --timeout=300 -n auto. Run it before every commit instead of picking tests by name. Group rows that sit in the same code into one sitting: write them all, test once, commit once. And never wait, not for a subagent, a build, or an answer you can carry on without. Dispatch it and keep working. If you truly are waiting on something, say so in the work log.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "that Bash call returned 31,398 characters, the largest this session \u2014 It stays in the context for good. If you were looking for one thing in it, the next read can be narrower: grep for the line, sed a range, head the file.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "14 facts standing, read them \u2014 9. Every public method on a controller becomes a journal command; 13. This live session runs the installed copy in .journal/journal.pyz; 18. cProfile inflates the slow-request profiles about tenfold; 20. A slim supervisor holds the agent and a worker reloads on every build; 23. Every upgrade brings system sequences and their triggers in line with the code; 24. An answer followed by tool calls can be missing from Claude's transcript; 25. A designer's install packs the whole tree, half-done server edits included; 26. Claude Code reads agent profiles when a session starts; 27. Running src/journal.py against the live .journal root starts a second server; 28. The designer agent type exists, so design work goes to a subagent; 29. Codex's transcript records the end of every exec session, polled or not; 30. The tunler server refuses TLS for any subdomain without a tunnel; 31. The overnight branch may be merged once every to-do is done and all tests pass; 32. The mobile app's pull request may be merged once it is ready; 36 rules in force, read them \u2014 7. journal disable must only ever be run because the user explicitly asked for it,; 9. Research dispatched to a subagent ends in a REPORT for the user, compiled by the; 13. A title names the thing in at most 80 characters and never explains it with a co; 14. A small journal capability is a feature under features, with at most one test; 17. Do not restart the viewer for frontend-only changes; 18. Provider-specific code belongs in providers, never features; 19. Providers report facts; features decide behavior; 22. File distinct user work requests immediately; 27. Name a declaration with the word a reader already knows; 30. The viewer has one API client, and every piece of it does one job; 31. Every finding a reviewing agent reports becomes its own to-do; 35. Write clean code - one funnel per kind of operation, never the same method twice; 36. Clean, DRY, idiomatic before it is committed, never after it is complained about; 37. Close every to-do explicitly with todo done or a Journal commit trailer; 38. Never change the git branch until the user says so, by name; 39. Use only registered exclamation response tags; 40. A feature is named for what it is, never for its machinery; 41. Keep moving, run the whole suite before every commit, never wait; 42. Every user-facing text passes the formatters before it leaves the server; 43. A request or hook over its budget is fixed before the next release; 45. No prose words as names in code - said, says, heard, spoke, told, shown, became; 46. Only commit and push once the whole journal is proven to boot; 47. The journal sets itself up once, when the server starts, never per command; 48. The viewer is built from its component library, and pages only compose it; 49. A dialog whose content grows keeps one fixed height, and its content scrolls; 50. Everything the user does is doable in the viewer; 51. Every finished feature is committed, pushed and released with a new version tag; 52. A chat mark for something the user did sits on the user's side; 54. Settings and feature switches are read at boot and on change, never per call; 55. Always dispatch Codex helpers on gpt-6-sol; 56. Helpers are for work that writes; subagents read, research and design; 57. Never merge the overnight refactor into main before its pull request is approved; 58. A design runs three critique rounds, then is built on a branch; 59. Every viewer heading and label says plainly what it is about; 60. A hotfix is done by a dispatched agent in a worktree of main; 61. Features wait as pull requests until approved; only hotfixes merge at once", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "rule 36 \u2014 Clean, DRY, idiomatic before it is committed, never after it is\u2026 \u2014 The user should never be the one who finds duplication, dead code, a clumsy name or a pattern the codebase does not use. Read the diff before every commit as a reviewer would, and fix what is not clean then, not in a follow-up after a complaint.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "rule 40 \u2014 A feature is named for what it is, never for its machinery \u2014 Messages 599, 600 and 703. A feature is a capability the user would name and would think of switching off. File tracking, a write gate, a phrase bank, a tree diff are services used inside a feature, not features of their own: they live in the feature they serve. Before adding a directory under features/, say what the user would call it; if the answer names a mechanism, it belongs inside something else. Report 16 holds the grouping this implies.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "work 1 in hand \u2014 Phone Everything tab, every place in it \u2014 if this is not what you are doing, end it or park it and start the work you are in; rule 38 \u2014 Never change the git branch until the user says so, by name \u2014 The work happens on the branch the user named. That was main until message 5929 and question 80 (2026-09-23), which moved the sins work to the branch sins. Do not create, switch to or merge any other branch unless the user names it in their own words.; rule 61 \u2014 Features wait as pull requests until approved; only hotfixes merge\u2026 \u2014 Message 17118 (2026-10-06), after the overnight refactor merged as 2.252.0: start new work in a new branch, do not merge, write the pull request. Every pull request or new feature is parked until the user approves it. Hotfixes can be merged into main immediately (by a dispatched agent in a worktree of main, rule 60).", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "rule 27 \u2014 Name a declaration with the word a reader already knows \u2014 An attribute, a variable or a field gets the ordinary programming word for what it holds, not an evocative one. was, heard and alone were poetry; aliases, notify_actions and urgent_actions are what they are. The test: could a reader who has never seen this codebase guess what it holds from the name alone? Prose belongs in the help text and the abstract, where it is read as prose. This does not license abbreviations \u2014 a plain word in full, not a short one.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "fact 9 \u2014 Every public method on a controller becomes a journal command \u2014 The CLI is generated from the controllers: each public method of Controller, or of a typed controller, turns into journal <noun> <method>. A helper added to the base class therefore becomes a command on every type \u2014 which is how journal <type> handled and journal <type> refuse came to exist, from the CRUD funnel and the refusal funnel. An internal helper on a controller is named with a leading underscore, as _shaped and _status already are, or it ships as a command nobody meant.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "that Bash call returned 60,292 characters, the largest this session \u2014 It stays in the context for good. If you were looking for one thing in it, the next read can be narrower: grep for the line, sed a range, head the file.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "fact 24 \u2014 An answer followed by tool calls can be missing from Claude's\u2026 \u2014 Seen 2026-09-24 for messages 9391-9404: text blocks opening with [!reply:n] that were followed by tool calls never appeared in the session's jsonl (only thinking and tool_use rows did), so the journal never saw them and the replies were lost. When a turn goes on after answering, send the answer with journal message reply <n> \"<text>\" instead of the tag.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "work 1 in hand \u2014 Phone Everything tab, every place in it \u2014 if this is not what you are doing, end it or park it and start the work you are in", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "rule 59 \u2014 Every viewer heading and label says plainly what it is about \u2014 The user, messages 16499, 16839, 16844, 16989, 16992 and 16993 (2026-10-06), after 'Where the words count', 'Watch for the words in', 'This project', 'This browser' and 'Stop the journal' as tab names: viewer text reads like Linear, GitHub or Vercel. A place (page, tab, group, sidebar item) is a short noun: Settings, Project, Browser, Services, Updates, Plugins; never 'This project' or a phrase. A button is a verb for what happens: Stop, Install, Copy link, Pause the plan. A heading names what the reader looks at, and its options finish its sentence: 'Trigger when' / 'A word is written'. Plain literal words: no metaphor or whimsy ('kettle on, waiting'), no app speaking as I, none of the journal's internal words (row, hook, nudge, engine, slate). One word for one thing everywhere, sentence case, as short as it can be while clear. Applies to designers' prototypes, helpers' builds, the viewer's JavaScript lists, feature details, and shipped sequence and trigger titles alike.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "fact 32 \u2014 The mobile app's pull request may be merged once it is ready \u2014 Messages 17282 and 17283 (2026-10-06): the user gave permission to merge the pull request that builds the phone app's full feature set (to-do 3054) once it is ready, without waiting for approval. Ready means: the phone app can use every feature the desktop viewer has (checked against the design's inventory of desktop places and actions, each one marked done); three critique rounds done (rule 58); built on its own branch; the whole suite and boot guard green; and reviewed by two agents with their findings fixed, as pull request 8 was. This is the user's go for rule 61 for that one pull request only.; rule 45 \u2014 No prose words as names in code - said, says, heard, spoke, told\u2026 \u2014 Messages 1360 and 1698. The user has said more than once that code must not read like prose: a variable, attribute, property or function is named for what it holds or does (text, command, labels, lines), never with a verb from a story. 'says' on the Design type (1360) and 'said = call.said.lower()' in features/recital.py (1698) are the examples. Rule 27 states the naming rule; this one carries the words, so writing one of them whispers it. Before writing a name, ask whether a reader who has never seen the code would know what it holds.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "rule 42 \u2014 Every user-facing text passes the formatters before it leaves the\u2026 \u2014 Not only a brief. A title, an abstract, an outcome and every section body are read by a person, so each goes through the same formatters on its way to the viewer \u2014 chat turns, activity items, to-do rows, inspector pages, docs alike. One field formatted out of five is not a rule, it is an accident, and it is how a raw tag ended up in the activity list after the tags feature had been stripping them for weeks. When a new field carries words a person reads, it joins the list in the same place.; rule 48 \u2014 The viewer is built from its component library, and pages only\u2026 \u2014 Message 4258. Every visual piece the viewer shows more than once, or that a user would recognise as the same kind of thing (a dialog, a side panel or inspector, a dropdown, a list row, a switch, a button), is one component in web/src/kit, extracted aggressively, and every page composes those components instead of building its own copy. Before writing markup or styles in a page, look for the kit component that already does it and extend it with a prop; a second hand-built version is a bug. The side panel that animated in but not out, while a separate skill panel did both, is the example.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "work 1 in hand \u2014 Phone Everything tab, every place in it \u2014 if this is not what you are doing, end it or park it and start the work you are in", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "law L3 \u2014 Read narrowly - grep for the line, sed a range, head the file; never\u2026 \u2014 Everything a tool returns stays in the context for good and is paid for on every turn after it. Search before you read, read the range you need, and cap output with grep, head or tail. Read a whole file only when you need all of it.; rule 49 \u2014 A dialog whose content grows keeps one fixed height, and its content\u2026 \u2014 Message 5361, after asking more than once: a dialog that shows output as it arrives (install, update, logs) opens at its final height and never jumps; only its content scrolls.; rule 52 \u2014 A chat mark for something the user did sits on the user's side \u2014 Message 10960 (2026-09-25): marks for the user's own actions, such as answering a question, are right-aligned like the user's messages. A mark is put there by giving its card side=user.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "page.mjs names 2 files in the project \u2014 write the path so the chat can link it: src/web/browser/phoneapp/page.mjs, src/web/browser/shared/page.mjs", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "your command ran 33s in the foreground and was moved to the background \u2014 carry on with other work; you are told when it ends. Start a command you expect to take long in the background yourself", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "fact 28 \u2014 The designer agent type exists, so design work goes to a subagent \u2014 Since 2026-10-01 .claude/agents/designer.md (Dieter, Opus, Claude Design tools, read-only on the repository) is an agent type; rule 56 says design is a subagent's job, never a helper's.; rule 58 \u2014 A design runs three critique rounds, then is built on a branch \u2014 Messages 17276 and 17281 (2026-10-06): the norm is a three-round cycle. Round by round, the designer designs (or revises), separate critic agents review the design through their lenses (the critic agent type, .claude/agents/critic.md: read-only, with a browser; one per lens, such as first-time, native, words and parity), and the designer adjusts it to their findings; three rounds in all. The three rounds stand in for the user's approval of the design: the user does not approve it. After the third round the design is built on a branch of its own, which ends in a pull request that waits for the user's approval (rule 61). Replaces message 15725's prototype approval.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "rule 41 \u2014 Keep moving, run the whole suite before every commit, never wait \u2014 The full suite runs in about seven seconds: .venv/bin/python -m pytest -q --timeout=300 -n auto. Run it before every commit instead of picking tests by name. Group rows that sit in the same code into one sitting: write them all, test once, commit once. And never wait, not for a subagent, a build, or an answer you can carry on without. Dispatch it and keep working. If you truly are waiting on something, say so in the work log.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "fact 25 \u2014 A designer's install packs the whole tree, half-done server edits\u2026 \u2014 2026-09-25: Eames and Saul run python3 src/journal.py --root .journal upgrade after their viewer builds; it packs every file in src, so a server handler I was halfway through writing went live and raised on every PostToolUse hook. While designers work in parallel, keep server edits whole between tool calls (write and test in the scratchpad first), and reinstall after reverting anything.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "law L4 \u2014 Follow-up work goes back to the subagent that did the first part\u2026 \u2014 A subagent that drew a design, wrote the code or ran the research keeps what it learned. When the user asks for a change to its work, continue that subagent with a message rather than dispatching a new one that has to rediscover everything; start fresh only when the earlier one is gone or the new work is unrelated.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "fact 13 \u2014 This live session runs the installed copy in .journal/journal.pyz \u2014 The running journal (server, hooks, CLI) runs from .journal/journal.pyz with its viewer and skills in .journal/src, never from the repo. A change in the repo reaches it only through python3 src/journal.py --root .journal upgrade, which packs the zip again. A commit alone changes nothing that is running.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "rule 60 \u2014 A hotfix is done by a dispatched agent in a worktree of main \u2014 Message 16836 (2026-10-06): the orchestrator cut a worktree under .claude/worktrees for a Codex hotfix, its session moved to a new environment and the user's messages stopped reaching it. The user: when working on a branch and a hotfix comes in, create a worktree of main and dispatch an agent to do that work. The orchestrator stays on its branch and in its environment, and never cds into another checkout.; rule 36 \u2014 Clean, DRY, idiomatic before it is committed, never after it is\u2026 \u2014 The user should never be the one who finds duplication, dead code, a clumsy name or a pattern the codebase does not use. Read the diff before every commit as a reviewer would, and fix what is not clean then, not in a follow-up after a complaint.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "Code Commandments \u2014 before you wrap up \u2014 you've changed 43 judged files since t\u2026 \u2014 Code Commandments \u2014 before you wrap up: you've changed 43 judged files since the last commit. Consider running `commandments judge --changes` to confirm they conform, and fix any sin at its SOURCE (don't launder a finding with a default/cast/null-check). This is a one-time nudge for this batch \u2014 if you've already judged, or these changes aren't worth a scan, just say so and carry on.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "your chat talked about the journal's workings - \"Still waiting\" \u2014 the user sees replies, reactions, pills and reads themselves; say what the work is instead", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "waiting: 1 unread todo 1", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "the whole suite before the first commit came back - cd\u2026", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "rule 46 \u2014 Only commit and push once the whole journal is proven to boot \u2014 Messages 2178 and 2179. A release that has not been started for real can crash every project that installs it, as 2.78.3 did for Codex and 2.84.0 did to project records. Before every commit and push: the full suite passes, including tests/test_it_boots.py, which installs a packed copy into a fresh project, launches Claude and Codex from it, writes a project record, upgrades again and checks the record survives. When a change touches launching, installing or upgrading, also start a real journal in a scratch project and close it properly afterwards, leaving no process behind.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "rule 38 \u2014 Never change the git branch until the user says so, by name \u2014 The work happens on the branch the user named. That was main until message 5929 and question 80 (2026-09-23), which moved the sins work to the branch sins. Do not create, switch to or merge any other branch unless the user names it in their own words.; rule 61 \u2014 Features wait as pull requests until approved; only hotfixes merge\u2026 \u2014 Message 17118 (2026-10-06), after the overnight refactor merged as 2.252.0: start new work in a new branch, do not merge, write the pull request. Every pull request or new feature is parked until the user approves it. Hotfixes can be merged into main immediately (by a dispatched agent in a worktree of main, rule 60).", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "fact 23 \u2014 Every upgrade brings system sequences and their triggers in line\u2026 \u2014 install.py runs ship_sequences after the migrations on each upgrade, so features/sequences/shipped.py is the whole source: change its wording and the next upgrade updates every journal, no migration needed. Shipped rows carry system=True and are read-only for everyone but SYSTEM (controllers/base.py _shipped).", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "fact 9 \u2014 Every public method on a controller becomes a journal command \u2014 The CLI is generated from the controllers: each public method of Controller, or of a typed controller, turns into journal <noun> <method>. A helper added to the base class therefore becomes a command on every type \u2014 which is how journal <type> handled and journal <type> refuse came to exist, from the CRUD funnel and the refusal funnel. An internal helper on a controller is named with a leading underscore, as _shaped and _status already are, or it ships as a command nobody meant.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "your command ran 32s in the foreground and was moved to the background \u2014 carry on with other work; you are told when it ends. Start a command you expect to take long in the background yourself; the log tag does this in one step \u2014 [!log:N] makes the turn itself the log entry; it runs only when it opens the last text of your turn", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "Code Commandments \u2014 before you wrap up \u2014 you've changed 6 judged files since th\u2026 \u2014 Code Commandments \u2014 before you wrap up: you've changed 6 judged files since the last commit. Consider running `commandments judge --changes` to confirm they conform, and fix any sin at its SOURCE (don't launder a finding with a default/cast/null-check). This is a one-time nudge for this batch \u2014 if you've already judged, or these changes aren't worth a scan, just say so and carry on.; work 1 is still open \u2014 end it or park it before you stop: journal work end 1 --how \"<what landed>\", or journal work park 1 \"<why it waits>\"", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "work 1 is still open \u2014 end it or park it before you stop: journal work end 1 --how \"<what landed>\", or journal work park 1 \"<why it waits>\"", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "the whole suite before the second commit came back - cd\u2026", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "check 1 failed - features/session_briefing/test.py has 11 tests, over 10; what n \u2014 journal check show 1 says why; fix it, then journal check run 1", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "your command ran 31s in the foreground and was moved to the background \u2014 carry on with other work; you are told when it ends. Start a command you expect to take long in the background yourself", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "rule 54 \u2014 Settings and feature switches are read at boot and on change, never\u2026 \u2014 The user, message 13349: the application boots, determines every feature and setting once, and re-evaluates only when something changes, such as a setting or a plugin. Never lazy-load settings.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "that Bash call returned 100,770 characters, the largest this session \u2014 It stays in the context for good. If you were looking for one thing in it, the next read can be narrower: grep for the line, sed a range, head the file.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "Code Commandments \u2014 before you wrap up \u2014 you've changed 2 judged files since th\u2026 \u2014 Code Commandments \u2014 before you wrap up: you've changed 2 judged files since the last commit. Consider running `commandments judge --changes` to confirm they conform, and fix any sin at its SOURCE (don't launder a finding with a default/cast/null-check). This is a one-time nudge for this batch \u2014 if you've already judged, or these changes aren't worth a scan, just say so and carry on.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "the whole suite on the rebased branch came back - cd\u2026", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "fact 24 \u2014 An answer followed by tool calls can be missing from Claude's\u2026 \u2014 Seen 2026-09-24 for messages 9391-9404: text blocks opening with [!reply:n] that were followed by tool calls never appeared in the session's jsonl (only thinking and tool_use rows did), so the journal never saw them and the replies were lost. When a turn goes on after answering, send the answer with journal message reply <n> \"<text>\" instead of the tag.; rule 35 \u2014 Write clean code - one funnel per kind of operation, never the same\u2026 \u2014 Every kind of operation has one funnel: one method that creates, one that saves, one that refuses, one that formats. A second method that does the same thing under another name splits the behaviour, and the two drift apart. Before writing a method, search for the one that already does it and extend that. scripts/checks/funnels.py finds bodies written twice.; rule 37 \u2014 Close every to-do explicitly with todo done or a Journal commit\u2026 \u2014 Ending work does not close its row. A to-do is closed by journal todo done <n> --how, or by a commit whose message carries Journal: todos done <n> at column 0, several numbers separated by commas. A row left open after its work landed misleads the next session and auto mode.; rule 55 \u2014 Always dispatch Codex helpers on gpt-6-sol \u2014 The user's word, message 13431: switch the codex agents to GPT-6-Sol and make it their default. ~/.codex/config.toml names it as the default model too.; rule 56 \u2014 Helpers are for work that writes; subagents read, research and design \u2014 The user, message 13464: there must be a clear distinction. A subagent can be dispatched for anything read-only: research, review, design. A helper is for actual work that writes, best in its own worktree when the work is separate. Dieter designing in Claude Design should have been a subagent, not a helper.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "rule 42 \u2014 Every user-facing text passes the formatters before it leaves the\u2026 \u2014 Not only a brief. A title, an abstract, an outcome and every section body are read by a person, so each goes through the same formatters on its way to the viewer \u2014 chat turns, activity items, to-do rows, inspector pages, docs alike. One field formatted out of five is not a rule, it is an accident, and it is how a raw tag ended up in the activity list after the tags feature had been stripping them for weeks. When a new field carries words a person reads, it joins the list in the same place.; rule 48 \u2014 The viewer is built from its component library, and pages only\u2026 \u2014 Message 4258. Every visual piece the viewer shows more than once, or that a user would recognise as the same kind of thing (a dialog, a side panel or inspector, a dropdown, a list row, a switch, a button), is one component in web/src/kit, extracted aggressively, and every page composes those components instead of building its own copy. Before writing markup or styles in a page, look for the kit component that already does it and extend it with a prop; a second hand-built version is a bug. The side panel that animated in but not out, while a separate skill panel did both, is the example.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "screens.js names 2 files in the project \u2014 write the path so the chat can link it: src/web/src/phone/screens.js, src/web/src/phone/settings/screens.js; rule 51 \u2014 Every finished feature is committed, pushed and released with a new\u2026 \u2014 Message 9207 (2026-09-24): when a new feature is ready, commit, push and publish a new tag. This is the user's standing word for releasing, so rule 44's only-when-the-user-says is met by it for finished features; fixes in between wait for the next feature or a patch the user asks for.; rule 59 \u2014 Every viewer heading and label says plainly what it is about \u2014 The user, messages 16499, 16839, 16844, 16989, 16992 and 16993 (2026-10-06), after 'Where the words count', 'Watch for the words in', 'This project', 'This browser' and 'Stop the journal' as tab names: viewer text reads like Linear, GitHub or Vercel. A place (page, tab, group, sidebar item) is a short noun: Settings, Project, Browser, Services, Updates, Plugins; never 'This project' or a phrase. A button is a verb for what happens: Stop, Install, Copy link, Pause the plan. A heading names what the reader looks at, and its options finish its sentence: 'Trigger when' / 'A word is written'. Plain literal words: no metaphor or whimsy ('kettle on, waiting'), no app speaking as I, none of the journal's internal words (row, hook, nudge, engine, slate). One word for one thing everywhere, sentence case, as short as it can be while clear. Applies to designers' prototypes, helpers' builds, the viewer's JavaScript lists, feature details, and shipped sequence and trigger titles alike.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "Code Commandments \u2014 before you wrap up \u2014 you've changed 13 judged files since t\u2026 \u2014 Code Commandments \u2014 before you wrap up: you've changed 13 judged files since the last commit. Consider running `commandments judge --changes` to confirm they conform, and fix any sin at its SOURCE (don't launder a finding with a default/cast/null-check). This is a one-time nudge for this batch \u2014 if you've already judged, or these changes aren't worth a scan, just say so and carry on.; work 2 is still open \u2014 end it or park it before you stop: journal work end 2 --how \"<what landed>\", or journal work park 2 \"<why it waits>\"", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}
{"content": "the whole suite on the wording fixes came back - env -u JOURNAL_ENV lockf -k\u2026", "meta": {"from": "journal"}}