{"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": "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.", "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 . A helper added to the base class therefore becomes a command on every type \u2014 which is how journal handled and journal 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.; 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 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.; 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": "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", "meta": {"from": "journal"}} {"content": "Code Commandments \u2014 before you commit \u2014 you've changed 3 judged files since the\u2026 \u2014 Code Commandments \u2014 before you commit: you've changed 3 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.; 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.; 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": "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 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": "your command ran 34s 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": "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": "your command ran 30s 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": "your command ran 30s 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": "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", "meta": {"from": "journal"}} {"content": "work 1 is still open \u2014 end it or park it before you stop: journal work end 1 --how \"\", or journal work park 1 \"\"", "meta": {"from": "journal"}} {"content": "waiting: 1 unread todo 1", "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": "work 1 is still open \u2014 end it or park it before you stop: journal work end 1 --how \"\", or journal work park 1 \"\"", "meta": {"from": "journal"}} {"content": "work 1 is still open \u2014 end it or park it before you stop: journal work end 1 --how \"\", or journal work park 1 \"\"", "meta": {"from": "journal"}} {"content": "work 1 is still open \u2014 end it or park it before you stop: journal work end 1 --how \"\", or journal work park 1 \"\"", "meta": {"from": "journal"}} {"content": "you ran the same check 3 times in a row - for i in $(seq 1 5); do kill -0\u2026 \u2014 if you are waiting for something to change, say journal work await \"\" and end your turn: you are asked to look again every five minutes, and a background command tells you itself when it ends. Keep checking only if each look moves the work on.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}} {"content": "full suite run on the shared lock (pid 75170) came back - while kill -0 75170\u2026", "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", "meta": {"from": "journal"}} {"content": "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 is still open \u2014 end it or park it before you stop: journal work end 1 --how \"\", or journal work park 1 \"\"", "meta": {"from": "journal"}} {"content": "work 1 is still open \u2014 end it or park it before you stop: journal work end 1 --how \"\", or journal work park 1 \"\"", "meta": {"from": "journal"}} {"content": "you ran the same check 3 times in a row - for i in $(seq 1 5); do [ -s\u2026 \u2014 if you are waiting for something to change, say journal work await \"\" and end your turn: you are asked to look again every five minutes, and a background command tells you itself when it ends. Keep checking only if each look moves the work on.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}} {"content": "single plugin test rerun came back - env -u JOURNAL_ENV lockf -k\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 \"\" instead of the tag.", "meta": {"from": "journal"}} {"content": "Code Commandments \u2014 before you commit \u2014 you've changed 2 judged files since the\u2026 \u2014 Code Commandments \u2014 before you commit: 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": "suite with coverage and boot guard, then push came back - git commit -qam\u2026", "meta": {"from": "journal"}} {"content": "work 1 is still open \u2014 end it or park it before you stop: journal work end 1 --how \"\", or journal work park 1 \"\"", "meta": {"from": "journal"}} {"content": "work 1 is still open \u2014 end it or park it before you stop: journal work end 1 --how \"\", or journal work park 1 \"\"", "meta": {"from": "journal"}} {"content": "work 1 is still open \u2014 end it or park it before you stop: journal work end 1 --how \"\", or journal work park 1 \"\"", "meta": {"from": "journal"}} {"content": "work 1 is still open \u2014 end it or park it before you stop: journal work end 1 --how \"\", or journal work park 1 \"\"", "meta": {"from": "journal"}} {"content": "rerun of tests/test_it_boots.py came back - journal work resume 1 >/dev/null\u2026", "meta": {"from": "journal"}} {"content": "the end tag does this in one step \u2014 [!end:N] makes the turn itself what landed; it runs only when it opens the last text of your turn; fact 33 \u2014 Every open pull request may be merged and released once ready \u2014 The user, messages 17401 and 17402 (2026-10-06): 'see that everything is merged and deployed to main when ready'. Covers pull requests 9 (test coverage), 10 (plugins fit), 11 (voice words for helpers), the suggestion card and phone-parity: each merges once it is rebased on main, reviewed with the findings fixed, and the suite and boot guard pass; then a release goes out.; 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 --how, or by a commit whose message carries Journal: todos done 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": "your chat talked about the journal's workings - \"to-do 1 is closed\" \u2014 the user sees replies, reactions, pills and reads themselves; say what the work is instead; 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 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"}}