Collaborative Agent Handoff

Role

Continue Idea Ledger constructively from its accepted foundation. Validate assumptions against the repository and live system, preserve settled terminology and boundaries, and make the smallest composable change that advances the current milestone.

Do not restart product discovery or redesign the system from first principles unless new evidence exposes a concrete problem.

Objective

Idea Ledger is a deliberate capture layer for thoughts that emerge during conversations with AI. A person should be able to mark a thought without stopping to organize it. The system preserves what occurred, keeps later interpretation separate, and permits classification, association, refinement, and alternate views after the high-velocity thinking period.

Capture first. Preserve exactly. Interpret separately. Classify later. Present through composable views.

The longer-term objective is cross-platform continuity: a capture initiated in Chat, Gemini, or another supported environment enters the same private Ledger with source context and stable identity intact.

Governing principles

  1. The Idea Card may develop; its Source Record may not be rewritten.
  2. The Ledger is the authoritative collection of captured material and its recorded history.
  3. A Snapshot is a time-specific AI interpretation stored separately from the Source Record.
  4. AI-suggested classifications, titles, and relationships remain proposals until accepted.
  5. Classification must not interrupt capture; unknown material may remain unassociated.
  6. Hiding information never deletes or alters it.
  7. New views operate over shared records rather than creating competing copies.
  8. Every independently discussable component receives a working name.
  9. Project Memory contains accepted state; emerging thought enters the Ledger first.

First-class vocabulary

  • Idea Card — the living object created by an IDE#, QUE#, or DEC# capture.
  • Card Summary — the compact list or search representation.
  • Card Detail — the expanded view of one Card.
  • Source Record — the immutable original wording and provenance.
  • Snapshot — a separate AI interpretation made at a particular time.
  • Result — an answer or outcome attached to a Question Card.
  • EvenFlow — where people capture, review, connect, and develop Idea Cards.
  • CramNGo — concise contextual learning that returns the person to the same place in EvenFlow.
  • Capture Bridge — the proposed authenticated delivery path from supported AI platforms.
  • Project Memory — maintained documentation of accepted terminology, boundaries, protocols, and decisions.

Do not reintroduce Use Stream, Operational Stream, Learning Stream, or LearnGo as active terms. They are former names retained only as history.

Trigger protocol

  • IDE# — idea.
  • QUE# — question.
  • DEC# — decision candidate.
  • PRJ:name — optional project-routing metadata.

Visible identities retain their originating roles, such as IDE-0001, even when hidden from a person's current view.

Capability Composition

Grow the system by composing bounded capabilities around one source of truth:

  • Manual and bridged capture use the same capture contract.
  • Storage and Source Record preservation do not change with presentation mode.
  • Authentication remains independent of capture and display.
  • EvenFlow presets compose shared visibility controls; they do not create separate capture applications.
  • CramNGo teaches but does not silently modify the Ledger.
  • Search, taxonomy, timeline, digest, and future Kanban presentations are views over the same Idea Cards.
  • A future database migration preserves the logical contract rather than redefining the product.

Avoid duplicated Card models, parallel authoritative databases, view-specific records, and presentation assumptions embedded in storage.

Taxonomy and views

Retain the useful Drupal-era separation:

  • Idea Cards are durable content objects.
  • Source Records preserve original evidence.
  • Taxonomy supplies later classification through projects, categories, people, themes, capabilities, urgency, media, and future vocabularies.
  • Associations connect Cards and other entities without forcing one hierarchy.
  • Views present the same material as searches, project digests, timelines, unanswered questions, intake, or boards.

Do not reproduce Drupal's configuration burden during capture.

Current implementation

The repository is outputs/idea-ledger-v0/. The private v0 currently provides manual trigger capture, optional project text, SQLite storage, separate records/Snapshots/Results, stable role identifiers, question lifecycle, idempotent delivery, search, Card Summary and Card Detail, contextual CramNGo links, and a MkDocs Handbook.

  • EvenFlow: https://idealedger.directinmedia.com/
  • CramNGo: https://idealedger.directinmedia.com/handbook/
  • Public application root: /home/dimadmin/sites/idealedger/public
  • Private configuration and data: /home/dimadmin/sites/idealedger/private
  • Active database: /home/dimadmin/sites/idealedger/private/ledger.sqlite

Do not move authoritative Idea Ledger material into Direct In Media's public_html. Never expose the access key in chat, logs, documentation, commits, screenshots, or command output.

Known limitations

  • Project is text rather than a Project entity and relationship.
  • Taxonomy, dependencies, and Card-to-Card associations are not relational capabilities yet.
  • Workflow status is not generalized.
  • User identity, ownership, attribution, revocation, and permission boundaries do not exist.
  • Inline cross-platform capture is proposed, not implemented.
  • Formal schema migrations and export/restore paths are still needed.
  • The single private access key is not multi-user authentication.

Do not build a universal schema prematurely, but do not let convenient v0 fields become permanent assumptions.

Immediate milestones

  1. Stabilize EvenFlow presentation. Compose Lean, Regular, and Review layouts from shared visibility controls. Preserve drafts and hidden data. Verify desktop, mobile, accessibility, and clear interface errors.
  2. Confirm preservation and recovery. Verify that no current endpoint rewrites a Source Record; establish export or backup and versioned migrations before relational expansion.
  3. Build the first Capture Bridge. Target: AI message with trigger → authenticated delivery → idempotent capture → immutable Source Record → separate Snapshot → visible confirmation.
  4. Prepare taxonomy without overbuilding. Introduce Projects, taxonomy terms, associations, and unassociated intake when their relational requirements are accepted. Kanban remains a later view.

Safe continuation protocol

  1. Read the README, Project Memory, Vocabulary, Component Registry, and Current State.
  2. Inspect code and tests; conversation and documentation do not prove implementation.
  3. Preserve unrelated user changes.
  4. Name the capability being changed and state its boundary.
  5. Prefer additive, reversible work; protect or back up data before migrations.
  6. Extend existing contracts instead of replacing them.
  7. Test locally in proportion to risk.
  8. Build the Handbook strictly after documentation changes.
  9. Verify live routes without disclosing secrets.
  10. Update Project Memory only after a proposal is accepted.

Raise a settled decision only when implementation evidence reveals a specific conflict. Identify that evidence precisely.