Pick up the work without the previous conversation.
A documentation protocol and offline checker that keeps agent handoffs current across sessions, models, and tools. v3.0.0 is tagged; it stays private until release.
The idea
Work on a codebase now moves between agent sessions, models, and tools, and the handoff notes rarely keep up. A number goes stale, a date slips, and the next session starts from a flattering picture of the project or leans on a conversation it cannot see. The template is for developers who maintain code with AI agents and want each new session to begin from the truth.
The idea is to treat documentation as working state rather than a diary. Short documents are split by how often they change, every tool's rules file points to one shared protocol, and each project can add stricter rules of its own without weakening that core. An offline checker then enforces what a machine can verify. Real use taught the key lesson: structure held, but numbers and dates drifted, always optimistically, so those became checks.
The template was itself carried across three tools, from Claude on the web to Codex to Claude Code, which is exactly the handoff it exists to protect. Version 3.0.0 is tagged and pinned by eight of Christian's own repositories, and the repository stays private until a final cleanup and a release decision.
How it works
Orient
Locate authority
Record evidence
Hand off
A portable core (one protocol plus thin pointers for AGENTS.md, Claude Code, Cursor, and Windsurf) sits under a project overlay that may tighten it but not weaken it. Five documents are split by how often they change. An optional lock file pins SHA-256 hashes and selected invariants, and a read-only checker enforces them.
Where it stands today
Version 3.0.0 is tagged and MIT-licensed. It pairs a portable protocol and project overlay with an offline, dependency-free checker covered by 28 automated tests. Eight of Christian's own repositories pin v3 with its stale-number and stale-date checks, and several more use the document layout alone. The repository is still private; going public is a separate, pending decision.
Working now
Five documents split by how often they change: Orientation, Architecture, Decisions, Sessions, and Roadmap
One portable protocol routed from AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md, .cursorrules, and .windsurfrules, with a project overlay for local rules
An offline, read-only, zero-dependency checker with SHA-256 locks, link indexes, line budgets, newest-first order, and attributed decisions
Schema-2 checks that compare documented counts with the files they describe and keep the handoff no older than its own logs
A read-only upgrade audit that compares a project's pinned core with the template
28 automated tests over three synthetic fixture projects
Not there yet
No CI or installer yet; adoption means copying files.
The template's own roadmap and architecture pages still describe v2, and it does not yet check itself with a schema-2 lock.
How it got here
V1 grew out of a conversation with Claude on the web (Sonnet 5, medium effort) and was first used in the content repository that became Focalane
Template repository created: documents split by how often they change, a short current-state handoff, and every tool's rules file routed to one protocol; real use that week added attributed decisions and a session log
V2, an audit and revision in Codex with GPT Sol 5.6 Max, after a native-app pilot showed project rules crowding out the shared protocol: added the project overlay, the offline checker, and hash locks
V3, an audit in the Claude Code desktop app with Opus 5 (medium effort) across six adopter repositories: the drift that survived was stale numbers and dates, so checks for both were added
v3.0.0 tagged with an MIT license
What comes next
Next step
Finish the pre-release cleanup and decide on the public release.
Later ideas, not current features
Make the repository public after a final pre-release cleanup
Finish migrating the remaining adopter repositories to v3
Give the template its own schema-2 lock, and refresh its roadmap and architecture pages
Change it further only from measured adopter evidence
What I checked, and what stays bounded
Dated evidence
Template repository created (V1)release
V2 tagged: project overlay, offline checker, and hash locksrelease
v3.0.0 tagged: stale-number and stale-date checks, MIT licenserelease
Eight of Christian's own repositories pin v3adoption
Boundaries it keeps
The repository is private: no public release, GitHub Release, or npm package
The checker detects selected drift; it cannot tell whether documentation is true
Used only in repositories Christian works in; no outside adopters are claimed
Private repository instructions are excluded
My role
Designed the protocol from recurring handoff failures, directed each audit round, and reviewed and accepted every change.