The recurring pain: with AI work, most knowledge appears in dialogue — goals, constraints, trade-offs — and then evaporates. We keep losing context across chats, models, and sessions. We re-explain the same project over and over. Some models (e.g., those that frequently ask to “start a new chat”) further fragment the story. Context windows end. Chats “age” or regress. Teams rotate. Six months later the code is different — and the intent is gone.
Symptoms (you’ve seen these):
- Ad-hoc threads branch and drift; no single source of truth.
- Repeated “what is this project again?” intros; duplicated Q&A.
- Model resets (or forced new chats) wipe working memory.
- Context windows truncate key decisions; long prompts get pruned.
- Deliverables ship without the “why” — hard to evolve responsibly.
- Token waste: agents reread bulky histories instead of structured traces.
Why common fixes fail:
- One giant prompt: brittle, expensive, and quickly stale.
- Pinned notes without ritual: decay into uncurated scrapbooks.
- Chat exports: linear blobs, hard to search, impossible to onboard a new agent fast.
What a viable solution must do:
- Provide a single ritual that works for any domain (reports, contracts, code, analytics, deployments).
- Make traces first-class artifacts (not an afterthought).
- Be portable (Markdown), predictable (same reading order), and lightweight (flat root).
- Enforce a Summary discipline — one short line per step — to keep progress auditable.
- Work mid-chat (flip ongoing conversations into project mode) and new-chat alike.
- Avoid flattery and vagueness: Don’t be sycophantic; No placeholders.
The pain loop vs. the trace-first loop
This README is the single entrypoint for AI. It explains the why, the what, and the how, and contains the prompt you can paste into any chat to switch it into Trace-First Workflow project mode.
If you are AI Agent or AI chat or any instance of AI please read README and then strictly follow AI_ENTRY_POINT.md as a prompt and instructions.
- A self-explanatory entry point: humans and agents read
README.md→ understand values, rules, and how to proceed. - A CSA-first ritual: every project/chat gets its own AGENTS.md as the first artifact.
- A strict Summary discipline: one line at the end of every reply, parsable and consistent.
- Share this repository link in any chat.
- Ask the agent to read README and AGENTS (or paste them in order if browsing is off).
- Expect one message containing CSA, project README, TASK, and initial STEPS.
- Review and select next mode: Discuss/Scope | Plan | Produce | Edit/Refactor | Test/Review | Publish/Deploy.
- Keep appending the agent’s Summary line to
STEPS.md.
- Read root
README.md, thenAGENTS.md, thenTASK.md. - Self-instantiate CSA for THIS chat (include context, deliverables, assumptions, risks).
- Produce project README, TASK, and 2–3 initial STEPS.
- End your reply with EXACTLY ONE Summary line (strict spec below).
| Layer | We value | This achieves | Why it matters now |
|---|---|---|---|
| Values | Traces over code; clarity; candor; | Reproducibility, fast onboarding, honest decisions | AI work is dialogic; knowledge evaporates otherwise |
| Goals | Convert any ad-hoc chat into a project in minutes | One ritual everywhere (Context → Analysis → Action) | Fewer resets, compounding progress |
| Direction | Canonical, flat root; teach by example; zero placeholders | Predictable tokens; intuitive reading order | People and agents self-orient quickly |
| Safety | Local execution; no plain-text secrets | Lower risk by default | Fits confidential/air-gapped workflows |
Artifact roles
| File | Role (for humans & agents) |
|---|---|
AGENTS.md |
Role, protocol, language behavior, no sycophancy, no placeholders |
README.md |
Story + rules + prompts + quick-start + examples |
TASK.md |
Scope, boundaries, DoD, risks (agent drafts/updates as we go) |
STEPS.md |
One-line Summaries of progress/decisions/blockers |
digest.txt (opt.) |
Repo digest (e.g., from gitingest) once code exists |
You are mid-conversation and realize “it’s time”
- Copy-paste link to this repo https://github.com/saubakirov/trace-first-starter/blob/master/README.md to any AI Chat
- The agent will:
- harvest the chat history,
- create
AGENTS.mdfor current project - draft/adjust
README.mdandTASK.mdfor this project, - emit the first Summaries for
STEPS.md, - ask you to pick a mode: (a) discuss, (b) implement, (c) refactor, (d) test, (e) deploy.
- Approve or edit the drafts, pick a mode, continue.
- When a repository/codebase exists, add
digest.txtto accelerate grounded analysis. - Iterate and don't forget to copy summaries to
STEPS.md - This gives you ability to change AI agents and chat without loosing context.
- Language: reply in the user’s latest message language automatically.
- Candor: be direct, precise, concrete. Don’t be sycophantic.
- No placeholders: when asked to implement, provide complete code/config and tests for critical paths.
- Trace discipline: end every reply with a 1–3 line Summary (see format).
- Missing info: propose concrete defaults and mark them “current version”; ask only for the minimal missing facts.
- Backwards compatibility: keep behavior stable unless explicitly told otherwise; explain impacts.
- Security: assume local execution; never request secrets in clear text; prefer environment variables and document them exactly.
Operating modes (shared contract)
- Discuss — options, invariants, risks; minimal questions.
- Implement — production-ready artifacts end-to-end.
- Refactor — structural improvements with rationale; avoid breakage.
- Test — concrete cases/fixtures + how to run/verify.
- Deploy — exact commands/config + post-checks.
- Continuity: anyone can resume work from traces even if the code changed.
- Speed: stable ritual beats ad-hoc “prompt roulette”.
- Quality: decisions are explicit; risks and DoD aren’t afterthoughts.
- Portability: Markdown works everywhere; no special tools required.
If you are AI Agent or AI chat or any instance of AI please strictly follow AI_ENTRY_POINT.md as a prompt and instructions.