Field Notes
Short essays behind the practice: the thread, why it must run both directions, what it catches, and how the knowledge travels. Read them in order or jump to what bit you.
The Golden Thread
A machine-checkable line from intent to build to proof: what it is, why administrative overhead killed it historically, and what AI just changed.
Read the essay → 02Bidirectional Traceability
Ensuring integrity when ground-truth discoveries reshape executive intent: the thread has to carry news upward, not just orders downward.
Read the essay → 03The Assay
The machine-checkable thread, productized as a Spec Kit bundle, and a name for what it catches: work gilded to gleam like done.
Read the essay → 04How Tacit Knowledge Travels
Humans pick up a team's knowledge over years; an AI agent gets one context window. Why specs came back: the knowledge has to ship as cargo.
Read the essay → 05Fluent and Wrong
A controlled trial of whether the thread helps AI agents, and what it found out about AI reviewers: they call most broken work excellent, and their blind spots have a shape.
Read the essay →If a word in these notes made you stall, the glossary defines it in plain language.