Coldstart is in final cutover and has not been released. This section describes how the development build behaves; there is no release you can install today, so read it as a description of the method rather than instructions you can follow tonight.
The previous section described the verbs you type. This one describes the thing they operate on: a single unit of work, from the moment it is an idea to the moment a fresh session can pick it up.
The loop has four stages and each one has a different job. Planning decides the shape of the work and writes nothing else. A session does one bounded piece of it. A close verifies that piece and records it. A pointer carries the result forward. The last stage is the only one that survives the terminal closing, which is why it gets a page of its own.
[Visual 2 — The work loop as a left-to-right chain with one return arrow. Four blocks of equal height: "Plan" drawn as a stack of four small boxes (brief, architecture, master plan, section plan); "Session" drawn as one large box with four labelled bands (outcome, non-goals, human decisions, verification); "Close" drawn as a checklist column whose ticks feed a single short record line; "Pointer" drawn as a small card listing seven fields. A thick arrow runs Plan → Session → Close → Pointer. From the Pointer card a curved return arrow runs back to the top of the Session block, labelled "the only thing that crosses the gap". A caption under the Plan block reads "once per project, then once per section"; a caption under the return arrow reads "everything else is re-read from the files". Every page in this section is this same chain with one block enlarged.]
The four stages
| # | Stage | What it produces |
|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | The planning pass | Plan files: what is being built, in what order, and what would count as done |
| 2.2 | The bounded session | One observable outcome, with the limits and human decisions named before work starts |
| 2.3 | Verified close | A walked check list, one recorded line, and a refusal if a check is red |
| 2.4 | The resume pointer | Seven fields that tell the next session where it is |
Why it is a loop and not a checklist
The planning pass runs once per project and once per section, not once per session. Everything after it repeats: open a session, do one bounded piece, verify it, record it, close the terminal, open a new one. The pointer is what makes the repetition possible, because it is the only thing that a new session inherits.
That is also the honest boundary of the whole method. The loop does not preserve a conversation. It preserves files. Anything decided out loud and never written down does not come back, and no part of this section claims otherwise.
What the stages do not share
Each stage deliberately declines the others' work. The planning pass writes no code, and the product enforces that rather than requesting it: the session declares its kind on disk first, and a boundary check reads that declaration and refuses other writes. The bounded session does not decide whether the work is good; that judgment belongs at the close. The close does not extend the work; it verifies what happened and records it. The pointer holds an address, not a summary.
Keeping them separate is what stops the common failure where the first implementation choice quietly becomes the architecture, or where "the code is written" quietly becomes the finish condition.
What this section does not cover
These pages describe the shape of one unit of work. They do not describe what the project remembers between units, how the right instruction reaches a session, or which rules are enforced rather than requested. Those are later sections, and each one explains a mechanism this section depends on.
Next
Start where the work starts: the planning pass.
How current this page is
Checked on 10 August 2026 against the product's current planning, start and close behavior and its recorded release state. It describes a method, not evidence that the method improves outcomes. To ask whether a claim here still holds, or to report one that does not, write to [email protected].