The daily loop

A healthy project cycle looks like this.

0. Pick up where you left off

Coming back after a day or a month, the first move is the same: press View snapshot on the dashboard (or open .aipos/snapshots/latest_handoff.md directly). Which phase you are in, how far it got, and what comes next are all there — that is the file the engine regenerates for exactly this moment. An agent does the equivalent on its own: it starts from AGENTS.md, whose state block carries the same picture.

Then the loop:

1. Break down tasks

Split what this phase needs into atomic tasks — each one small enough to finish in a single session.

2. Do the work

Yourself, or hand it to an AI (see Connect an AI agent). Keep statuses updated as you go, and mark anything you are stuck on as blocked with a reason.

3. Record decisions

When you make a significant choice, record it from the dashboard (or the Ledger page). The reasoning stays in the ledger, so you never have to re-derive it. To review past decisions, open the Ledger page.

4. Pass the gate and advance

Once every exit gate for this phase is satisfied, press Advance to next phase in the dashboard’s workflow panel. If a gate has not passed, the button blocks you. In genuinely exceptional cases you can force advance, but a reason is required and it is recorded.

See Gates for the full list of gate types — all of them are judged by the engine against real state, not by ticking a box yourself.

5. Hand off

The handoff snapshot regenerates after every state change (task, decision, milestone, phase advance), so it is never stale. You can also regenerate it by hand at any time. The next session — whether that’s an AI or future you — reads it and picks up the thread.