flightwake ✈️

Records are the contrail your work naturally leaves behind — not a flight plan you must file before takeoff.

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An ultra-lightweight work-recording framework for strong AI coding agents (Claude Fable 5 generation and beyond). Zero runtime dependencies, pure Markdown, everything lives in git.

Install

cd your-repo
npx flightwake init             # English by default; 繁體中文: --lang=zh-TW
npx flightwake update           # upgrade an existing install in place (keeps your options: lang/statusline/private)

init creates .flightwake/ (templates + Stop hook), copies 4 skills into .claude/skills/, merges the Stop hook into .claude/settings.json, and appends the trigger-obligation table (wrapped in <!-- flightwake:begin/end --> markers) to detected agent instruction files (CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md / GEMINI.md — whichever exist; if none, it creates AGENTS.md; --agents=claude,codex,gemini selects explicitly). Pure file copying, zero runtime dependencies (Node ≥18 used only at install time and by the hooks). User data (STATE/DECISIONS/TRAPS) is never overwritten; --force only updates framework-owned files. --lang=en|zh-TW picks the language of the installed templates/skills and all CLI/hook output; update re-detects what you installed and refreshes it from the latest version.

How to use

Right after the first install

1. Open a Claude Code session and say "initialize STATE with /fw-record" — the model writes the repo's current situation into the first STATE
2. git add .flightwake .claude CLAUDE.md && git commit
3. Every session after that follows the daily loop below

The daily loop

You (and the model) only need to remember one thing: start work with /fw-coldstart; the model triggers every other obligation itself — the obligation table is already in the instruction file, and strong models both read it and honor it. A typical session:

You:   /fw-coldstart
Model: (reads STATE + the latest record, ~1 minute)
       "Last session got to X, health green, next entry point is Y.
        Unverified changes: none. Pick up from Y?"
You:   Yes, go
Model: (starts working directly. Makes a decision that closes off options →
        one line appended to DECISIONS; hits a non-obvious trap → /fw-trap)
You:   Wrap up
Model: (/fw-record: writes the flight record, updates STATE, runs the
        sensitive-info self-check)

Forgot to wrap up? When STATE lags ≥3 commits, the Stop hook blocks once before the session ends to remind you; --ci brings the same gate to other agents and human collaborators. For multi-session construction, say "handoff" before stopping so the model runs /fw-handoff.

The only thing you need to watch

Whether STATE's health is honest (green/yellow/red). The framework has a single quality metric: how long it takes a fresh session to reach a safe takeover after /fw-coldstart — if that takes more than 5 minutes, your records are degrading. Everything else — record count, format compliance — doesn't matter.

When that light comes on, you don't do the maintenance yourself. Say: "this cold start took X minutes — diagnose what's slow and compact." The model comes back with a diagnosis (STATE too long? last session never wrapped up? stale TRAPS/DECISIONS entries?) and an item-by-item plan — which entries to mark superseded and why, which to merge — and you approve with one word. Facts work better than pressure: "over 5 minutes means the next session will fumble the takeover" is a prompt the model can reason about; "this is serious!" is not.

See what it actually looks like

This repo dogfoods its own framework: .flightwake/ contains the real STATE, DECISIONS, and records — every step from the gap list to the open-source launch is recorded there. That's exactly what will grow in your repo after installing.

Stage-by-stage playbook

New to working with a strong model? docs/workflow.md is a stage map of what you do and what to say to the model at each point — beginner main line, advanced folds for Claude Code veterans. (繁體中文版:workflow.zh-TW.md)

Why this project exists

A Fable 5-class model doesn't need to be taught how to do the work — but there are four things no model can do however strong it gets, because they are structural and don't disappear as models improve:

1. Sessions die; context is finite. When work spans sessions, memory resets to zero; without records, every takeover is a git archaeology dig — a strong model just digs faster, it doesn't get to skip the dig.
2. Git records the what, not the why. Commits tell you what changed, never "why the other path wasn't taken" or "the root cause of that trap" — which happen to be the two most expensive pieces of information for the next session (or the next agent).
3. Discipline drifts in long sessions. "Reported done before the tests ran", "touched prod without leaving verification evidence" — these slides have nothing to do with model intelligence and need guards outside the model.
4. Agents don't share state. Claude, Codex, Gemini, and human teammates each see their own world; state only becomes everyone's once it's in git.

So flightwake supplements persistence and discipline, not intelligence. Its ancestor in spirit is GSD: GSD is navigation (turn-by-turn guidance for every step); flightwake is a dashcam + warning lights + road signs — strong models drive themselves, so the framework only does three things:

1. Dashcam: decisions, discoveries, verification evidence, recorded after the fact (records/, DECISIONS.md, TRAPS.md)
2. Warning lights: hard guards independent of model strength (tests green before "done", prod changes must leave verification evidence, destructive operations need confirmation first)
3. Road signs: any session can die; the next session reads STATE.md and takes over safely within 2 minutes

The origin was a real three-day session (2026-07-15~17: two repos, 19 commits, 4 cron jobs, 2 deep bug fixes — no upfront planning, zero derailment). It proved a strong model needs no navigation — but everything it left behind to make the next session possible (SUMMARY/CONTEXT/memory files) was improvised on the spot. flightwake turns that improvisation into an installable convention.

Core principle: records follow work — they don't lead it

GSD is stage-driven (research→plan→execute→verify gates); flightwake is trigger-driven (events create obligations):

Escalation rule (the opposite of GSD): by default everything is quick — just start working; only "construction spanning multiple sessions" escalates to a phase (one CONTEXT file; plan decomposition is left to the model's in-the-moment judgment).

File layout (after installing into a target repo)

your-repo/
├── .flightwake/
│   ├── STATE.md             # where we are now, next-step entry (always short, always current)
│   ├── DECISIONS.md         # append-only decision log (one line per decision, with the why)
│   ├── TRAPS.md             # trap registry (OKF-style frontmatter entries)
│   ├── TEMPLATE-record.md   # flight-record template
│   ├── hooks/state-check.mjs  # Stop hook: reminds you to wrap up when STATE lags ≥3 commits
│   └── records/             # flight records (one per meaningful wrap-up)
├── .claude/skills/fw-*/     # the four skills
└── .claude/settings.json    # init merges the Stop hook config here

The skills and Stop hook are convenience sugar for Claude Code; .flightwake/ itself is plain Markdown — any agent that reads the instruction file can follow the same trigger obligations. Coexists with an existing GSD .planning/ (old records become historical archives).

Advanced install

--private keeps records local-only, out of git: every write is registered in .git/info/exclude (purely local — no trace left in the repo), the hook goes into .claude/settings.local.json, and the obligation table goes into CLAUDE.local.md (git-tracked instruction files are never touched). The cost: records aren't shared with the repo, and a fresh clone needs init --private again — "in git, shared with the repo" is flightwake's default and reason to exist; --private is the escape hatch for personal use inside someone else's repo.

uninstall reverses init's fixed write scope: removes the skills and framework files, extracts flightwake's Stop hook from settings (your other hooks stay untouched), and strips the marker blocks from instruction files and .git/info/exclude (files created by flightwake are deleted once emptied). .flightwake/ is user data and is kept by default; only uninstall --purge deletes it too.

Monorepo policy: one install per repo, at the git root. Work is session-shaped — a session routinely spans multiple packages, and records follow the session; per-subdirectory installs would shred one stretch of work into fragmented records and turn "which STATE do I read?" into a new cold-start ambiguity. Running init in a subdirectory stops and points you to the root. Submodules have their own .git and count as independent repos. If a high-traffic multi-team monorepo sees false positives from the CI staleness check, tune --threshold first.

Migrating from GSD

Wrap up your current milestone first, then:

1. npx flightwake init — coexists with .planning/; nothing is deleted
2. Tell your agent: "This repo is switching from GSD to flightwake. Read .planning/ for the current state and initialize .flightwake/STATE.md with /fw-record — unfinished items go into the next-step entries. From now on .planning/ is a historical archive; don't update it."
3. Remove (or comment out) GSD's own instruction block from CLAUDE.md, so the two rulebooks don't compete for the model's obedience

Status line (optional)

npx flightwake init --statusline puts a persistent gauge at the bottom of Claude Code:

✈️ flightwake │ ●green · STATE 2c behind │ ▓▓░░░░░░░░ 23%

Health color (the one thing you watch), STATE staleness (same rev-list logic as the Stop hook — but as a live gauge instead of an exit-time reminder), and context usage. The gauge also tells you the next command for the current state — session just started → → 開工先 /fw-coldstart; STATE ≥3 commits behind → → /fw-record; context running hot → → /fw-record → /clear → /fw-coldstart; all healthy → silence. It never overwrites an existing statusline (a single-value setting), and repo-level config takes precedence over user-level, so it coexists with tools that set a global one.

Note: a plain npx flightwake init does not install the gauge — it's opt-in. Already ran init without it? Running npx flightwake init --statusline again just adds the gauge (everything else is skipped as already installed); the bar appears in the next Claude Code session.

The gauge also tells you when a newer flightwake exists (→ v0.9.1 available: npx flightwake update) — shown only when nothing more urgent is up. The check is an anonymous GET to the npm registry at most once per 24h, cached in the OS temp dir, always in a background process (rendering never waits on the network). Opt out with FLIGHTWAKE_NO_UPDATE_CHECK=1.

CI-side wrap-up check (optional)

The Stop hook only works inside Claude Code; to extend the "STATE must not lag" discipline to other agents and human collaborators, run the same script in CI — it fails when STATE lags HEAD by ≥3 commits (tunable via --threshold=N):

# .github/workflows/flightwake.yml (example; pin actions to SHAs per your repo's conventions)
name: flightwake
on: [push, pull_request]
permissions:
  contents: read
jobs:
  state-fresh:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v7
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0 # rev-list needs full history to count the lag
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v7
        with:
          node-version: 24
      - run: node .flightwake/hooks/state-check.mjs --ci

flightwake will not write a workflow into your repo — .github/workflows/ is permission-sensitive and outside the "fixed write scope" promise; copy the example yourself.

Boundaries with neighboring systems

Claude Code memory: persistent memory has the same shape as flightwake (frontmatter + [[links]]) but lives on a different layer — memory is single-machine, single-person; flightwake's files go into git and travel with the repo to teammates, CI, and any agent. Repo facts (traps, decisions, state) go to flightwake; personal preferences and cross-project habits go to memory. Never write the same fact in both places.

Google OKF: OKF manages the knowledge layer (system facts: schemas, metric definitions, code mappings); flightwake manages the process layer (what happened, why, where we are now). flightwake's knowledge-shaped artifacts adopt OKF conventions (YAML frontmatter + [[links]]) — naturally compatible on the shared "plain Markdown + frontmatter" substrate.

Security

• Zero dependencies, no network, no install scripts: the installer only copies files; the hook only uses git (no shell) for read-only queries.
• Fixed write scope: init only touches .flightwake/, .claude/skills/fw-*, .claude/settings.json, and the marker blocks inside agent instruction files; with --private it instead touches .claude/settings.local.json, CLAUDE.local.md, and the marker block in .git/info/exclude. uninstall reverses the same scope.
• The hook lives in git: .flightwake/hooks/state-check.mjs is a file in your repo — anyone who can commit can change it, same trust level as all repo-local config; Claude Code asks for confirmation when loading it.
• Vulnerability reports: see SECURITY.md. Published to npm via Trusted Publishing (with provenance); verify with npm audit signatures.

Status

🚧 v0.x — actively dogfooded; conventions may still evolve (append-only files carry a superseded lifecycle, and read-side tolerance keeps old installs working).

License

MIT