thoughts

Thoughts — externalize only when one head won't hold it

This is a convention, not a system. It reuses everything: the blackboard is deep-work's / deep-analysis's existing multi-agent synthesizer surface, persisted; the membrane is adversarial-verify; the durable exit is scribe's capture→curate→verify and docs/deep-analysis/. The only net-new is when to persist and where.

When to externalize (the trigger — and the restraint)

Externalize only when a single task genuinely will not fit in one context window — it spans multiple sessions, or a deep-work/deep-analysis run's shared board must outlive this window. Below that bar, keep thinking in-context: a thoughts/ directory for a task that fits one head is ritual. There is no "always externalize" rule, and nothing auto-creates this.

The layers (one required, two optional) — thoughts/<task-slug>/

• scratch.md (required) — free-form, append-only running notes: the flipchart. One file per task, no inner schema or template. This is where thinking lives between sessions.
• blackboard.md (optional) — created only when work actually fans out to agents — the persisted form of the existing synthesizer surface, where parallel findings converge.
• conclusions.md (optional) — created only when something actually survives to promote — a staging area that drains, not a destination.

A solo multi-session overflow needs only scratch.md. Don't create the others speculatively.

The membrane and the exit (both reuse existing machinery)

• Membrane: a thought moves scratch → conclusions (and out) only after it survives adversarial-verify — refute-first; multiple lenses only when it matters. Nothing is "concluded" just by being written down.
• Exit (drain to durable truth): when a thought settles, a human/brain semantic act moves it out via existing machinery — a decision/error → docs/.scribe/capture.log (→ curate → verify into ADRs/incidents/STATUS); an audit finding → docs/deep-analysis/. This is never an auto-promotion hook (a decision is semantic — only the working mind knows it happened). Once drained, thoughts/<task-slug>/ is disposable — delete it; the durable truth now lives in docs/.

Not tracked (and why)

Add /thoughts/ (root-anchored) to the project's .gitignore — justified directly by its disposable, drainable nature: it's in-flight scratch that drains into docs/ (the tracked source of truth) and is then deleted. Anchor it with the leading / so it ignores only the project-root working dir, never a directory merely named thoughts elsewhere in the tree. (This is not because docs/.scribe/ is gitignored — it isn't; the curator reads it from the repo. thoughts/ is ignored on its own merits.)

What this does NOT build

No engine / runtime / daemon / workflow-script; no DB / schema / FTS; no new parallel router or membrane engine; no new doc types; no hook that auto-creates or auto-promotes thoughts/; no rigid template inside scratch.md; no 6th plugin; no "always externalize" rule. Route is untouched — this is a brain-internal escalation of deep-work/deep-analysis when their board must persist, not a new lane ("Router = what pipeline; brain = how deep").