Capture Project Work

Capture Project Work

Preserve the thought quickly, then place it according to its current level of commitment. Do not promote an idea merely because it sounds useful.

Choose the source

• Use a configured todo.txt source for an unrefined thought, follow-up, question, or task.
• Use shared or private OpenSpec only for accepted product or engineering intent that needs observable requirements.
• Use a shared or private changelog only for verified release meaning derived from completed OpenSpec changes at a compatible privacy level.
• Use the skill improvement pipeline for a repeated workflow with evidence across tasks.
• Use .local/openspec, .local/CHANGELOG.md, .local/todo.txt, or .local/skills when the corresponding content is private to one user or workstation.

Use protect-local-boundary before reading or writing a source under .local/ and before any later promotion or relocation crosses the private boundary.

When both shared and private sources can accept the item, ask for the scope only if the content or collaboration boundary does not make it clear.

Capture

1. Restate the item in one concrete, portable sentence without expanding its scope or exposing source context that the target audience does not need.
2. Inspect the chosen source and preserve its ordering and line endings. For todo.txt, follow an explicitly required project or source format when one exists; otherwise use the official todo.txt format as the baseline. Treat priority, creation date, +project, and @context as optional, and do not infer stricter requirements from existing entries alone. Preserve local conventions that are compatible with the governing format.
3. Preview the exact addition or specification delta.
4. Apply only when the user requested the write or approves the preview. If the target audience is broader than the source context, treat a general write request as authorization to preview only and require approval of the exact target wording before writing.
5. Re-read the bounded result and report the target and any unresolved routing decision.

Do not duplicate the same item across sources. A later explicit promotion or relocation should preserve provenance and remove the source copy only when separately authorized.