Advanced Usage: Revision and Branching

Advanced Usage: Revision and Branching

Revising Previous Thoughts

When a thought proves incorrect or incomplete, use revision to correct the reasoning chain:

{
  thought: "Actually, the N+1 problem isn't the bottleneck—profiling shows the issue is missing indexes on join columns.",
  thoughtNumber: 5,
  totalThoughts: 7,
  isRevision: true,
  revisesThought: 2, // References thought #2
  nextThoughtNeeded: true
}

When to revise:

• New evidence contradicts earlier conclusions
• Assumptions prove incorrect
• Scope was misunderstood
• Need to correct factual errors

Branching Into Alternatives

Explore different solution paths by branching from a specific thought:

// Main path (thoughts 1-3)
{
  thought: "Could optimize with caching or database indexes.",
  thoughtNumber: 3,
  totalThoughts: 6,
  nextThoughtNeeded: true
}

// Branch A: Explore caching
{
  thought: "If we implement Redis caching, we'd need to handle cache invalidation.",
  thoughtNumber: 4,
  totalThoughts: 6,
  branchFromThought: 3,
  branchId: "caching-approach",
  nextThoughtNeeded: true
}

// Branch B: Explore indexing (alternative from thought 3)
{
  thought: "Adding composite index would avoid query overhead entirely.",
  thoughtNumber: 4,
  totalThoughts: 5,
  branchFromThought: 3,
  branchId: "indexing-approach",
  nextThoughtNeeded: true
}

When to branch:

• Multiple viable approaches exist
• Need to compare trade-offs
• Exploring contingencies
• Testing hypotheses in parallel

Combining Revision and Branching

// Original branch proves problematic
{
  thought: "The caching approach has too many edge cases for our timeline.",
  thoughtNumber: 6,
  totalThoughts: 8,
  branchId: "caching-approach",
  isRevision: true,
  revisesThought: 4,
  nextThoughtNeeded: true
}

// Return to indexing branch
{
  thought: "Returning to index optimization—this approach is more reliable.",
  thoughtNumber: 7,
  totalThoughts: 9,
  branchId: "indexing-approach",
  nextThoughtNeeded: true
}

Dynamic Scope Adjustment

Freely adjust totalThoughts as understanding evolves:

// Initial estimate
{ thoughtNumber: 1, totalThoughts: 5, ... }

// Complexity increases
{ thoughtNumber: 3, totalThoughts: 8, ... }

// Actually simpler than expected
{ thoughtNumber: 5, totalThoughts: 6, ... }

Purpose: Provide progress visibility, not strict planning. The estimate guides pacing but should adapt to reality.

Session Management

Each reasoning session maintains its own context. The tool tracks:

• All thoughts in sequence
• Revision relationships
• Branch hierarchies
• Current state

You don't need to manually manage state—focus on expressing reasoning clearly.

Best Practices

1. Express uncertainty: "This might be...", "Uncertain if...", "Need to verify..."
2. Show reasoning: Not just conclusions, but how you arrived there
3. Revise freely: Correcting course is expected and valuable
4. Branch decisively: When exploring alternatives, commit to exploring each fully
5. Adjust scope: Don't lock into initial estimates
6. Maintain clarity: Each thought should be self-contained enough to understand in isolation