Work

Every task, issue, and note is a markdown file stored beside the work it describes. Agents operate on those files under a contract.

Why this exists

Task trackers die because capture costs too much. A form that demands a title, a project, and a priority kills the thought before it lands. At the same time, agents need a substrate they can read and write without a vendor API — and that substrate already exists: files. Work fixes both at once: capture in one keystroke, records as plain files, and a contract that states exactly what an agent may do to them.

The workbench

A keyboard-first workbench over your file tree.

The Today tab: left rail with roots, project tree, and tags; a read-first task panel that becomes editable on click.

Capture: press / anywhere and type. Prefix with task: to create a task instead of a note. No form, no required fields.

Work as a board or a list. Quick-add with Tab to indent subtasks; drag a task to reparent it.

Issues are open or closed, GitHub-style. State changes carry their reason in the thread; agent writes are attributed to their run.

• Left rail: roots, project tree, tags. Scoped tabs: Today, Work, Issues, Notes, Files, Activity.
• Read-first panels. Text is text until you click it.
• Paste a screenshot into any record. It is stored as a plain file beside the record, not in a blob store.
• Workspace-wide W-#### task and I-#### issue ids, like a tracker, without the tracker.
• Multiple roots — work laptop, home server, archive. Each root has an id floor, so id ranges never collide when trees meet.

Quick start

npm install -g slash-work   # or: npx slash-work
cd ~/projects
work                        # serves the UI, prints the local URL

The global CLI tracks the published release. If work --help still lists --priority/--type, or work show <id> never mentions delegated, the installed binary is an old release or a stale npm link target — refresh it:

npm install -g slash-work@latest   # re-downloads the release, replacing any stale link
work --help                        # confirm the dropped flags are gone

The server binds to loopback. work --tailscale binds to your tailnet address instead. It never binds 0.0.0.0.

The CLI writes the same files as the UI:

work new "Fix the login timeout" -p software/rekit
work list -p software/rekit --open
work check W-0412 2                     # tick acceptance criterion 2
work update W-0412 --status done

The file format

Every record is a markdown file with single-line JSON frontmatter. Records live in .work/ directories beside the actual work — the root holds unassigned records, each project holds its own. Grep them, diff them, sync them, back them up. They are yours.

---
id: "W-0412"
title: "Replace the water filter"
status: "ready"
project_path: "home/house"
delegated: false
tags: ["maintenance"]
created_at: "2026-08-14T09:12:00.000Z"
updated_at: "2026-08-14T09:12:00.000Z"
---

## Description

Cartridges are on the garage shelf, top left. Shut the valve first.

Projects are anything with a .work/ directory — software and life projects alike. Move the folder and its records move with it.

Agents

One human, their projects, and a contract for agents. The contract is the product's spine; the full text is in CONTRACT.md.

• The Hand to an agent checkbox is the only delegation signal. Agents claim delegated items; they never self-select work.
• Agents write back through five verbs: comment, transition, attach an artifact, file a new issue, propose follow-on work — parented to the delegated goal, never top-level.
• Agents never set done on a task. The human closes tasks.
• An agent may close its claimed issue, but only with a resolution summary. A human can always reopen.
• Agents never edit human-authored text. Every agent write is attributed to its run identity.

Agent runners are external consumers of the API and the files. Work ships no model client and calls no model.

iOS

A native companion app lives in ios/. It connects to a work --tailscale instance, remembers multiple servers, and keeps the last snapshot for read-only access when the machine is offline. Capture, Today, issues, and task detail work from a phone.

Philosophy

Work is a system of record, not a platform.

• No cloud, no accounts, no telemetry.
• No embedded model client. AI reaches Work only as an external, attributed client.
• No federation. One Work instance per machine; reach another machine over its own Tailscale-bound instance.
• One writer per tree. Sync the files with any tool you trust, but give each live tree one running service.
• Files first. If Work disappeared tomorrow, your records would still be readable markdown.

MIT licensed. See LICENSE.