CHAPTER 01

Context Artifacts

Every document the Millwright produces is a context artifact: a working record kept on disk that carries the project forward from one step to the next, and lets the Inspector see exactly what was done.

The same idea takes many forms across the methodology

requirements.mdtodo-list.mdconfig.mdprogress.mdUML diagramsinspector-review.mdlessons-learned.md

Where collaboration starts

The shared surface where human and agent meet. Every hand-off in the methodology happens through an artifact, so neither side works alone.

Long-term memory

A chat context is wiped between sessions; artifacts on disk are not. They let an agent recall the whole project days or weeks later.

Fuel for the next step

The right artifacts are read back into an agent's working context, so it begins each step already knowing the plan, the rules, and what came before.

Readable by humans

Plain, legible text, never opaque machine state. Anyone can open one and see exactly where the work stands.

Shared and reviewed

Because they read like documents, artifacts can be passed to teammates, reviewed, and signed off, so the work stays inspectable by the whole team.

Why the name

Why we call them context artifacts

Each artifact does two jobs at once. It is an inspection surface, a readable record the Inspector uses to see and judge the work. And it is a context carrier, the material the Millwright reads back to rebuild everything it needs for the next step. One document, both roles. That dual duty is what the name points to: context artifacts are how the project’s context is stored, handed off, and kept alive between every step.

CHAPTER 02

Context Artifact Repositories

Three repositories form the source of truth: raw inputs, per-cycle working state, and durable design and implementation artifacts.

Journal

Quest

Workflow Stream

The Journal holds the raw inputs — meeting notes, transcripts, specs, design hand-offs, anything that defines or constrains the work. The Inspector drops material in by topic; the Millwright reads it. It is the unprocessed source the whole cycle grows from.

CHAPTER 03

The Context Artifact Relay

The Millwright fills the payload.

The Inspector throws the switch.

An electrical relay stays open, passing nothing, until a control signal energizes its coil. The methodology advances the exact same way. At every step the Millwright has produced a fresh set of context artifacts, but they do not flow onward on their own. They wait. The circuit closes only when the Inspector gives the signal to advance, and that one signal relays the finished work into the next step. Because the gate is always there, the Millwright can never advance itself.

THE CONTEXT ARTIFACT RELAY

Stepthe AI generates

Context Artifactsproduced, then held

Human reviewopens the hand-off

Next steppicks up the work

The relay fires at every stage, for the life of the feature: produce, review, hand off, repeat.

DURABLE

Survives every pause

The payload is artifacts on disk, not a conversation. The hand-off survives session breaks, restarts, and pauses of days. The work waits, intact, until the Inspector returns to throw the switch.

LAYERED

A summary, not the flood

What moves forward is not every word ever written. The relay passes a compact, purpose-built briefing, with the full artifacts kept on hand whenever a deeper look is needed.

CASCADING

One signal, many steps

A single advance can energize a whole run of steps. The relay is keyed to the gate, not to one command, so one throw of the switch can carry the work through several moves at once.

CHAPTER 04

How It Works

Step through how the three repositories and the workflow stages collaborate, one phase at a time.

STAGE 1 / 8

Overview

OVERVIEW

How the workflow operates

Three repositories and their relations to the workflow phases will be explained as you advance. Use Next to step through each phase.

MAIN AGENT

millwright — main session

context persists across the whole stage

artifacts are loaded in as each phase runs →

main agent spawns the sub-agent · reads back a ~1k-token summary

SUB-AGENTephemeral

fresh sub-agent

spawned with an empty context

injected with only the artifacts it needs

does its heavy reads in disposable context

returns a ~1k-token summary, then dies