RAILS

Readwise Accelerated Innovation & Learning System

RAILS Execute

Owner
@tristan
Time in Stage
19h
Cycle Time
N/A
Initiative
refounding

Context

# RAILS Meta-project: build v1 of the RAILS process by using RAILS itself to manage the work. The goal is to dog-food the system, work through kinks, and nail down the details of how RAILS should work. ## 2026-04-06 - Project created in Backlog by @tristan - @tristan assigned as owner - @dan onboarding — asked about architecture, dashboard, how BOT_CLAUDE.md injection works, session model, skills/MCP extensibility - Moved to Shape — ready to define what "done" looks like for RAILS v1 - Contextone bug currently blocking hosted web dashboard URLs - Thread support exists in the generic framework but hasn't been tested/thought through for RAILS specifically — likely to break if someone tries - Dan has 10+ project channels already running that RAILS could be dropped into - Skills work fine in bot sessions — current RAILS logic is just all in the CLAUDE.md since it's minimal enough - Dan finds "Global Ghostreader" channel name confusing - Shape doc finalized collaboratively by @dan and @tristan — scope: slackbot infra, web dashboard (4 zoom levels, intentionally unstyled), assistant logic + SOUL.md, file handling, migration, plus stretch goals - @dan comfortable with lighter spec since @tristan is the builder - Moved to Execute - @dan requested: daily slack message archive per project (file per day in project folder) + daily cron digest of project status (nice default for dashboard). Nice-to-haves added post-handoff - @tristan working on thread handling — RAILS needs different approach than generic bots (eg gregbot) where threads are separate discussions

Stage History

StageOwnerEntered
Backlog@tristan2026-04-06
Shape@tristan2026-04-06
Execute@tristan2026-04-06

Shape Output

# RAILS — Shape ## Definition of done Both @tristan and @dan feel confident using RAILS on real projects with other team members. ## Scope ### Slackbot infra Must work reliably in project channels. Should not break when people use threads inside those channels. ### Web dashboard Multiple views at different zoom levels: - Company: all projects in flight, organized by initiative - Initiative: all projects for a particular initiative - Project: state of a single project - Stage: zoomed-in view of where a project currently sits Intentionally minimal/unstyled — avoid design opinions early so feedback stays on the process, not pixels (Spolsky's Iceberg Secret). Pull Slack profile pics for user avatars via the Slack API. ### Assistant logic Keeps projects on track and organized. Is genuinely helpful, not just a state machine. SOUL.md for personality. ### File handling Save all files shared in a project channel to the project's folder in the repo. Currently only images are downloaded — extend to all file types. ### Migration / onboarding A temporary process to onboard current in-flight projects to their correct states in RAILS. Once deployed, new projects just start in RAILS natively and this goes away. ### Daily message archive Save all messages from each project channel as a daily file in the project folder. Makes project context portable for AI workflows and preserves full history independent of context.md. ### Stretch: context pull for coding sessions Simple UX for a team member to pull all project context (history, decisions, blockers, deliverables, docs) into their interactive coding session (Claude Code, Codex, etc). Nice to have but likely a "wow" moment for team buy-in. ### Stretch: company-wide context A shared context file (team profiles, products, org structure) so the bot doesn't need things explained that everyone already knows. Could eventually live at the Contextone platform level. ### Stretch: daily cron digest Automated daily summary of where each project sits. Doubles as a default view in the web dashboard. ### Stretch: RAILS bug/feature tracker A lightweight way for RAILS users to quickly log bugs and feature requests without breaking flow. Keeps the "user hat" and "builder hat" separate while dogfooding. ## Appetite Small — a few days.