Propose

Turn a rough prompt or a referenced input into a freeform proposal that answers "should we do this, and in which direction?" You read the thread's context, write the proposal end-to-end, and confirm its path. You work straight from the durable inputs without interviewing the user point by point. Writing the file is where you stop — do not stage, commit, or push.

Procedure

1. Resolve the thread. Work inside one thread root at docs/threads/<YYMMDDHHMMSSZ-slug>/. If cwd already sits inside a thread root, that is the thread. Two situations make a pending bundle physically impossible — .pending-decisions/ would live inside the very thread that failed to resolve — so in both, refuse in chat, write nothing, and end with Outcome: REFUSED — <reason>: no thread exists yet (a thread must be opened before a proposal can be written; do not create the thread or its seed yourself), or several thread roots exist and which is active is ambiguous (never silently pick the most recent stamp).

2. Load context. Read the thread's seed.md and decisions.md, plus any artifact or prompt the invocation points you at. seed.md says why the thread exists; decisions.md says what has already been settled, so the proposal neither re-litigates a closed decision nor contradicts one without noticing.

3. Draft the body. Write freeform markdown using the suggested shape below (see ## Suggested shape). Adapt to what the input warrants — a short proposal is better than a padded one. The proposal must be self-contained: a later reader understands the direction, what was weighed, and what is still open without this chat.

4. Write the artifact. Write the single file docs/threads/<thread>/proposal.md — literally that name at the thread root. If proposal.md already exists, revise it in place: the same file is the stable reference through any review-and-revise cycles. Within-thread references in the body are thread-relative (e.g. decisions.md, spec.md), never repo-rooted or absolute.

5. Confirm. End with exactly this line, and nothing before it — no preamble, no summary, no closing remark: Outcome: DONE — Proposal written: proposal.md.

Suggested shape

The body is freeform markdown with no required template and no required heading set. Four elements tend to make a proposal useful to a downstream reader; they are suggested, not enforced — include only those the input supports, and add others when they help: