48 added, 35 removed. Audit A to A.
---
name: cad-capture
description: "Capture a phase-linked todo, a seed idea for a future milestone, or a note, without losing your place - .planning/CAPTURE.md, or --cadence for friction with Cadence itself"
argument-hint: "[todo | seed | note] <text> [--phase N] [--cadence]"
allowed-tools:
- Read
- - Write
- - Edit
- Bash
- AskUserQuestion
---
<objective>
Get a thought out of your head and into the right place without derailing. Three
kinds, landing in `.planning/CAPTURE.md` - or, with `--cadence`, in Cadence's own
- queue (step 5), because friction with CADENCE noticed while working on somebody
+ queue (step 4), because friction with CADENCE noticed while working on somebody
else's project has to leave that project to reach Cadence:
- **todo** - an actionable item, tagged to a phase, so it resurfaces where it
matters. This is the phase-linked queue mem-* lacks and the reason this exists.
- **seed** - an idea for a future phase or milestone, parked in the backlog.
- **note** - a free note; lands in the file like the rest. With
`memory.backend: builtin` (the default) the note becomes recallable - it is
still written here, `builtin` only reads `.planning/` back, never relocates
the write.
</objective>
<process>
1. **Parse** `$ARGUMENTS`: leading `todo | seed | note` (default `todo` if
omitted), the text, an optional `--phase N`, and an optional `--cadence` -
this note is about CADENCE, not about the project you are in, so it goes to
- step 5 instead of steps 2-4. If a todo has no `--phase`, default to the
+ step 4 instead of steps 2-3. If a todo has no `--phase`, default to the
current phase from the STATE cursor (`cursor get`); if the cursor is absent
- or unparseable, capture it unphased - `- [ ] <text>` with no phase tag -
- rather than guessing a phase or stopping. Under `--cadence` skip the cursor:
- a phase number belongs to this project's roadmap and means nothing in
- Cadence's queue.
+ or unparseable, capture it unphased - pass no `--phase` at all - rather than
+ guessing a phase or stopping. Under `--cadence` skip the cursor: a phase
+ number belongs to this project's roadmap and means nothing in Cadence's
+ queue.
- 2. **Ensure the file.** If `.planning/CAPTURE.md` is absent, create it with three
- headings: `## Todos`, `## Seeds`, `## Notes`. (When step 1 needs `cursor get`,
- batch it with this existence check in one message - independent;
- conventions.md Parallel work.)
+ 2. **Capture through the seam** - one call, and the only way this command
+ reaches `.planning/CAPTURE.md`:
- 3. **Append by kind:**
- - todo -> `- [ ] (phase N) <text>` under `## Todos`.
- - seed -> `- <text>` under `## Seeds`.
- - note -> `- <YYYY-MM-DD> <text>` under `## Notes`. (CAPTURE.md is always
- the write path; `memory.backend: builtin` makes these notes recallable
- via `planning.mjs recall`, and `none` turns that recall off.)
+ ```
+ node "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/cadence-core/bin/planning.mjs" capture --kind <kind> --text "<text>" --phase <N>
+ ```
- 4. **Persist** - the project-directed arm only, never under `--cadence`. Stage
+ Pass `--phase` only with `--kind todo`, and leave it off entirely when step 1
+ found no phase. The seam owns every byte: it creates the file with its
+ headings when absent, puts the bullet under the one heading that kind owns,
+ stamps a note's date itself, and holds a lock so a concurrent writer cannot
+ erase the line. Do not compose the bullet yourself and do not reach that file
+ with any other tool - a second statement of the format is how the queue's
+ writer and its reader drifted apart, and five filed items were lost to it.
+
+ An `ok:false` return STOPS the capture: report its `reason` back with the
+ user's own sentence, so nothing is lost and they can re-run it, and skip
+ step 3. A bullet that did not land is never reported as captured.
+ `capture-locked` means another writer holds the queue at this instant, and
+ running the call again is the whole fix.
+
+ 3. **Persist** - the project-directed arm only, never under `--cadence`. Stage
ONLY `.planning/CAPTURE.md` and commit `docs: capture <kind>`
(protected-branch guard applies) - this never touches the user's in-flight
changes. Report the one line captured and where.
- 5. **`--cadence`: the note is about Cadence itself.** REPLACES steps 2-4.
+ 4. **`--cadence`: the note is about Cadence itself.** REPLACES steps 2-3.
- **The queue** sits beside the global config layer: `CAPTURE.md` in the
directory part of `CADENCE_GLOBAL_CONFIG` when that variable is set, in
`~/.claude/cadence/` otherwise - the resolution
`cadence-core/bin/lib/config-merge.mjs` performs for the config file. Never
- `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}`: the next upgrade orphans a write there. Create it
- with step 2's three headings when absent, so one reader serves both files.
- - **The entry** is the user's own sentence plus two fields, appended under the
- kind's heading as in step 3 minus the phase tag:
- `- <YYYY-MM-DD> <text> (host: <host>, command: /cad-<name>)`. HOST: this
- repo's `origin` URL (`git remote get-url origin`), else the basename of the
- root from `git rev-parse --show-toplevel`, else the absolute working
- directory when this is not a repo - `origin` first because a worktree and a
- detached checkout both still resolve through it. COMMAND: the `/cad-*` whose
- behaviour caused the friction, from the invocation when the user names one,
- asked for once when not.
+ `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}`: the next upgrade orphans a write there. Resolve
+ that path yourself and hand it to the same seam, which creates the file and
+ its directory when absent, so one writer serves both queues:
+
+ ```
+ node "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/cadence-core/bin/planning.mjs" capture --kind <kind> --text "<text>" --file <resolved dir>/CAPTURE.md
+ ```
+
+ - **The entry** is the user's own sentence plus two fields, carried inside
+ `--text` and never a phase: `<text> (host: <host>, command: /cad-<name>)`.
+ HOST: this repo's `origin` URL (`git remote get-url origin`), else the
+ basename of the root from `git rev-parse --show-toplevel`, else the
+ absolute working directory when this is not a repo - `origin` first because
+ a worktree and a detached checkout both still resolve through it. COMMAND:
+ the `/cad-*` whose behaviour caused the friction, from the invocation when
+ the user names one, asked for once when not.
- **Quote nothing else from this tree** - no diff, no file contents, no path
out of the user's own work. There is no redaction machinery here, and this
rule stands in for it.
- **Three rails.** (a) NO commit - not in this repo, not in the global
- directory, which is not a working tree at all - so step 4 does not run. (b)
+ directory, which is not a working tree at all - so step 3 does not run. (b)
Nothing is transmitted; a note meant for a maintainer who is not the user
stays a manual export the user makes. (c) If that directory cannot be
- resolved or written (`homedir()` throws under an arbitrary UID), say so and
- STOP - NEVER fall back to `.planning/CAPTURE.md`, since a note landing in
- the host repo is the failure this arm exists to close.
+ resolved (`homedir()` throws under an arbitrary UID) or the seam refuses
+ the path, say so and STOP - NEVER fall back to `.planning/CAPTURE.md`,
+ since a note landing in the host repo is the failure this arm exists to
+ close.
Report the one line captured and the file it landed in.
</process>
<guardrails>
- Do not act on the item now - capture is parking, not doing. A todo is queued,
not executed.
- Stage only CAPTURE.md; never sweep the user's working changes into the commit.
</guardrails>