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Reasonbook

The method

Reasonbook keeps a project's record. The method is how that record is kept: five lines, and three levels of structure a project can grow into.

Five lines

  1. One project, one record. Each project keeps its own decisions, lessons, rules and next steps, in its own folder. Reading across projects is a view, never a shared store.
  2. Every session starts from the record. Where hooks run (the Claude Code and Codex plugins), a digest of the record comes into each session on its own; elsewhere the agent starts with rbook_review.
  3. Decisions are deliberate. Record one when someone will later ask why. Never edit a decision; record a new one that supersedes it.
  4. Nothing is forgotten silently. Records expire, go stale or are superseded in the open. A sprint close keeps decisions and lessons active unless you ask it to archive them, and lists any next step it drops with the command that restores it.
  5. The record outlives the tool. It is a SQLite file in the project, and the agents connected to its server all read the same record.

Three levels

Level What the project keeps What Reasonbook does on its own, where hooks run
Ledger Decisions and lessons, with rules and constraints A digest at session start; the past decisions related to each prompt; records the agent proposes wait as drafts for your approval, at most three at a time; sessions open and close by themselves
Planner Adds next steps, as tasks in cycles Also: the digest lists up to five open next steps and flags the ones going stale
Builder Adds sprints and missions Also: the digest names the current mission, starting a mission returns related past decisions, and a sprint close keeps the record active by default; a retrospective is there when you ask for one

The levels share one record and one set of tools. A level changes what the digest shows and which starter files the project gets.

Moving up

Start at the level the project needs today, and move up when it needs more structure:

  • in the project folder, reasonbook init --level planner (or builder);
  • or ask the agent, which calls rbook_project(action="update", projectType="managed") for Planner or projectType="build" for Builder.

Moving up stores the new level, adds that level's files under rbook/ without overwriting yours, and updates the record line in AGENTS.md if Reasonbook wrote it. Nothing is converted or removed, and moving down removes nothing either. The digest suggests the move: a Ledger with five or more open next steps is told to consider Planner, and a Planner with ten or more open tasks to consider Builder.

The starter templates hold the AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md each level starts with.