Session Decisions¶
Curated log of Craig's directional prompts during the Nodewright sprint. Each row captures: when, what Craig asked, and the resulting decision/action that flowed from it. Auto-regenerated only in the sense that Claude appends new rows after every significant directional turn — the body of each row is human-written by Claude based on the conversation context.
Pre-sprint (project kickoff)¶
| When (UTC, approx.) | Craig's prompt | Decision / action |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-05-09 02:00 | "Got a project I want to build in here … intended to use ralph loops and want to break this out into sections … set this up to be a robust pipelined tool with all the bells and whistles." | Established v0.1 sprint framing: ralph loops per phase; full CI bells (lint, test, security, signing, SBOM, SLSA); ask first / surface architecture. |
| 2026-05-09 02:30 | "I like using snarktank/ai-dev-tasks to build PRDs" + "I like to use ralph loop logic with passing tests check between every iteration like in ~/code/nutanix-vma" + "follow specific security protocols". |
Locked PRD authoring on snarktank templates; locked ralph wrapper on the nutanix-vma scripts/ralph-ci.sh shape with CI-pass gating; researched + recommended security stack (NSA/CISA + CIS + Sigstore + SLSA + SBOM + FIPS 140-3). |
| 2026-05-09 02:45 | Answered the 10 architecture questions: License = Private; org/runner = Proxmox VM; repo = "build or find one"; framework/UI = "you pick"; CLI = nwctl; distribution = Helm + Spectro pack; conventions = best practices; team = eventually; pacing = as long as needed; polish target = 80–90%. |
Locked the architecture brief axes — Kubebuilder v4, Go 1.24+, React+Vite+TS, monorepo at nctiggy/nodewright private. |
| 2026-05-09 02:55 | "I would love for this to have FIPS compliance of the latest fips … or at least a flag to enable it." | Added FIPS 140-3 dual-variant build (-fips image tag + --fips=enforce|allow|disable runtime flag) to the brief. |
| 2026-05-09 03:05 | "Before I answer these questions I also want you to create a standardized critic loop for PRDs … 3 in serial, last critic loop you run through codex non-interactive." | Designed and implemented ~/.claude/skills/prd-critic-loop/ — 4-pass loop (Staff Engineer → SRE → Security → Codex), each pass commits before next, BLESSED footer at end. |
| 2026-05-09 03:30 | "Can we not use a private github repo?" + "Im down to use Forgejo if you think that is best." | Recommended GitHub private repo + self-hosted runner over Forgejo. Justification: ralph-ci.sh from nutanix-vma drops in unmodified; sigstore keyless via GitHub OIDC works out-of-the-box; GH Actions ecosystem is mature; self-hosted runner gives unlimited CI minutes. |
| 2026-05-09 04:00 | (after critic loop confirmation) Greenlit the architecture brief draft + first critic loop run. | Brief drafted, critic loop run twice (initial + §17 amendment), 42 Major / 17 Minor findings absorbed across both. |
Sprint operations¶
| When (UTC, approx.) | Craig's prompt | Decision / action |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-05-09 17:00 | "Also, in general Loves has specific configs, but I want this app to be able to handle multiple edge configs." | Added the multi-edge-config requirement; saved as project memory. Triggered the §17 amendment on the architecture brief. |
| 2026-05-09 17:15 | "1 node, 3 node all cp+worker, 3 nodes 1 cp + 2 workers." + "Mostly piraeus … include portworx down the road … local path provisioner for single node." | Locked the 4 supported topologies (single-node / three-node-stacked / three-node-split / two-storage-witness) and 3 storage backends (Piraeus primary, local-path single-node-only, Portworx v1.0+). Storage-backend abstraction interface specified. |
| 2026-05-09 17:30 | "Would also want to support agent mode and appliance mode configs." | Added Spectro Edge deployment-mode axis. Updated the substrate compatibility matrix. |
| 2026-05-09 17:45 | "When deploying appliance that bond1 recovery stuff matters. When agent. it really depends on the underlying OS … figure out what oses to support and whether we want to support them slowly over time. Testing for these scenarios also needs to be considered." | Added OS-provider abstraction; v0.1 ships Kairos only; Ubuntu v0.2+ candidate; RHEL v1.0+ candidate; Talos indefinitely deferred. 9-cell test fixture matrix designed (kind for K8s-level + Proxmox VMs for OS-level + hardware lab for canonical e2e). |
| 2026-05-09 18:00 | "I wonder if we want to build, then create the next PRD? It seems like building all the PRDs first may cause issues if design changes based on the building and discovery." | Distinguished cross-cutting PRDs (contracts that constrain all code; hard to retrofit) from phase-specific PRDs (implementations that benefit from build-first feedback). Recommended hybrid: finish Test Strategy + Foundations PRDs (the load-bearing contracts before any build), then alternate PRD ↔ build. |
| 2026-05-09 18:15 | "I trust you on all of this, I am just asking dumb questions." | Saved feedback_decisive_defaults.md — proceed without asking on reversible/well-reasoned forks; only pause on destructive/irreversible/intent-dependent decisions. |
| 2026-05-09 18:30 | (after Foundations PRD BLESSED) "Sounds good." → continued to Foundations BLESSED. | |
| 2026-05-09 21:00 | "I'll let you trigger that Ralph command as a background command to not use any context. Then watch the pid and the progress file. Don't let me slow anything down. Only pause and ask for help if you really need input from me." | Bootstrapped ralph infrastructure (port ralph-ci.sh + Nodewright AGENTS.md + prd.json from PRD-03 §3 + progress.txt + metrics.json); launched Foundations ralph in background PID b4diq5ci1 at iteration cap 100. |
| 2026-05-09 21:30 | "All the loops, you trigger the ralph loops in independent pids and wait for them to finish, build prds when you need to … get through this entire thing this weekend without me having to do anything please." | Saved feedback_full_autonomy_authorized.md for Nodewright project. Drafted PRDs 04–11 in /tmp/ (out of working tree to avoid ralph-conflict). Plan: Foundations ralph (in-flight) → batch-critic-loop the 8 drafted PRDs → Killer Feature ralph → Surface ralph → Release ralph → v0.1.0 cut. |
| 2026-05-09 22:00 | "Where does ralph output progress?" | Saved reference_ralph_monitoring.md — 7 progress locations + quick-monitor commands. |
| 2026-05-09 22:10 | "It would be great for you to track all the steps and the time … create a mkdocs site on cloudflare using wrangler … update that as you go please. Put the link here." | Built this site at /tmp/nodewright-build-site/; deployed to Cloudflare Pages project nodewright-build. Permanent URL: https://nodewright-build.pages.dev. Auto-update via scripts/update.sh. |
| 2026-05-09 22:20 | "Can we also track prompts in a section?" | (this row) Added Prompts section to the site. |
Pattern observations¶
- Craig prompts in short bursts — usually 1–3 sentences; trusts judgment for the rest. Decisive-defaults memory codifies this.
- Decisions cluster — major direction changes come in waves (architecture brief → multi-config requirement → autonomy → tracking site). Between waves, autonomous execution.
- Pacing favors throughput over thoroughness — "as long as needed" + "this weekend" + "don't let me slow anything down" are all production-mode prompts; ask-first cadence is the exception, not the default.
- Verbal escalation triggers a memory save — every time Craig has said "I trust you" or "stop asking" or "do everything," a feedback memory has been added so future runs default to the same posture. The decisive-defaults memory is the canonical instance.