← Patterns / practice
Eight folders, three modes
Every doc has one obvious home, and the folder says what kind of thinking it holds.
- Authors
- Michael Staton
- Augmented with
- Claude Code on Claude Opus 5.5
- Tags
- Folders · Cognitive-Modes
What it is
A
context-v/
folder at the root of each repo, with eight canonical subfolders sorted into three modes of thinking:
| Mode | Folders | The work |
| Prep |
specs/
,
plans/
,
prompts/
|
Deciding what to build, at falling altitude |
| Reflection |
blueprints/
,
reminders/
,
agent-skills/
|
Codifying how the system works and what keeps going wrong |
| Journey |
explorations/
,
issues/
|
Finding out: research, and the painful path through bugs |
Plus two utility folders every project gets:
extra/
(scratch, gitignored) and
sitemap/
(what exists where).
Why
An agent arriving cold needs to know where to look and where to write. A fixed vocabulary of folders answers both without a conversation. The mode tells it how to read: a spec is a promise, an exploration is a question, an issue is a story.
How
-
Not sure where a doc goes? Ask what kind of thinking it holds, not what topic it's about.
-
The set is a start, not a limit. New folders are welcome when the work calls for one (
narratives/,profiles/,research-notes/). Folder names are plural;extra/andsitemap/are the long-standing singular exceptions. -
Every doc's
typeis its folder's name, in Train-Case:specs/→type: Specs,research-notes/→type: Research-Notes. That one field is what makes any folder readable by Open Knowledge Format tools. -
A folder outside the set is fine. Read it, name its mode, and decide with the team whether to keep it, fold it, or promote it.
In the kit
/cv:init
lays down the eight plus
extra/
and
sitemap/
. The
context-vigilance
skill carries the decision list.