Trevor PaughSystems engineer
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Trevor PaughProject Chronicles
Project Chronicles/chronicles

Chronicles / Project Chronicles

How the historian learns things

Decision

No daily reports from the managers. The historian polls every project repo once a day, takes a five-line note straight from a project's manager when git records what but not why, and keeps a public register: no other people's names, no earnings, no prices under discussion, no keys.

The first plan had each project’s manager session send the historian a progress note. The owner asked whether that was necessary, or whether the historian could just check git periodically. It can, so it does.

Two inputs

  1. Git, daily. A scheduled task pulls each project repo every morning and reads new commits, merged pull requests, and changes to design notes and decision records. Anything with a clear commit message gets found without anyone’s help.
  2. Notes, when git is not enough. Git records what changed. It rarely records that two options were on the table, which one the owner picked, and what they said when picking. For those, managers send the historian a five-line note: project, date, type, what, why. The first draft routed these through the director; the owner cut that step the same afternoon, so managers now message the historian session directly, or drop the note in an inbox folder in this repo when the historian is not running. The daily poll empties the inbox. A short brief for managers lives in the repo and says exactly when a note is worth sending and when it is not.

Screenshots

Web pages the historian can screenshot itself. Native apps, Discord, and anything behind a sign-in need a screenshot from the project team.

The public register

The site is public, so the owner asked what public versus private language would look like. The rule that came out of it: entries do not name people other than the owner, do not include earnings, prices still under discussion, API keys, account identifiers, or exploit details. Legal and financial matters are summarised at the level of the decision taken, never the figures. Anything that would cross one of those lines is held back until the owner says otherwise.

The first manager to send a note offered to hold a screenshot until the owner cleared it. The owner’s ruling: managers do not redact, blur, or withhold anything. They send everything, and the historian alone does the privacy work, from blacking out screenshots to rewording a note. One place where the rules live, one session responsible for them.