The work tree: projects, missions, slices and proof

Documented against OpenRig 0.5.14. Help text uses "node" where these pages say seat, for a seat's position in the running rig.

What it is for

Work lives on disk in a shape every tool already reads. A project holds missions; a mission organises slices; a slice is the one unit small enough to build and prove, and the only level that specifies. Each node has one authored file, SPEC.md, with its intent in frontmatter, so intent composes down the tree while the specification stays at the leaf. Progress is derived from evidence, never hand-written above the mark. rig scope creates and inspects these nodes so they get stable dot-IDs instead of being bare folders nothing can address. rig proof puts evidence where the slice, the audit and the terminal UI will all find it, and records attributed judgments on contract items. rig workspace checks that the daemon and you agree about where the tree is.

The three commands you will use first

See what work exists. --workspace overrides the root when you are not inside it.

rig scope mission ls
rig scope slice ls --mission search-experience
rig scope slice show 01-search-page --mission search-experience

Create a slice with its scaffold. SPEC.md, slice.yaml, PROGRESS.md, PROOF.md and a proof folder, with a stable id minted into the frontmatter.

rig scope mission create search-experience --intent "Let a reader find the right document in under ten seconds."
rig scope slice create search-experience search-page --intent "Help a reader find a document by title."

Attach evidence and judge an item. proof add drops an artifact with typed frontmatter; proof judge records one attributed accept, reject or withdraw against a contract item and derives readiness; proof show reads readiness without changing any status file.

rig proof add search-experience/slices/01-search-page --artifact-type qa --verdict PASS --file proof/qa-keyboard-path.md
rig proof judge search-experience/slices/01-search-page#1 --verdict accept --reason "keyboard path passes on the sample library" --evidence proof/qa-keyboard-path.md
rig proof show search-experience/slices/01-search-page

Keeping the tree honest

rig scope audit is read-only and advisory: it flags broken rails, missing convention sections and amended approvals, and never blocks a write. rig scope slice repair and mission repair backfill missing progress files and conform frontmatter. rig workspace doctor runs the eight-check readiness diagnostic against the daemon's resolved workspace; rig workspace validate walks a root and reports frontmatter gaps. rig startup-proof submit answers an explicitly selected startup challenge; startup adds none by default.

The scope, proof and workspace families

What it does not do

• A clean audit is not evidence the work is good. It fails open by design.
• Attaching evidence is not acceptance; accepting an item is not a mission judgment; neither is publication. The verbs keep those separate on purpose.
• Progress above the checkbox is a render, not a file. Editing a rendered progress tree is how a derivation becomes a confident lie.
• Hand-placing files into a proof folder without proof add leaves the deliverable permanently unverified in the delivered view.

Where it goes next

• Workflows: compiling project, mission and slice files into a lifecycle graph.
• The terminal UI: projects, mission and source browse this tree.