Skip to content

README: lead with the demo and the pitch, move reference into docs/ - #11

Merged
jonascript merged 2 commits into
mainfrom
docs/demo-gif
Aug 2, 2026
Merged

README: lead with the demo and the pitch, move reference into docs/#11
jonascript merged 2 commits into
mainfrom
docs/demo-gif

Conversation

@jonascript

@jonascript jonascript commented Aug 2, 2026

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Owner

Three things, all docs: a demo GIF, a rewritten README opening, and the
reference material split into docs/.

demo

1. A demo GIF

ike is a TUI and the README had no picture of it. For a terminal app that is the
single biggest thing between a visitor and an install.

Twenty-five seconds, one take: capture a task with ike add from the shell,
open the matrix and find it already sitting there, move around, open an attached
plan, capture another task with a, reclassify it with m 3, and undo that.
It ends on the matrix rather than at a bare prompt, so the loop reads as a tool
rather than a session that finished. The undo beat is deliberate — the status
line reads undid move "Reply to the packaging thread" to Delegate It and the
hint bar grows U redo, so the frame explains itself without a caption.

Reproducible, not hand-recorded. Recorded with
VHS, from Charm — the same people as
Bubble Tea, which the TUI is built on. Both inputs are checked in:
assets/demo.tape is the script, and assets/demo-seed.sh builds ike from the
working tree and seeds a matrix into a fresh mktemp -d, so a recording can
never touch the real one. When the UI changes the demo is regenerated, not
re-performed.

Two VHS traps, in case you re-run it: its parser rejects Output/Screenshot
paths containing a dot or a segment starting with -; and a Screenshot as the
final command races teardown and silently writes nothing, which looks exactly
like the program under test having crashed.

2. Lead with the pitch

509 lines of good reference documentation, arranged as reference documentation.
Someone arriving from a link met "An Eisenhower matrix task manager, named for
the president who popularized the method"
and had to read past the matrix,
spaces, and cross-machine transfer to reach brew install on line 98.

Now: what this is and why it is unusual → install → quickstart → the two
reference tables people come back for. 233 lines.

The hook is the agent story, because that is the part that is actually unusual.
"Another terminal to-do list" is a crowded claim; "a matrix an agent can manage,
that can also hand a task back to one" is not, and both halves already ship. The
Eisenhower attribution is kept but demoted to a clause — it is context, not a
reason to install anything.

3. Reference material into docs/

Moved whole rather than summarised away:

docs/agents.md MCP and delegation together, since they are one subject from two directions — the consent gates, the permission-mode measurements, effort levels, where plans are stored
docs/data.md spaces, export/import, the durability guarantees and the flock caveat, undo/redo, renaming quadrants

Each keeps a real summary in the README with a link, not a bare pointer, so the
common cases still answer themselves without a second page load.

The version-stamped go build moved to CONTRIBUTING.md where a from-source
build belongs, alongside how to regenerate the demo. The gh attestation verify
example is updated to v0.2.0.

Checks

Every local link and image path resolves (checked programmatically), the
ldflags symbol still stamps (ike version v0.2.0-1-gf8bb34c), and the demo
was verified frame by frame. Docs only — no code changes.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

jonascript and others added 2 commits August 1, 2026 20:56
ike is a TUI and the README had no picture of it. People decide from the
screenshot, and there wasn't one.

Recorded with VHS, from Charm — the same people as Bubble Tea, which the
TUI is built on. The tape and its seed script are checked in, so the demo
is regenerated with `vhs assets/demo.tape` when the UI changes rather
than being a hand-recorded artifact nobody can reproduce. It drives the
real binary, built from the working tree, against a matrix seeded into a
fresh mktemp directory — recording a demo can never touch the matrix you
actually use.

Twenty-five seconds, one take: capture a task with `ike add` from the
shell, open the matrix and find it already there, move around, open an
attached plan, capture another task with `a`, reclassify it with `m 3`,
and undo that. It ends on the matrix rather than at a bare prompt so the
loop reads as a tool rather than a session that finished.

The undo beat is deliberate. The status line says `undid move "Reply to
the packaging thread" to Delegate It` and the hint bar grows `U redo`, so
the frame explains itself without a caption.

Two VHS traps, recorded because both cost a run: its parser rejects
`Output`/`Screenshot` paths containing a dot or a segment starting with
`-`, so paths have to stay simple and relative; and a `Screenshot` as the
final command races teardown and silently writes nothing, which looks
exactly like the program under test having crashed.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The README was 509 lines of good reference documentation arranged as
reference documentation. Someone arriving from a link met "An Eisenhower
matrix task manager, named for the president who popularized the method"
and had to read past the matrix, spaces, and cross-machine transfer to
reach `brew install` on line 98.

Rearranged around what a visitor needs in order: what this is and why it
is unusual, how to install it, how to start, then the two reference
tables people come back for. 233 lines.

The hook is now the agent story, because that is the part that is
actually unusual. "Another terminal to-do list" is a crowded claim; "a
matrix an agent can manage, that can also hand a task back to one" is
not, and both halves already exist and are documented. The Eisenhower
attribution is kept but demoted to a clause — it is context, not a
reason to install anything.

Two new pages carry what came out, whole rather than summarised:

  docs/agents.md   MCP and delegation together, since they are the same
                   subject from two directions — including the consent
                   gates, the permission-mode measurements, effort
                   levels, and where plans are stored.
  docs/data.md     spaces, export/import, the file's durability
                   guarantees and the flock caveat, undo/redo, and
                   renaming quadrants.

Each keeps a real summary in the README with a link, rather than a bare
pointer — the common cases still answer themselves without a second
page load.

The version-stamped `go build` moved to CONTRIBUTING.md, where a
from-source build belongs, alongside how to regenerate the demo. The
attestation example is updated to v0.2.0. Verified every local link and
image path resolves, and that the ldflags symbol still stamps.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
@jonascript jonascript changed the title Show the thing: a demo GIF at the top of the README README: lead with the demo and the pitch, move reference into docs/ Aug 2, 2026
@jonascript
jonascript merged commit ea276cf into main Aug 2, 2026
10 checks passed
@jonascript
jonascript deleted the docs/demo-gif branch August 2, 2026 01:07
Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment

Labels

None yet

Projects

None yet

Development

Successfully merging this pull request may close these issues.

1 participant