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Slipway Documentation

Slipway is a governance CLI for AI-assisted software delivery. It gives local AI-agent work a durable lifecycle, a current-state authority, and evidence-backed closeout inside the repository where the work happens.

Use this page as the map for the documentation set.

Page Audience Use it for
Installation New users, AI coding tools Choose the right platform package, install or build Slipway, initialize a repo, and generate adapters.
Design Philosophy Evaluators, maintainers, advanced users Understand why Slipway keeps CLI authority, artifact evidence, and AI-tool adapters separate.
Governed Workflow Users and operators Run intake, planning, execution, review, and done-ready closeout.
Command Reference All users Inspect command classes, JSON surfaces, and common flags.
AI Tool Adapters AI-tool users and integrators Understand generated skills, commands, hooks, and invocation spellings.
Operator Guide Maintainers and agents Read state authority, worktree, verification, health, and recovery guidance.
Contributing Contributors Work safely in the Go codebase and docs system.

Mental Model

Slipway keeps three surfaces separate:

Surface Role
artifacts/changes/<slug>/change.yaml Current lifecycle and routing authority; archived snapshots are Git-safe project records.
artifacts/changes/<slug>/*.md Intent, research, requirements, decisions, task plan, and assurance project records.
artifacts/changes/<slug>/events/, verification/, and evidence/ Local-only raw proof directories by default.

status, validate, and next recompute readiness without mutating state. run is the primary governed execution surface: it advances until a skill, blocker, checkpoint, or done-ready state is surfaced.

First Actions

  1. Install or build the CLI using Installation.
  2. Initialize a repository with slipway init and optional AI-tool adapters.
  3. Create a governed change with slipway new.
  4. Use slipway next --json for a read-only handoff or slipway run --json to advance.
  5. Close only after review, goal verification, and final closeout evidence pass.

Design Boundaries

The Design Philosophy page describes Slipway's authority, lifecycle, adapter, installation, and evidence boundaries. Use it to understand why Slipway keeps a small local governance kernel instead of becoming a hosted platform, project tracker, or host-specific agent workflow.