Alcoven

What to do next

Each person on an Alcoven project gets one next step on the project’s home, with its reason, picked in a fixed order from what waits on them, someone new who is stuck, what is due, this week’s focus, the project’s phases and its numbers. The plan behind it is one short file your AI writes, so you, your teammates and every AI on the project work from the same plan, each with their own step.

At the top of the project’s home, one tile shows the plan being worked. It starts with your Next and grows as you use it (a home that grows with you): This week and Done this week, then the current phase and how many of its objectives are met. Under it, What’s missing lists what the project still lacks, and further down, What the project has built counts what the team has made, with its milestones. Your own AI gets the phase, your Next, This week and What’s missing from Alcoven when it opens the project, and a coding agent hears your next step in the answer to a git push that closes your current one.

The plan is a file ending in .focus.md, in any folder: the project’s phases, the week’s focus and the gaps set aside. Alcoven reads it by fixed rules, with no AI model, checks every line, and names the line to fix when one can’t be read. People change it the way they change any file, and every change is a new version.

For example, Corvid, an imagined studio relaunching a bank’s app, keeps the relaunch’s plan in pilot/relaunch.focus.md. You, its developer, keep the focus; your colleague is the account lead; your client, the bank’s product owner, reads the project. Where the app shows a person’s name, this page says who they are to you.

# Bank app relaunch: phases and this week

- Built: pilot/branches-live.widget.md
- Owner: m-7d2w5c

Why it's here: the relaunch's three phases, the week the team works in, and the gaps we set aside.

## Phases

### 1. Discovery
- Until: 2026-10-16
- Objective: The bank signs off the discovery report
- Objective: Choose the 40 pilot branches with the bank

### 2. Pilot with 40 branches
- Until: 2026-11-30
- Objective: pilot/first-payments.widget.md
- Objective: Train the managers of all 40 pilot branches
- Objective: The bank signs off the pilot report

### 3. Launch to every branch
- Until: 2027-01-29
- Objective: pilot/branches-live.widget.md
- Objective: The app passes review in both app stores

## This week

- Week of: 2026-10-26
- Number: pilot/first-payments.widget.md

1. Call the managers of the branches that logged in and haven't taken a payment. When: Monday at 14:00, after the stand-up.
2. Send the bank the pilot's first two weeks on one page. When: Wednesday by 12:00.
3. Fix the payment screen's timeout on older phones. When: Thursday, before the bank's test day.

## Not needed here

- what done looks like, in the brief: the signed statement of work says it, and the brief links to it. (m-7d2w5c, 2026-10-12)

On Monday 26 October, with Discovery done and one objective of the pilot met, Alcoven reads the file back: ‘pilot/relaunch.focus.md: Phase 2 of 3, "Pilot with 40 branches", 1 of 3 met, 35 days left; week of 26 Oct, Branches with a first payment (2 of 10 by 9 Nov; needs 4 a week, 1.8 a week so far); 3 things, all tasks; 1 gap set aside.’ That morning, your Next is the week’s first thing, “Call the managers of the branches that logged in and haven’t taken a payment”, with “In this week’s focus, for Monday at 14:00.” under it, and Done beside it.

Ask your AI

Ask the AI you work with, in your words, for example:

  • “What’s my next step?”
  • “Set this week’s focus: first payments. Call the managers who haven’t taken a payment on Monday at 14:00, send the bank the first two weeks by Wednesday noon, and fix the payment timeout on Thursday.”
  • “Write our phases: discovery until 16 October, a pilot with 40 branches until 30 November, then the launch to every branch by 29 January.”
  • “What does the project still lack?”
  • “What moves first payments is a call with each manager after their first login. Add it.”
  • “We don’t need a done line in the brief: the statement of work says it. Set that aside.”

When you ask Claude, Claude Code, Codex or another AI app with Alcoven added (how to add it) what to do now, Alcoven asks it to give you the Next line first, in one sentence with its reason, then do what you choose. To set the week, Alcoven asks it to add each thing as a task, get the file’s format from Alcoven, check its draft, show it to you, and change only the This week section when you say yes. It is asked to mark nothing done, set nothing aside and move no phase on without your word, and to offer once, on a Monday or when the file’s week is from an earlier week, to set this week’s focus.

In Alcoven, press Set this week’s focus on home (Start one in the chat on a project with no week yet), or ask the project at the foot of its home: the project’s agent proposes the tasks and the change, and you put them on record.

The focus file, line by line

A title, two optional lines and a line on why the file is there, then three sections, each optional: ## Phases, ## This week and ## Not needed here. A project has one focus file: Alcoven reads the first by path, and the check tells any other that it isn’t read. The name must end in .focus.md, so a document of yours called focus.md is left alone. Anything else in the file is kept as text and shown nowhere.

LineWhat it takes
# TitleThe file’s name in lists and for AIs, on the first line.
BuiltOne .widget.md path: the number that counts what the project builds for the people it serves, like branches live, paying customers or pages shipped. It leads What the project has built. Optional.
OwnerThe member id of who keeps the focus, like m-4f2k9a. Whoever wrote the file if left out. The keeper’s Next carries a phase whose date has passed, and objectives that are no task yet.
Why it’s here:One line on why the file is there.

Phases

Under ## Phases, each phase is a ### heading, in date order, up to twelve. A number in the heading is optional: ### 2. Pilot with 40 branches and ### Pilot with 40 branches read the same.

LineWhat it takes
UntilThe date to meet its objectives by, like 2026-11-30. Needed. Phases go in date order.
FromThe first day its objectives count from. The day after the phase before it ends if left out.
ObjectiveOne to five a phase. A widget’s path: met when its number is at or above its target dated within the phase. Anything else is a task, named by its title, a link to tasks/t-ab12.md or a § address, and met when the task is done.
Moved onWritten when someone moves on before every objective is met: - Moved on: 2026-11-16 (m-4f2k9a): their reason. The reason may be empty. Taking the line out opens the phase again.

A number objective’s target lives on its widget, on the Compare line: the latest target dated on or before the phase’s Until and after the phase before it ends. In the example, the pilot’s first payments objective is met at 30 by 30 November, and the widget’s earlier target, 10 by 9 November, is a step on the way.

This week

LineWhat it takes
Week ofThe week’s Monday, like 2026-10-26. A date of another day reads as its week’s Monday.
NumberThe one number this week moves: a widget with a dated target. Optional.
1. 2. 3.One to three things to do, each in words, then When: and a day or time in words, on the same line or the line under it.
  • Each thing is a task. Alcoven finds it by a link like [title](tasks/t-ab12.md) or a § address first, otherwise by an open task with the same title, or one closed this week, with letter case and the Turkish İ and ı ignored. When two open tasks share the title, it reads the older, and the check names both.
  • A thing with no task shows “No task yet.” with Add it as a task, which makes it a task for the focus’s keeper (or for the @person its words name), due on the day its When names.
  • When is kept as you wrote it. A day in it (Monday, Tue, 28 Oct, Pazartesi, yarın) is the due day Add it as a task gives. A time is shown, never scheduled. Saying when, with a day or time, makes a thing likelier to happen, so the check asks for it.
  • The weekly change touches only This week. If a version drops the Phases or Not needed here section that the version before had, the check says so, and History restores it.

Not needed here

One line for each gap of What’s missing set aside, with its reason after the colon, then who and when:

- what done looks like, in the brief: the signed statement of work says it, and the brief links to it. (m-7d2w5c, 2026-10-12)

The gap’s name is one of those in What’s missing’s table, and the reason is needed. Not needed here on home writes the line for you, with your member id and the day.

A product team’s focus

Lumen, an imagined product team building an app for music schools, measures both its phases by one number, and each phase is met at its own target on that widget’s Compare line:

# Lumen: phases and this week

- Built: numbers/paying-schools.widget.md

Why it's here: our road to the first paying schools, and this week.

## Phases

### 1. Ten schools using it every week
- Until: 2026-12-15
- Objective: numbers/active-schools.widget.md
- Objective: Parents book a lesson from their phone

### 2. The first paying schools
- Until: 2027-03-31
- Objective: numbers/paying-schools.widget.md
- Objective: numbers/active-schools.widget.md

## This week

- Week of: 2026-10-26
- Number: numbers/active-schools.widget.md

1. Hold a set-up call with each school that signed up last week. When: Monday and Tuesday at 11:00
2. Ship lesson reminders by text message. When: Thursday
# Schools using it each week

- Show: number
- Measure: active schools
- From: numbers/app.source.md
- Compare: target 10 by 2026-12-15, 25 by 2027-03-31
- What moves it: a set-up call with each new school in its first week
- Owner: m-5h9v2q

Why it's here: the number both phases are measured by.

Phase 1’s schools objective is met at 10 by 15 December, Phase 2’s at 25 by 31 March. A team with no numbers at all writes phases of task objectives only. Phases, Next, This week, What’s missing and milestones work the same, with no pace anywhere; What’s missing’s line about a number with a target can be set aside with Not needed here.

Next: one step for you

Next names the one step that moves the project for you now, with its reason in one line and a button to act on it. Alcoven picks it by fixed rules, with no AI model, in an order it can explain. The first of these that has something for you wins:

  1. Someone is waiting on you: a part handed to you to agree to, a note asking you, then the other things home lists under Waiting on you, like a table you keep that went quiet. Oldest first.
  2. Someone new is stuck in a funnel you keep (below).
  3. A task of yours due today, or due before: this week’s things first, then the others due before today, earliest first, then the others due today.
  4. This week’s number, when you keep it and it is behind its pace.
  5. The rest of this week’s things that are yours.
  6. An objective of the current phase that is yours and not met, then any other number you keep that is behind its pace, the furthest behind first.
  7. The current phase’s date has passed with objectives not met, for the focus’s keeper.
  8. The first thing What’s missing lists, for people who write.
  9. Your oldest open task with no due day.

Why this order: what blocks another person comes first, then someone new whom nobody else will notice in time, then what you promised (a due day), what you chose for the week and the phase you chose. Alcoven’s own conclusions, numbers behind and gaps, come after your commitments, so a rule never outranks a choice.

When Next isIts reason line says
Someone is waiting on youYour colleague handed you your part of Client report on Tue 20 Oct, to agree to.
Someone new is stuckSomeone new is stuck: they reached “reply” 4 days ago, and nothing since, in Leads.
Due today, or due beforeIn this week’s focus, for Monday at 14:00. or Was due 3 days ago. or Due today.
This week’s numberThis week’s number. Branches with a first payment: 2 of 10 by 9 Nov; needs 4 a week, 1.8 a week so far.
The rest of the weekIn this week’s focus, by Wednesday.
The phaseAn objective of Phase 2, “Pilot with 40 branches”. Then, for a number, where it stands.
The phase’s datePhase 2’s date, 30 Nov, has passed with 2 of 3 met.
What’s missingThe project still lacks this. 5 of 7 in place.
Your oldest taskYour oldest open task, last changed 12 Oct.
  • What you can press depends on the step: Done and Open the task on a task; Open your part or Open the note; Move on to Phase 3 and Give it a new date on a phase whose date has passed; the gap’s fix on a gap.
  • Done strikes the task through, with Undo for 10 seconds, then the next step slides in.
  • Not now shows the step after it for the rest of your day. “Skipped today” and Show them bring skipped steps back, and the next day starts fresh. Not now is kept for you alone, never on record.
  • With nothing for you: “Nothing is waiting on you.”, and when you keep a number with a target, “Nothing is waiting on you, and the numbers you keep are on pace.”

A number’s step

A number is behind its pace when it is below its target and either the pace so far is under the pace needed, or fewer than 7 days have passed since the number’s start, which is too early to tell. When Next picks a number, the step is:

  • an open task whose text names the widget’s path, with Done and Open the task;
  • else the widget’s What moves it words, with Add it as a task for today, which makes a task with those words for you, due today, and Open the number;
  • else “Say what moves Branches with a first payment”, with Add it in the chat.

Someone new is stuck

A funnel you keep is a Show: funnel widget whose Owner is you, or a source with a steps measure whose Owner is you (funnels). Someone, or something such as an organisation or a branch, is new when they reached the funnel’s first step within its Within days (14 when the widget has no Within line). They are stuck when they reached a step 2 days ago or more and nothing has happened since, unless that step is the last one the funnel shows.

  • Names show only where you can already see them: in a funnel that reads a CSV or TSV file you can open, or a sheet whose rows are shown. For your colleague who keeps Corvid’s leads table: ‘See why Larkspur Studio stopped after “reply”’, with See who stopped, Open the table and Dealt with.
  • Anywhere else, Next gives a count with no names: ‘Someone new is stuck: 3 who started 2 to 14 days ago are still at “started a project”, in Getting started.’, with Open the funnel.
  • One shows at a time, with how many more are stuck. Dealt with hides that one at that step for you, until they move past it; stuck again at the next step, they show again.
  • A funnel whose source went quiet feeds nobody’s Next, since rows may be missing.

A home that grows with you

Your home starts with your Next alone, after the setup card while it shows, and offers more as you use it and as the project has more to show. Each offer is one quiet line under Next.

Your home showsOffered when
NextFrom the start, for everyone on the project.
+ This week, Done this week, and what came of expectationsYou have marked 3 tasks done on 2 different days, the project has a week’s focus, and you have had Next alone for 2 days.
+ the phase line, the numbers on home, What’s missing and What the project has builtYou have had the week on home for 5 days, the project has phases or a number with a dated target, and you write to it. Readers are offered the phase line.
  • The week’s offer: This project sets one number and up to three things each week. Show the week here? Show it · Not now.
  • The plan’s offer names what the project has: This project has phases, numbers with targets and a list of what it still lacks. Show them here? Show them · Not now.
  • Not now brings an offer back once, 7 days later. After that, it is in the home menu.
  • The home menu, at the top of the tile, has Show less (back to Next alone), Show more on home and Show everything.
  • Only your home changes. Your own AI, your emails and the project’s views carry everything, whatever your home shows, and each person’s home grows on its own.

This week and Done this week

This week shows the week’s number with its reading and pace, its What moves it words, and each thing with its When, struck through once its task is done. When all are done, it says “All three done this week.”

Until someone sets the next week, home says how the last one went: “Last week, from 26 Oct: 2 of 3 done. First payments: 2 when last week began, 6 now (target 10 by 9 Nov).”, with Set this week’s focus for people who write. If a week goes unset, Next stops offering the week’s number and things until a new week is set. Their tasks still come up when they are due.

Done this week is one line of what happened since Monday at 00:00 in your time zone, read from the record: tasks closed, documents agreed by everyone asked, new documents, rows added to tables, notes closed and milestones. See them opens the lines, grouped by person, yours first. An agent’s work sits under the person who asked for it, naming the AI: “Your colleague, with Claude Code: added 13 rows to pilot/calls.csv”.

Phases, objectives and milestones

Each phase is a stage of your plan, with objectives to meet by a date. Next and What’s missing say what’s wrong and why, and What the project has built grows as you work.

Once your home shows the plan, the tile at the top of home starts with the current phase: ‘Phase 2 of 3 · “Pilot with 40 branches”’ and “1 of 3 met · 35 days left”, with each objective under it, like “Branches with a first payment: 30 by 30 Nov (2 now)”, and the met ones marked. All phases opens every phase with its objectives, its dates and how it ended.

The current phase is the first one that isn’t done. A phase is done in one of two ways:

  • Every objective met. Home says so at once. Within the hour Alcoven puts a milestone on record, and the next phase opens: ‘Phase 3 of 3 is open: “Launch to every branch”, to 29 Jan.’ A number that dips afterwards leaves the phase done.
  • Someone moves on. Move on to Phase 3, for people who write, asks why (you can leave it empty), writes a Moved on line in the file and offers Undo. It works with any number of objectives met, none included.

When the phase’s date passes first, it stays open: “Phase 2’s date, 30 Nov, has passed with 2 of 3 met.”, with Move on to Phase 3 and Give it a new date. Nothing is lost, and the choice is yours. When every phase is done, home says “All 3 phases are done.” with Add the next ones in the chat.

Milestones

Milestones are the project’s own record of what it won: one dated line each, written once.

WhenThe line
A phase done, when Alcoven finds every objective met30 Nov: Phase 2, “Pilot with 40 branches”, done: all 3 objectives met.
Someone moved on25 Nov: Your colleague moved on from Phase 2 with 2 of 3 met: “the bank wants the launch before the holidays”.
A dated target reached, for numbers the focus file names and numbers on home9 Nov: Branches with a first payment reached 10 (target 10 by 9 Nov).
The Built number above 0 for the first time21 Oct: Branches live reached 1, the first.

Alcoven writes them on the record under its own name. Take it back, for people who write, reverses one, on record, and a phase taken back is current again. No milestone marks a round number like 10 or 100: only phases, the targets you set and the first one built.

What the project has built

Further down home, “What Bank app relaunch has built” counts what exists, among what you can open: the Built number in its own words (“12 branches live”), then documents, tables, views, numbers, people and agents, documents agreed, tasks done and phases done, with a small line of growth by month since the project began, and the newest milestone. See the milestones opens each count with its change this month, the growth line, every milestone and the months looked back. Nothing is added into a total.

The month, looked back

In the first 7 days of a month, the tile at the top ends with the month before, “October, looked back”: each phase’s objectives met on the month’s first and last day, the targets reached, what was built in it (“+40 documents, +1 table, +148 rows, 34 tasks done”), and each number on home or in the phase from the month’s start to its end. Keep it as a document writes it to look-back/2026-10.md as you, with Undo; Hide puts it away for you.

Numbers: several targets, pace and what moves them

Three widget lines feed the focus. Every other line is in the widgets guide.

LineWhat it takes
CompareOne dated target, like target 30 by 2026-11-30, or several in date order, separated by commas: target 10 by 2026-11-09, 30 by 2026-11-30. The nearest still to come is the one the reading names.
What moves itA few words: the standing step that moves this number. Next offers it when the number falls behind and has no task of its own.
OwnerWho keeps the number, by member id. Their Next carries it when it falls behind.

The week’s number in the example:

# Branches with a first payment

- Show: number
- Measure: first payments
- From: pilot/branches.source.md
- Since: 2026-10-19
- Compare: target 10 by 2026-11-09, 30 by 2026-11-30
- What moves it: a call with each branch manager in the week after their first login
- Owner: m-7d2w5c

Why it's here: the pilot's first objective, and the number we move each week.

Its reading is the same wherever it is read: on home, in its pane, in a document or a view, and in your AI’s and a push’s answers. On home and in its pane, “What moves it: a call with each branch manager in the week after their first login.” follows it.

OnThe reading
Monday 26 Oct, 2 so farFirst payments: 2 since 19 Oct, below the target of 10 by 9 Nov (and 30 by 30 Nov); 8 to go, 14 days left. Needs 4 a week; 1.8 a week so far.
9 Nov, if it reached 10First payments: 10 since 19 Oct, at or above the target of 10 by 9 Nov. Next: 30 by 30 Nov.
12 Nov, if it stopped at 9The target of 10 by 9 Nov has passed, at 9 of 10. First payments: 9 since 19 Oct, below the target of 30 by 30 Nov; 21 to go, 18 days left. Needs 8.2 a week; 2.5 a week so far.
  • The pace needed is what is left over the time left. The pace so far is what happened since the widget’s own start (its Since), both ends counted. A number read as its latest value, like schools using it each week, says how much it needs to rise: “Needs to rise 3 a month; rose 1 a month in the last 28 days.”
  • Both are said per week; per month when under 1 a week is needed; per day when under 7 days are left; and on the target’s last day, “Needs 8 today”.
  • In the first 7 days, the pace so far is what happened so far, like “0 in the first 5 days”, and the number counts as behind, since it is too early to tell.
  • One decimal under 10, whole numbers above. Never a percentage, and never colour alone.
  • Both are rates worked from facts. Alcoven never predicts a date or says where the number will land.
  • A number whose source went quiet or stopped shows that line in place of a pace, and Next leaves it out.

The days before a move

When a number moves a lot in a day or a week (at least 30%, and at least 3, away from the average of the three days or weeks before), its pane, its reading for your AI and its tile on home show what is on record in the 7 days before: tasks closed whose text names the widget, rows added to its table, notes on it with a day, and changes in the folders its Mark lines name.

‘Up 4 in the week of 9 Nov. In the 7 days before: 11 rows added to pilot/calls.csv; “Call the managers of the branches that logged in and haven’t taken a payment” done; a note from your colleague: “two managers asked for a second training”.’ With nothing there: “Nothing on record in the 7 days before.” The record shows what came before a move, and a person’s note on the day says why it moved.

A number counted per another

A widget’s - Per: line says what its number is counted per: another measure of the same source, or another widget’s path. Its reading then ends with the project’s own rate, as two counts since the widget’s own start:

# Branches with a first payment

- Show: number
- Measure: first payments
- From: pilot/branches.source.md
- Since: 2026-10-19
- Per: first logins
WhenThe reading ends
31 first logins, 9 first paymentsOn record: 9 first payments for 31 first logins since 19 Oct (1 for every 3).
7 first logins, 2 first paymentsOn record: 2 first payments for 7 first logins since 19 Oct, too few to read as a rate.
No first logins yetOn record: no first logins since 19 Oct.

The same sentence ends the number’s reading on home, in its pane, in the Monday summary and in your AI’s answers. Alcoven gives the counts and never turns them into an amount to expect or a date: you, or your AI, work that out.

What a number waits on

A number with a dated target that is behind its pace says what it waits on, as its last line on home and as the whole chain in its pane and to your AI: its step (an open task whose text names the widget’s path), else the number its What moves it line names, followed at most 3 numbers along and never in a loop.

WhenIt says
Its step is open, due 2 days agoWaits on: “Call the managers of the branches that logged in and haven’t taken a payment”, 2 days past due.
Its step is due later, for nobody yetWaits on: “Call the managers of the branches that logged in and haven’t taken a payment”, due 30 Oct, for nobody yet.
No step; What moves it names another numberBranches live waits on Branches with a first payment (behind: 2 of 10 by 9 Nov).
NeitherWaits on: nothing on record. Add its step as a task. Under it: Add it as a task for today.

What a step should bring

A task can say what it is expected to bring, and by when, in up to three lines after its other lines. The number in brackets, a widget’s path or a source and one of its measures, is what measures it:

# Call the managers of the branches that logged in and haven't taken a payment

- Status: done
- For: m-7d2w5c
- Expect: 2 first payments by 2026-10-30 (pilot/first-payments.widget.md)
- Came of it: Branches with a first payment, 3 from 26 to 30 Oct (expected 2)
  • When that day ends in its person’s time zone, and the task was done by then, Alcoven writes the Came of it line under it: what the number did from the day the task was done to that date, with At or above what was expected. or Below what was expected. in its pane. Anyone who writes can Take it back.
  • A task not done by its date says Not done by Fri 30 Oct, so nothing was measured.
  • With no number in brackets, its person is asked on home and by their own AI, Came of it?, and their words go on the task.
  • This week on home adds what came of expectations this week, and Still to come: 2 expectations, the next on Wed 4 Nov.. The Monday line and the Monday summary add how last week’s came out: 2 expectations came due: 1 at or above, 1 below.
  • What came of a step is what the number did after it. Alcoven never says the step caused it; a person’s note says why.

What’s missing

What’s missing sits under the tile and shows only to people who write. It checks the project’s setup and plan against seven rules, in this order. Each line says what’s wrong and why it matters, with its fix and Not needed here. It counts what is in place, like “5 of 7 in place”, which can reach 7 of 7 and stay there. It shows the first three; Show all lists every rule: in place, missing, and set aside with who and why. A rule that doesn’t apply, and one whose every gap is set aside, leave the count.

What it saysIts fixIts name under Not needed here
The brief doesn’t say what done looks like, so nobody, and no AI, can tell when the project is finished. In place once the brief has a heading or a line that starts What done looks like, Done when, Definition of done, Goal, Success, Hedef, Amaç, Başarı, Bitti or Tamamlan.Add it in the chatwhat done looks like, in the brief
No number has a target with a date, so nothing here can say whether the project is on pace.Start one in the chat, beside How widgets worka number with a target
Each number with a dated target needs someone who keeps it, a What moves it line and a target date still to come: Nothing says what moves Branches live, so when it falls behind, Next has no step to give. or Nobody keeps Branches live yet, so no one’s Next carries it. or Branches with a first payment has no target date still to come: its last, 30 by 30 Nov, has passed.Add it in the chat (Add them in the chat for several), or Editwhat moves …, someone who keeps … or a target date still to come for …, with the number’s title, like what moves Branches live
A source that went quiet or stopped: its own line, then so every number from it is as of then.Open it… kept up to date, with the source’s title, like Calls kept up to date
2 open tasks aren’t for anyone yet, so only their owner’s Next carries them, and nobody else on the project sees them as theirs.See themtasks for someone
Only you are on the project so far.Invite someonesomeone else on the project
With two people or more: Nobody says what they look after yet, so every change reaches everyone in the same order.Say what you look afterwho looks after what

A number’s title is quoted in a gap’s name when it holds a comma, a colon or “and”: what moves "MRR and the target".

  • Not needed here asks why, in one line of up to 200 characters, and the reason is needed. Put it on record writes the line under Not needed here in the focus file, with your member id and the day, and offers Undo. A project with no focus file gets one, with its title and that section.
  • A gap set aside stays set aside until someone presses Needed after all in Show all, or takes the line out: a choice on record holds.
  • Readers don’t see What’s missing: it is about the team’s setup, and they can’t act on it.

Your next step by email

Under Email me on your account, turn on My next step, each weekday morning and choose the hour, in your time zone (07:00 unless you change it); Weekends too adds Saturday and Sunday. One email comes for each project where you have a next step, three at most a day, the third saying how many more of your projects have one. None comes for a project with no step for you, or one you have opened since your day began.

Its subject is the step: “Bank app relaunch: Send the bank the pilot’s first two weeks on one page”. In it: Next with its reason, Open it and Mark it done for a task, the phase line, This week, and Since yesterday, with the numbers that moved, what got done and how many changes others made. Mark it done opens a page with one button, so nothing changes until you press it; then it shows your next step. If you also get the morning email of what others changed, the two come as one email. Stop these emails, at the foot of each, turns them off, and so does your mail app’s unsubscribe button; Change when it comes opens Email me.

The Monday summary, if you get it, opens with your Next, the phase line and This week, then shows What’s missing to people who write, and on a month’s first Monday the month looked back. The morning email starts with your Next.

In a view

A view can draw the same parts as home, each for the person who opens it, in six blocks:

  • Show: phase: the current phase and its objectives. Phase: all lists every phase with its dates and how each ended.
  • Show: next: your Next, with its reason, its buttons and Not now.
  • Show: focus: This week and Done this week.
  • Show: missing: What’s missing, for people who write. Readers see “For the people who write here.”
  • Show: done: what got done this week; on a view with a period, in that period, unless the block says Period: own.
  • Show: built: What the project has built, with the newest milestones, three unless a Milestones line says how many, up to 20, like Milestones: 5.

With no Span line, phase, next and built take the full 12 columns, focus 8, and missing and done 4. A phase or focus block on a project with no focus file says “This project has no focus file yet.”

Hand it to your AI

Next, the phase line, This week, each line of What’s missing, a task’s pane and a number’s pane have one button that hands the item to the AI you last opened the project from: Do it with Claude, Ask Claude on a number, Set it with Claude on the week or the phase, Fix it with Claude on what’s missing. One press:

  • keeps the item as the first thing your AI sees when it next opens the project with Alcoven’s tools, until it reads it, the task is done, or 24 hours pass (three at most, the newest first);
  • copies a ready prompt of one paragraph, at most 600 characters, that names the item’s § address and asks your AI to check with you before it changes anything;
  • opens Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor with the prompt in a new tab. For Claude Code or Codex, nothing opens: paste the prompt in, or open the project there.

The arrow beside it has the other AIs, In the chat (the project’s agent in Alcoven), Copy the prompt and Show the prompt. The day’s step email and the Monday summary carry the same button. What you hand over is yours: nobody else on the project sees it.

The data analyst

Alcoven’s data analyst skill shows every AI on the project how to check a target, an expectation or a move against what the project counted: each reading with its § address and date, the project’s own rates with what they rest on, its reasoning marked as reasoning, and options it changes nothing about until you say yes. Ask it things like “Is 10 first payments by 9 November realistic?” or “Why did first payments jump last week?”. A project is offered it once a number gets a dated target, on People and agents and by your AI.

For AI apps and agents

Each person’s own AI gets their own Next, the same step home shows them, worked out the same way. Your Claude Code gets the same step your home shows, and your colleague’s Claude gets theirs. Alcoven works all of it out by fixed rules, with no AI model.

  • open_project opens, after what is handed to the person, with PHASE 2 OF 3 (the phase, its objectives met or not, the days left and its § address), NEXT FOR and the person’s name (the step with its § address, Why:, then the one after it), THIS WEEK (the number’s reading with its pace and What moves it, each thing with its When, task and state, then Done this week), WHAT'S MISSING for people who write, and LAST MONTH in a month’s first week. Its structured answer holds the same in the fields phase, next, focus, missing and last_month.
  • my_tasks opens with “Next for them: …”, and closing that task with task ends the answer with the new one.
  • read of a .focus.md gives the plan as the person sees it: each phase with how it stands, this week’s number and things with their tasks, and the gaps set aside, then the file. read and numbers of a widget give its reading with the pace, What moves it and the days before a move.
  • task takes expect when it adds a task, up to three lines like “1 call by Friday (numbers/calls.widget.md)”, and reads each back, with the number’s rate when it has a Per line; action: came_of_it keeps the person’s words. open_project lists the expectations this week and asks the person for what came of theirs; my_tasks and task_context carry each task’s expectations.
  • numbers with source this project and measure expectations counts how expectations came out, split only by: mine: each person reads their own record. read and numbers of a widget end its reading with its rate and give what it waits on.
  • When the person pressed a Hand it to your AI button, open_project opens with FOR YOUR AI and the items, newest first.
  • check_widget with a path ending .focus.md and no text gives the format and this page’s address; with the text, each line Alcoven can’t read, or the read-back.
  • A git push that changes a focus file gets the read-back, or each problem with its line, in remote: lines. A push that closes the pusher’s Next task gets their new one: remote: Alcoven: next for you: Send the bank the pilot's first two weeks on one page (in this week's focus, by Wednesday).
  • Alcoven’s part of every project’s AGENTS.md has a line on the focus file and this page, so a coding agent in the folder knows the format before it writes.
  • Alcoven asks every AI to give the Next line first when the person asks what to do now, to mark nothing done, set nothing aside and move no phase on without their word, and to offer once on a Monday to set this week’s focus.

Who sees what

  • Your Next is yours alone: nobody sees another person’s Next or what they skipped. Everyone who can open the focus file sees the same phase and the same week.
  • Readers, like your client, see This week and then the phase line as their home grows, with no buttons. Their Next holds only parts and notes waiting on them, and they don’t see What’s missing.
  • A number in a folder you can’t open shows as “An objective in a folder you can’t open.” or “This week’s number is in a folder you can’t open.”, and the met count still counts it.
  • On an archived project, the phase and This week read only, with no Next and no buttons.

If the focus file says something is wrong

Alcoven says each line it can’t read with its number and the fix: “Line 12: …” in the file’s pane and to check_widget, and “pilot/relaunch.focus.md line 12: …” in a push’s answer and when an AI writes the file. A push is never turned down for a focus file, and the lines Alcoven can read still show. On home, people who write see “Alcoven can’t read 2 lines of pilot/relaunch.focus.md.” with Show them and Fix it in the chat.

What it saysWhat to do
Line …: a week’s focus holds three things at most, and this is the fourth. Keep the three that move the number most; the rest stay tasks.Keep three things under This week. The others aren’t read; they stay tasks, and Next still brings them up when they are due.
Line …: say when, with a day or time, like “When: Monday at 10:00” or “When: right after each call”. …Add When: and a day or time, after the thing or on the line under it.
Line …: pilot/payments.widget.md isn’t a widget on the project. Widgets with a target: ….Name one of the widgets listed, by its path. For the Built line, the answer lists every widget.
Line …: Branches with a first payment has no target dated within Phase 2 (to 30 Nov). Add one to its Compare line, like “target 30 by 2026-11-30”.Add a target dated within the phase to the widget’s Compare line. Until then the objective shows its number and counts as not met.
Line …: a funnel has no target, so it can’t be an objective or the week’s number. …Name a number with a target, or write the objective as a task.
Line …: give Phase 2 a date to meet its objectives by, like “- Until: 2026-11-15”.Add the Until line, as a date.
Line …: Phase 3’s date, 20 Nov, comes before Phase 2’s, 30 Nov. Put the phases in date order.Move the phase, or correct its date.
Line …: give Phase 2 an objective, …Add one to five Objective lines.
Line …: a phase holds five objectives at most. Keep the ones that say the phase is done.Keep five.
Line …: a project’s focus holds twelve phases at most, and this is the thirteenth. …Keep the next twelve, and add the rest as phases are done.
Line …: write the day it moved on first, like “- Moved on: 2026-11-16 (m-4f2k9a): 18 calls were enough to choose”.Start the Moved on line with its date.
Line …: “…” is not a date. Use the form 2026-12-31.Write the From line’s date as year-month-day.
Line …: write the week’s Monday as a date, like “Week of: 2026-10-26”.Add or correct the Week of line.
Line …: “…” is here twice. Keep one.Take out one of the two lines.
This project’s focus is pilot/relaunch.focus.md, so Alcoven doesn’t read this file. Move its lines there, or remove this one.A project has one focus file. Move what you need into it.
Line …: “Brief” isn’t a gap Alcoven lists. Gaps: ….Use one of the names in What’s missing’s table, as written.
Line …: say why it isn’t needed here, after the colon, so everyone reads the reason.Add the reason after the colon.
Line …: “…” is not a member id. … or … is not on Bank app relaunch. members/ has everyone’s id.Name the owner by a member id from the project’s members/ folder, like m-4f2k9a.

Four answers are notes: Alcoven still reads the file, and nothing waits on them.

What it saysWhat to do
Line …: “Send the bank the pilot’s first two weeks on one page” isn’t a task yet. Add it in tasks/ (For: m-7d2w5c, Due: 28 Oct 2026), or press Add it as a task on the project’s home.Add the task, with that title, as a file in tasks/ or with Add it as a task. Until then the thing shows No task yet.
Line …: two open tasks are called “…”: t-ab12 and t-cd34. The focus reads the older, t-ab12; link the one you mean.Link the one you mean, like [Send the bank the first two weeks](tasks/t-cd34.md).
Line …: Branches with a first payment has no target with a date, so the week shows its number with no pace. Add “- Compare: target 20 by 2026-11-30” to it.Add a dated target to the widget.
This version has no Phases section, and the one before had 3 phases. If that was a slip, restore it from History. and the same for Not needed hereRestore the version before from History, unless you meant it.

A widget’s own check says two more, for the lines the focus reads:

What it saysWhat to do
Line …: put the targets in date order: 10 by 2026-11-09, then 30 by 2026-11-30.Write the targets in date order. The widget isn’t drawn until they are.
Line …: say what moves it in a few words, like “What moves it: a set-up call with each new account”.The line is there with nothing after the colon. Add the words, or take the line out.

Help

For anything else, write to info@alcoven.co.