metal — tilde command reference

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All Commands

CommandAliasesWhatDoD
~i~I, ~inspectInspect a repo, codebase, or URLgate
~p~P, ~planPlan work — intent, scope, approachgate
~pu~PUPlan as user story — As a..., I want..., So that...gate
~pt~PTPlan test strategygate
~e~E, ~estimateSize a plan into Fibonacci boards (3 or 5 pts)gate
~a~A, ~addAdd something new + immediate reviewgate
~u~U, ~updateUpdate existing code or feature + reviewgate
~d~D, ~deleteRemove code, feature, or files + reviewgate
~f~F, ~fixDiagnose + fix + write test + reviewgate
~b~B, ~buildBuild from board or argument. Completes entire boardgate
~bt~BTBuild tests for a feature + reviewgate
~t~T, ~testTest current work, fix what's brokengate
~s~S, ~shipCommit, push, deploy, ship reportchain-final
~brief~BriefAvatar video briefing from ship reportgate
~demo~DemoDemo, review, or refactorgate
~r~R, ~retroRetrospect on recent workchain-final
~n~N, ~newCreate a new project repogate
~l~L, ~loadLoad a repo into Be's working contextexempt
~li~LI, ~listList all local + remote Be projectsexempt
~ul~UL, ~unloadClose out a project — housekeep + reportgate
~m~M, ~mcpManage MCP serversexempt
~monitor~MWatch a deployexempt
~transferGenerate project handoff manifestgate
~tag~TAGTag anything — triples, searchable, git-managedexempt
~config~ConfigRuntime settings — reports, chains, display modesexempt
~cr~CR, ~crashRecover from a crash mid-commandexempt
~jc~JCJoey's take — 40+ years of adviceexempt
~h~H, ~helpDisplay help — dynamic Latest block (top 3 from telemetry) + commands + Flow/Chains + Discipline (DoR/DoD/Proposal) + quoteexempt

~chain-reaction — Named Workflow Macros

Commands outside / run once, left to right. Commands inside / / loop until the exit condition is met: board exhausted, tests pass, nothing to fix.

Built-in Chains

GO    ~P ~E /~B ~T/ ~S ~R   — Full lifecycle: plan to retro
HOTFIX    ~I ~P /~T ~F/ ~S ~R   — Inspect, plan fix, test/fix loop, ship

Custom Chains

~chain-reaction new — interview mode, build a chain interactively.

~<NAME> — shorthand to run any named chain (e.g. ~GO).

Definition of Done (DoD) — 7-Item Mandatory Gate

Every tilde command that produces an artifact must pass all 7 items before the command is considered complete.

1.Code committed — All changes in a git commit with a descriptive message. No uncommitted work.
2.Commit hash in telemetry — The be/telemetry.json entry has a non-null commit field. Backfilled in the same commit.
3.Board updated — If a board item was worked, it moved to Done with commit hash: {item} · pts · ~cmd ✅ (abc1234).
4.HTML report saved — Report exists in be/ with correct datetime filename.
5.Index updatedbe/index.html has an entry linking to the new report.
6.Pushed to remotegit push succeeded. Work exists on origin, not just locally.
7.No prior work damaged — Done board items untouched unless a new item explicitly targets them.

Chain-Final Rules (#8–#11)

Chain-final commands (~s, ~r) must also pass:

8.Chain complete — every preceding step has a telemetry entry with a non-null commit hash.
9.Site in sync — joeycastillo.us/metal updated to reflect shipped work. Push site repo.
10.~h in sync — Help display matches current commands, aliases, and Ops section.
11.Revision current — All version footers use the post-commit revision number.

Failure Mode

If any DoD item fails, the command is not Done. Fix in-place and re-verify. The gate holds.

Exempt Commands

~h, ~li, ~l, ~cr, ~jc, ~m, ~tag — utility commands, inline output only, no artifacts.

Definition of Ready (DoR) — 3-Item Session Pre-Flight

Before the first edit of a session, read and verify:

1.Board state — Read be/board.md. Know what's Done, In Progress, Ready. Don't touch Done items.
2.Last telemetry entry — Was the previous chain completed? If last entry is ~b without a following ~s, flag it.
3.Source of truth — If project CLAUDE.md declares canonical files, respect them.

3 file reads. Takes seconds. Prevents cross-session work loss.

Chain Reaction Flow

Every tilde command (except ~h) follows this chain:

do the work → render report → save with datetime
→ update Be index → log telemetry
→ commit (backfill hash) → push
→ verify DoD (all 7 pass) → launch demo

Board Convention

Work Items — Triple Format

Every item is a triple: {what, verb, context}

Verb maps to a tilde command:

"add to"~a
"update with"~u
"remove from"~d
"fix in"~f
"plan tests for"~pt

Sizing

Fibonacci only: 3 or 5 points per item. A 5 is something a college student can do in one night, complete and perfect. Boards total 13–21 points.

Board States

ReadyIn ProgressDone

Done format: {item} · pts · ~cmd ✅ (commit-hash)

Versioning

Version is 0. Always. No semantic versions. No major.minor.patch.

Every change is a revision: git rev-list --count HEAD

Display: v0 · rN · YYYY-MM-DD · pts

Total points from be/board.md. Computed by be/pts.py at launch.

HTML Report Template

Folder Structure

project/
  be/
    index.html       ← auto-generated artifact index
    board.md         ← kanban state
    docs/            ← command specs + conventions (lazy-loaded)
    plans/           ← ~p, ~e, ~i outputs
    builds/          ← ~b, ~a, ~u, ~d, ~f outputs
    tests/           ← ~t, ~bt outputs
    ships/           ← ~s outputs
    retros/          ← ~demo, ~retro outputs
    transfers/       ← ~transfer outputs

Telemetry

Every command (except ~h) logs to be/telemetry.json:

Rolling 100 entries max. Viewer at be/telemetry.html.

Verb mapping: ~a → "added to", ~b → "built in", ~u → "updated in", ~d → "deleted from", ~f → "fixed in", ~s → "shipped from", ~p → "planned for", ~e → "estimated for", ~i → "inspected in", ~t → "tested in", ~r → "retro'd in", ~tag → "tagged in".