Projects, sessions and runs
Rna describes work with two structures, the one you talk in and the one it executes in.
Two structures
Conversation: Project → Session → Turn
Execution: Project → Decision → Run → Step- Project is the lasting subject: folder, project facts, concerns, commitments, preferences, capability versions and budget.
- Session is a place to talk. Closing a session does not delete the project’s concerns.
- Turn is one input and every reply, tool call and deliverable it causes.
- Decision is the choice after one wake: wait, work, share or learn.
- Run is one concrete execution, recording evidence, budget, tool side effects and recovery data, linked back to the conversation by session and turn IDs.
Background work can post a message signed by the assistant, but never fakes a “user input”.
Goals are optional
Rna’s initiative does not depend on you setting a goal first. Project events, problems surfaced in conversation, unkept commitments and environment changes all give it a chance to think.
You can write a clear long-term need in the “Current focus”, such as “keep improving release reliability”, and /goal in a session views or updates the same place. It tells Rna what is worth keeping an eye on; it is not a switch that turns initiative on.
Facts kept in a project
| Object | What it records | How it updates |
|---|---|---|
| Observation | Source, time, resource version, evidence reference | Append-only; repeated events are idempotent |
| Concern | What, why, evidence, priority, stop condition | The model may raise and close; your corrections win |
| Commitment | What is to be done, what caused it (your request, Rna’s promise or a failed turn), evidence, due or waiting state | Saved before promising; one with changes is done only when they are applied, and a rollback reopens it |
| Preference | Your words, scope, validity | An explicit correction overrides the old one |
Facts, inferences and intentions are stored apart. Say “drop this experiment for now” and the concern closes, actions that have not started are cancelled, and an old summary that called it a “long-term goal” cannot keep it alive. Deleting a conversation or rolling back a message also ends the commitments and concerns that came from it; merely archiving a conversation only withdraws what cites it.
Interruptions and multiple entry points
A turn started in the CLI can be followed on the desktop after the terminal closes; closing the desktop window does not stop authorized background work. After a daemon restart, state is rebuilt and unfinished calls are checked for safe retry.
“No return value” does not mean “the external action did not happen”. Writes with uncertain results are never replayed automatically; they are checked first.