Intents

An intent is a source-controlled Markdown record for a decision a future agent should honor.

Use an intent for product constraints, architecture choices, rejected alternatives, and other rationale that would be expensive or risky for a fresh agent to rediscover from code alone.

What Belongs In An Intent

• A current decision.
• Why the decision exists.
• Alternatives the team rejected.
• The code paths where the decision should be checked.

Do not create intents for patterns a fresh agent can infer by reading nearby code. If one feature produces more than three new active intents, challenge the capture before adding more durable memory.

File Shape

By default, Jumpspace reads intents from documentation/intents/*.md.

---
id: no-pre-launch-feature-flags
status: active
scope: src/**/*.ts, src/**/*.tsx
---

# Do not gate new code paths behind runtime feature flags

## Decision
New features ship without runtime feature-flag gates before launch.

## Why
Feature flags add a second state dimension the team does not need yet.

## Alternatives rejected
- **Environment-variable gates.** They still create cleanup debt.

Run:

npx @jumpspace/cli intent list
npx @jumpspace/cli intent validate --json

Lifecycle

Use active for decisions that still bind future work. Use superseded when a new intent replaces an old one, and cite the successor so agents do not follow stale guidance.