Initiatives, intents, and the board

Open an initiative

An initiative contains the requirements, stories, board, and published results for one effort. Project identity, configuration, and pricing apply across initiatives.

e11 initiative new account-export --title "Account export"
e11 initiative show
e11 initiative list
e11 initiative use account-export

New creates the initiative and selects the checkout’s pointer. Show reports the slug, identity, directory, and whether the initiative is current. Use switches the pointer.

Work on another initiative

e11 initiative open account-export

Open creates or opens a Git worktree at ../<repo>.<slug> on initiative/<slug>. The worktree receives its own workspace record and initiative pointer. Use separate initiative worktrees for separate efforts.

Selection follows this order: an explicit initiative, the session choice, then the checkout pointer. When no choice exists, tooling asks for a choice or returns a required selection.

Create and update the board

e11 board create --title "Account export" --stories 1-1,1-2
e11 board show
e11 board set 1.1 ready-for-dev
e11 board add --stories 1-3
e11 board reconcile

Use board.yaml as the status file. Skills change status through the CLI. A run moves board entries by default. Reconcile after a Git merge changes the board outside the managed write path. Choose --initiative explicitly when addressing another effort, or --artifact when an initiative holds multiple boards.

Commit story documents before planning a run. Staging alone leaves the run’s baseline without the new bytes.

Read artifacts

Kind	Content
brief	Problem and intended outcome.
prd	Requirements and acceptance criteria.
ux-design	User flows and screen decisions.
architecture	Technical decisions and constraints.
epics	Grouped stories and dependencies.
story	One deliverable and its checks.
review	Findings for a change or document.
board	Story status and run evidence.
manifest	An explicit source description.

Artifact states are published, externally-modified, and missing. Managed writes compare the predecessor digest before creating a revision. A changed predecessor causes a refusal. Direct editor or skill writes outside this path lack revision protection.

Run a story after your source documents are committed.

Artifact kinds and states