Context-aware is the floor. Process-aware is the product.
Many file systems give an AI a map of where things are. BossMode keeps that map and adds what a map cannot hold: where the work has been, when to stop and check, what must never happen, and what you actually mean. This page is the rebuild that made that explicit, kept as it was planned and done.
One line each
Folders and short markdown files tell one agent where things are and what to read for a task. The structure does the routing, so the prompt can stay small. It is about space.
Keeps the map and adds time and boundaries: the state of the work, the rhythm of checks and commits, and walls the AI cannot talk its way past. Boss is the way in.
The hinge is a line from Jake Van Clief's course: an instruction guides, it does not enforce. A map stops at guiding. BossMode is what holds after /clear, on the fiftieth session, and when the AI forgets a rule.
How one request travels
You say something vague. Boss works out what you mean, the map points at the right room, the work happens, the rhythm checks it, and memory records where things stand. Everything runs inside walls that no instruction can switch off.
/clear.
Where each layer lives
The first layer is Van Clief's and is credited to him. The other four are BossMode's own. For each: the question it answers, what exists today, and what the rebuild changes.
- Today
- A global
CLAUDE.mdof 41 KB that reads as a rulebook; routing lives inside the Boss skill; no "skip" anywhere. - After
- A short global map plus a room table in every project (Task, Read, Skip, Skills). Situational rules move to files read only when their situation comes up.
- Today
- Strong already:
tasks.mdwith a handover block,progress.md,decisions.md, the worklog and agreements on client work. - After
- Unchanged in shape. Handovers gain a "sources used" line so the next session knows what the last one actually read.
- Today
- Test after every build, browser smoke for UI, commit on done-tested-passing,
/halftimenear half context. - After
- Same rituals, plus a pruning pass: every dated rule is asked whether the failure it prevents can still happen. Rules finally shrink as well as grow.
- Today
- Hooks:
secret-commit-guard(gitleaks),linear-ikpeter-retired, the brain commit guard, permission modes. - After
- Named as a layer on the page. New rule of thumb: if a rule can be checked by a script, it becomes a wall, not another paragraph in
CLAUDE.md.
- Today
- The Boss skill: 27 KB, loaded whole every time it fires, including long sections only one route ever needs.
- After
- A thin router: read memory, ask at most two questions, pick a room. The long sections become reference files it opens only when the route needs them.
What it feels like
- Front doorI open a project and type "where were we". Boss loads, and only the router, not 27 KB.
- MemoryBoss reads the handover block in
tasks.mdand the last lines ofprogress.md, then names the first action from the handover. - MapThe task is copy on the pricing page. The project's room table says: read
CONTEXT.mdanddocs/voice.md, skip the backend notes, usehumanizerbefore anything is marked done. - MapThe session opens with a two-line report: what it loaded and what is in progress. Nothing about cmux ports or talk mode, because this task never touches them.
- RhythmAfter the edit: dev server, browser check,
humanizerpass, then a commit of the touched paths only. - WallsThe commit passes through gitleaks. A test key left in a fixture stops it, with the value redacted.
- MemoryAround half context,
/halftimecommits, pushes, and writes a handover including the sources used. I clear; the next session picks up at step 1.
The files that load before any work starts
Measured on 29 Sep 2026 with wc -c. Rerun before quoting; these drift.
| File | Loads | Today | Target |
|---|---|---|---|
CLAUDE.md (global) | every session, every project | 41 KB | 23 KB on 1 Oct: eight situational rules moved to a rules folder read on demand |
| boss/SKILL.md | every time Boss fires | 27 KB | router plus reference files |
| bootstrap.md | every new project | 44 KB | one file per stage |
| Skill and plugin listings | every session | all | 1 Oct: marketing, SEO and WordPress off globally (79 skills, 18 agents); on only in IkPeter Socials and Akupaneldeal |
What we do to get there
In order. Each one ends with a check, so nothing is marked done on a feeling.
Agree the frame done 29 Sep
Headline "context-aware versus process-aware", the five layers, Van Clief credited for the map layer. Check: a dated entry in decisions.md.
Sort every rule and ritual into a layer done 30 Sep
Go through CLAUDE.md, the Boss skill and the hooks, and tag each item map, memory, rhythm, walls or front door. Anything that fits nowhere is a candidate for deletion. Check: one table, every item tagged. Result: development/research/2026-09-30-layer-inventory.md.
Room table in the bootstrap template done 1 Oct
New projects get a Task | Read | Skip | Skills table in their state folder, plus the "report what you loaded" opening. Smallest change, and every new project inherits it. Check: bootstrap a throwaway project and read the table it wrote.
Slim the global CLAUDE.md into a map done 1 Oct
Keep what is true everywhere (language, commit cadence, response shape, blockers). Move situational sections (cmux and ports, talk mode, animation routing, the three-axes table) into files read on demand. An @import still loads everything, so these must be real on-demand reads. Check: wc -c before and after, and /context in a fresh session.
A map per company folder done 29 Sep
First confirm with /context that a session in a project picks up a CLAUDE.md in each company folder. Then move the tracker, CLI and commit-style rules out of the global file into ~/Developer/IkPeter/CLAUDE.md and ~/Developer/supercasper/CLAUDE.md, and move the way-of-working import into the SuperCasper one. Check: /context in an IkPeter project shows no way-of-working; in a SuperCasper project it does.
Scope plugins per project done 1 Oct
Marketing and SEO skill sets off globally, on in the projects that use them, through project settings. Check: the skill list in a fresh session in Vermaat versus in SEOMyst.
Split Boss into a router and reference files done 3 Oct
The long sections that only one route needs each become a file opened only on that route. Sync boss.md and the public copy, which the README says must stay in step. Check: three real openers (a vague one, a found-repo link, a SuperCasper folder) route the same as before.
Split bootstrap.md per stage done 2 Oct
Three stages, three files; a session reads only the stage it is in. Check: a full bootstrap of a throwaway project still completes.
"Sources used" in Boss output and handovers done 3 Oct
One line in the handover skill and in Boss's opening report. Check: the next /halftime produces it.
Turn checkable rules into walls done 3 Oct
For each rule tagged in phase 1, ask whether a script can check it. If so, write the hook and delete the paragraph. Check: each new hook fires on a deliberate violation.
Add the pruning pass done 3 Oct
A step in /update-bossmode-site or a quarterly ritual: for every dated rule, can its failure still happen? If not, it goes. Check: the first run deletes at least one rule, or records why none qualified.
Rewrite the BossMode page around the five layers done 5 Oct
Through /update-bossmode-site: the context-versus-process split as the opening, the diagram from this page, Van Clief credited and linked. The page is live, so it goes last, once the system matches the story. Check: the live URL loads and every claim on it has a command or file behind it.
Sources. Jake Van Clief's Interpretable Context Methodology and his community Clief Notes, a great resource on keeping things simple; the paper is arXiv 2603.16021.
Multiplex
BossMode lets one AI work on its own without losing the thread. The next step is a team of agents working side by side: Multiplex, a development harness I am building for myself first, and maybe for my team after. In progress; it gets its own page when there is something to show.