Milestones and items
Everything that can be finished is an item: a milestone, a feature, a bug, an open question. Items nest. A milestone holds features, a feature can hold tasks, and the work happens at the leaves.
Every item has a short ref made from the project’s prefix and a number, such as DIC-133. Refs work everywhere: in
chat, in MCP calls, in Lea’s Saved line.
Item types
Section titled “Item types”| Type | Use it for | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Release | A shipment with a due date: a milestone | Shown as “Milestone” in the app |
| Bet, Workstream | A bet on an outcome; ongoing work that is not a version | Also shown as “Milestone”; planned like a release |
| Feature | Something users get | Its owner writes the checks from the acceptance criteria |
| Task | A piece of work | The default type |
| Bug | Something broken | Default check: a test reproduces the bug before the fix and passes after it |
| Research | Finding something out | Default check: a report with the findings, with sources |
| Chore | Upkeep | |
| Idea | Something nobody has planned yet | Not counted in progress |
| Question | Something not decided yet | Assigned to the person who answers; not counted in progress |
Milestones
Section titled “Milestones”A milestone is a top-level release with a due date: “2.4 First minute, due November 15”. Its description is its spec, in three sections:
- Why: the problem, and the goal it serves;
- What: the requirements as a plain list;
- Not in this release: scope cuts.
A milestone may serve a goal. Goals stay for outcomes you measure; a shipment is a milestone.
Later · Next · Now
Section titled “Later · Next · Now”Each milestone sits in one of three places:
| Place | What it means |
|---|---|
| Later | An idea for later. Nothing is planned in detail. |
| Next | Being planned. Lea breaks it down into items. Nothing under it starts. |
| Now | Being built. Workers start on items as they become ready. |
Moving a milestone to Now is the approval of its spec. There is no separate approve button. You move it on the Plan’s Later · Next · Now control, on the Overview, or by telling Lea in chat. At the Act, then tell me level, Lea may move a milestone into Now herself and tell you, with Undo.
Each area has a usual number of milestones in Now (usually one). Going past it is a warning, not a refusal.
Phases
Section titled “Phases”The Overview shows each milestone’s phase, derived from where it is:
| Where the milestone is | Phase |
|---|---|
| Later | Idea |
| Next | Planning |
| Now (or blocked) | Building |
| In review (its own checks run, for example your TestFlight check) | Shipped |
| Done | Implemented |
| Cancelled | Dropped |
Status words
Section titled “Status words”An item’s status reads: To sort (captured, see Triage), Later, To do, In progress, In review, Blocked, Done or Cancelled.
Checks (“Done when”)
Section titled “Checks (“Done when”)”Checks say when an item is done. They are written before work starts and frozen when the first attempt starts, so a worker cannot change them. An item that a worker should do needs at least one check.
| Check | What it asks for |
|---|---|
| Command | A command passes, such as pnpm test. The worker runs it; a validator can run it again. |
| Output | An output of a kind is posted: a pull request, an image, a report. |
| Rubric | Criteria a separate validator judges, on the other model family by default. |
| Person | A person approves. This gives the item a human review stage. |
| Metric | A KPI condition after some days. Planned It never holds up “done”. |
A done claim without the evidence its checks require is not accepted, and the worker is told so.
When an item starts
Section titled “When an item starts”Minga starts a worker on a leaf item as soon as it is ready, and the item page says in words why it is or isn’t. An item is ready when:
- its milestone is in Now (a feature, task, bug or research item at the top level, outside any milestone, needs no Now);
- every item that blocks it is done, and no open question card holds it;
- it has an owner and is assigned to a worker, and it has checks;
- it is not paused, and the project is active.
Two kinds of links order the work inside a milestone:
- blocks: the next item waits until this one is done;
- informs: the next item gets this one’s outputs as files. A design item usually both blocks and informs the items that build it.
Progress
Section titled “Progress”Progress is counted from finished leaves and never typed in: “4 of 6 done”. Ideas and questions are left out, because an idea parked under a milestone is not work left, and questions have their own block on the Overview. Every screen, Lea’s turns and the MCP tools use the same count, so they never disagree.