Dashboard

Dashboard — Plastic Work Cockpit

A deterministic overview of the intent store(s). It answers three questions at a glance: where we are (recently worked), where we go next (the most-valuable next work), and how to conduct it (a disposition per intent). The human-facing surface is Markdown, because the user's UI renders Markdown natively but collapses raw tool-call stdout.

The script does all the data work. The agent fills a Markdown template from the script's payload with near-zero reasoning and presents the filled board in its reply. Same store state → byte-identical payload, regardless of model. Do NOT hand-summarize intents.

When to Use

• User invokes /plastic-dashboard
• User asks "where are we", "what's next", "what should I work on", "show me the intents"
• plastic-project-continuing lands on the board on resume
• plastic-auto reads --json to choose the next dispatchable intent

Procedure (the Markdown board — default human surface)

Step 1 — Get the data payload

ruby ~/.plastic/scripts/dashboard.rb [continue|project <slug>] --data

• continue (default) → the global board payload (mode: "global").
• project <slug> → that project board payload (mode: "project").

The payload is read-only JSON. Global-board fields: date, store_health, summary, next_work, next_total, next_shown, counts, projects, project_totals, footer. Project-board fields: slug, store_health, description, summary, counts, active, active_total, active_shown, next_work, next_total, next_shown, footer. summary and footer are finished prose strings (2-3 sentences and one line respectively), built in dashboard.rb and substituted verbatim, exactly like {{date}}/{{description}} already are - never re-worded or re-derived by the skill. Each list carries cell-ready fields for its table: next_work rows are {id, intent, scope, lifecycle, value, disposition, flags, what, flags_label, line}; active rows carry {id, intent, created, bullet, scope, what, stage, worker, activity, line}. The what, scope, worker, activity, and flags_label cell fields arrive pipe-escaped and whitespace-normalized.

Each board load runs the scoped store check (doctor --store <scope>): the global board runs --store global and a project board runs --store <slug>. The result rides in the payload as store_health ({scope, status, summary, failing_checks}). Surface it as a one-line store-health note on the board (for example store health: pass (3/3) or store health: warn (orphaned_intents)). It is non-fatal: a warn or fail is shown as data and never blocks the board.

Step 2 — Fill the matching template

Templates live in this skill's templates/ directory: ~/.claude/skills/plastic-dashboard/templates/dashboard-global.md and dashboard-project.md.

Fill mechanically, no rewriting, no re-sorting:

• {{a.b.count}} → the integer (e.g. counts.active = that count).
• {{<list>.rows}} → the two intent lists (active, next_work) render as Markdown table rows. The template hard-codes each table's header and separator; this placeholder becomes one data row per list entry, joined with real newlines, in that table's fixed column order (below). Drop each cell from the named payload field verbatim: cells arrive pre-escaped and whitespace-normalized from the script (pipes escaped as \|), so never re-escape, re-truncate, or reword them. Never emit <br>.
  • next_work → | {id} | {what} | {value} | {disposition} | {flags_label} |
  • active → | {id} | {what} | {stage} | {worker} | {activity} | Empty list → one full-width row with _(none)_ in the Id column and every other cell blank, matching that table's column count (e.g. | _(none)_ | | | | | for the 5-column next_work table, | _(none)_ | | | | for the 5-column active table). Neither list carries an overflow "+N more" row anymore (D5, intent 202): the true pool size rides on the payload as active_total/next_total (shown counts as active_shown/next_shown), and {{footer}} states it in prose instead.
• {{projects.lines}} (global board only) → the project rollup stays prose, one line per project (not a table): - **{slug}**: {description}, active {active}, done {done}, future {future}, last accessed {last_accessed_at[0,10]}.
• Scalars ({{date}}, {{slug}}, {{summary}}, {{footer}}) → substitute verbatim. summary and footer are finished prose built in dashboard.rb; do not rewrite, shorten, or re-derive them from the counts - that is exactly the non-determinism D5 rules out.

Paging (conversational, D4)

The board shows a short page by default (Active capped at 3, Next-work at 5). When the user asks for "more" or "all", re-invoke Step 1 with an explicit flag and re-fill the template with the new payload - nothing is persisted to disk, the offset lives only in the chat turn:

• "all" → add --all (lifts both caps to unbounded; the footer then shows equal shown/total).
• "more" → add --limit-active N/--limit-next N with a larger N for whichever list the user is paging.

For a real, own-terminal pager instead, point the owner at --plain: ruby ~/.plastic/scripts/dashboard.rb project <slug> --plain | less (or continue --plain for the global board). --plain prints the full, uncapped board as plain text with no Markdown table syntax; it is a separate CLI mode from --data, not something this skill fills a template from.

Step 3 — Present it (mandatory, every invocation)

Paste the filled Markdown into your reply. This is non-optional: if the reply does not contain the filled Markdown, the user sees nothing — tool-call stdout and hook additionalContext are both invisible to them. Never describe the board instead of showing it, and never assume a hook already showed it for you.

hook-continue also emits a one-line systemMessage summary (counts, and the next big thing when there is one) as a hook-owned fallback, independent of the agent's reply. Treat that line as a floor only, not a substitute for this step: it carries no matrix, no recently-worked section, and no entry-flow prompt. Presenting the full board here remains mandatory regardless of whether the summary line fired. This stays a soft, agent-followed mechanism — there is no stronger enforcement for a full multi-section Markdown document in this harness today.

Step 4 — Entry flow (the board is the menu)

QMD-first (when available): when the user navigates by describing an intent rather than giving its id, before scanning the store with grep/Read run ruby ~/.plastic/scripts/qmd-sync search "<terms>" to surface the candidate intent, then open the authoritative intent file for the hit. The command is a no-op when QMD is absent, so fall back to the existing INDEX.md / file scan.

The board lists everything; the user navigates by free prose (no capped picker):

• On the global board, the user replies with an intent id (work it), a project name (re-run project <slug> --data and present that board), or "new" (start a new intent in global via plastic-intent-creating).
• On a project board, the user replies with an intent id, or "global" to return.

Auto-mode contract (--json)

plastic-auto consumes a separate machine-readable manifest (unchanged):

ruby ~/.plastic/scripts/dashboard.rb [continue|project <slug>|all] --json

{ "generated_for": "auto-mode", "scope": "<scope|all>",
  "next_big_thing": "<id|null>",
  "dispatchable_queue": [ {"id","scope","disposition","type","value","effort","flags","rank"} ],
  "human_only": ["<id>", "..."] }

Work dispatchable_queue in rank order (defer/research); leave human_only for the user.

Text modes (terminal / legacy)

dashboard.rb [continue|project <slug>|all] with no flag still prints the ASCII cockpit for a raw terminal. The Markdown board (--data + template) is the surface for the chat UI.

How classification works (deterministic)

The script computes Effort/Value/Flags/Override/Caps; the agent never re-derives them. To explain or debug a ranking or disposition, read references/classification.md.

Eval

The eval is the payload + golden snapshots: run the engine against the fixture store and assert the --data payload shape/sorting/classification and the byte-identical --json + text goldens in test/fixtures/dashboard/. See dashboard_test.rb. Drift without an intentional change means the skill is broken.

Notes

• The two intent lists (active, next work) render as Markdown tables; the prose summary, footer, counts, and the project rollup stay prose (intent 202). No Value x Effort grid returns. Never emit <br>.
• Clusters (Zettelkasten grouping in INDEX.md) are intentionally not rendered.
• Additive: changes no core lifecycle, gate, or cycle logic.