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The operator’s surfaces

The operator works a sounding from whichever surface is at hand: the command line, a Claude Code session, or herdr. sounding keeps one plugin per host under plugins/ beside its core, plugins/claude and plugins/herdr, as millpond, headwater and eddy keep theirs.

The command line

CommandRun byDoes
sounding openwhoever asks: /sound, millpond’s send, a herdr key, crewOpens a sounding: its place on sounding/<name>, which flume makes, and its question.md.
sounding listanyoneLists the open soundings.
sounding concludethe sessionWrites conclusion.md and ends the round.
sounding offerthe sessionHands a finding beyond the question to millpond land as a capture of its own (62).
sounding askthe sessionPuts a question only the operator can answer on a card, and waits.
sounding acceptthe operatorSettles the item and turns the proposed work into items or plan entries.
sounding go-onthe operatorStarts the next round, with the operator’s notes in the question.
sounding dropthe operatorRecords the reason and removes the worktree.

The Claude Code plugin

  • /sound <question> in every session opens a sounding while the session goes on with its own work.
  • A start hook gives a sounding’s session its question, its sources and its earlier rounds (The question and its sources).
  • The stop check runs at the session’s end (The stop check and the timebox).
  • MCP tools, soundings, conclusion, accept, go_on and drop, let the operator list soundings, read a conclusion and decide it from any session.
  • A guard refuses a sluice submission from a sounding/* branch (The place).

The herdr plugin

  • The sidebar lists the open soundings, each with its round and its state: working, waiting on the operator, or parked. They share flume’s sidebar, where a sounding waiting on the operator shows as a row beside every other place in flight (flume’s surfaces).
  • A workspace per sounding holds the session’s pane with its conclusion beside it.
  • Keys start, open, accept, send back and drop a sounding, and open its conclusion in plannotator for notes.
flume's sidebar the sounding's workspace open soundings take-library-5 round 1 waiting on the operator retention-policy round 2 working cache-layout round 1 parked The session's pane the round's session, its offers and asks, and its conclude conclusion.md the answer its evidence what it would change the work it proposes what stays open start open accept send back drop plannotator
flume's sidebar shows every open sounding's round and state. The selected sounding's workspace puts the session beside its conclusion, and the keys decide it there or open it in plannotator for notes.

Send back is go on: it starts the next round, and the operator’s notes join its question (Deciding a conclusion).

Two ways to run

  • Unattended, the session works alone, and the round ends on a card for the operator.
  • With the operator, --with-me, the session runs in a pane beside the operator as a conversation.