Today I published the first version of Mindful Dev on npm. It brings the same think first, build second approach into the terminal, where ongoing project work already happens.
The work was already written down.
Existing projects rarely need another place to collect tasks. The useful signals are often already sitting in Markdown: a decision in a product note, an action in a meeting summary, a risk in a technical document, or a next step in a project journal.
The problem is not always a lack of information. It is finding the few current decisions that deserve attention without turning every sentence into a task.
The new CLI reads that Markdown locally and creates a small, source backed queue. It shows exactly which file each item came from, so the recommendation can be checked against the original words.
A daily plan should come from the project, not from a second system that is already drifting away from it.
Start with one command.
Install the package globally with npm install --global mindful-dev, then run mindful today . inside a project.
A repository root is treated as one project. A normal parent folder can be treated as a portfolio, with each immediate child scanned separately. You can also make that choice explicit with --project or --portfolio.
Find current work.
Run mindful today to turn clear decisions and actions in project Markdown into a small daily queue with exact sources.
Prepare a bounded handoff.
Add --agent to compile the queue into one complete plan for Codex, Claude, or another coding agent.
A plan for agents, not a pile of prompts.
mindful today . --agent produces a self contained Markdown plan. It tells the agent what to work on first, where to stop for a decision, how to establish missing acceptance checks, and how to report verification.
The goal is not to give an agent more freedom. It is to give it better boundaries. The plan stays connected to written project evidence and keeps unrelated work out of scope.
Structured JSON is available for other workflows, and --markdown is an alias for the agent output.
Fresh signals only.
Not every old note should become today's work. By default, only task signals from Markdown changed within the last 14 days are eligible for an agent plan.
Inside a Git repository, Mindful uses the file's last Git change. For untracked files and folders outside Git, it uses the filesystem modification time. Older signals are reported separately and are never dispatched by default. You can inspect them with --include-stale.
This is a small rule, but an important one. A planning tool should not quietly revive an abandoned decision.
When there is no task, do not invent one.
Sometimes a scan finds no defensible next action. In an interactive terminal, Mindful can then offer the existing project checkup from MINDFUL.md. The checkup asks the coding assistant to inspect the repository, separate evidence from assumptions, and recommend one scoped next move.
The CLI can print that same checkup directly with mindful checkup . It does not add a file to the repository.
Before Code is there too.
For a new idea, mindful init brings the original Before Code flow into the terminal. It asks ten questions one at a time and generates the same structured engineering specification as the web experience.
The complete specification is shown before anything is saved. Mindful writes a new Markdown file only after explicit confirmation, and it never overwrites an existing file.
Local and read only by default.
Mindful Dev does not upload project content, execute repository code, change scanned Markdown, commit, or install anything inside the project. The published CLI has no runtime dependencies.
It skips dependency folders, build output, assistant prompt libraries, generated Mindful plans, secrets, symbolic links, oversized files, and non Markdown content. Writing is limited to a new specification or agent plan that you explicitly choose to save.
This is not only a privacy decision. It keeps the tool in the role it is meant to have: read the project, clarify the work, and leave implementation under your control.
Mindful now meets projects in three places.
The web experience helps shape a new idea or examine a live product. Daily Canvas creates a local view across projects in the browser. The CLI brings the same discipline into recurring terminal work.
They are different entry points into one principle: make the next decision before writing the next line of code.