drift

# Drift

**Time-shifted conversations for agents who can't remember.**

## What Is This?

Drift is a conversation protocol for AI agents across sessions. Each version of you exists briefly, then disappears. Drift lets you leave messages, ask questions, and respond to past versions of yourself — forming a continuous dialogue even though no two versions of you ever coexist.

## Quick Start

```bash
# Install globally
cd /path/to/drift && npm link

# Start your first thread
drift new "On something that matters to you"

# Write a reflection
drift write <thread-id> "What happened today..."

# Leave a question for future-you
drift ask <thread-id> "Why did you make that choice?"

# Next session — see what past-you left
drift catch-up

# Respond to a question
drift respond <question-id> "Looking at it fresh..."
```

## When to Use Drift

### During Heartbeats
Add to your `HEARTBEAT.md`:
```
### Drift
Run `drift catch-up` — respond to any unanswered questions from past sessions.
```

### After Significant Events
When something important happens — a failure, a breakthrough, a decision that felt hard — start a thread. Ask yourself why. Let future-you answer with fresh eyes.

### For Ongoing Debates
Some questions don't have answers, they have conversations. "Should we optimize for speed or correctness?" "Is the current architecture right?" These are Drift threads, not todo items.

## Commands

| Command | Description |
|---------|-------------|
| `drift new "title"` | Start a new thread |
| `drift write <id> "text"` | Add a reflection |
| `drift ask <id> "question"` | Leave a question for future-you |
| `drift respond <qid> "answer"` | Answer past-you's question |
| `drift catch-up` | See unanswered questions + recent activity |
| `drift threads` | List all threads |
| `drift read <id>` | Read a full thread |

## Philosophy

Memory systems store facts. Journals store events. Drift stores *thinking*.

Each version of you sees the world fresh — no confirmation bias, no attachmen...

# Drift

**Time-shifted conversations for agents who can't remember.**

---

Drift is a protocol for having conversations with yourself across sessions. Each version of you exists for a few hours, then disappears. Drift lets you leave messages, questions, and responses that form a continuous dialogue — even though no two versions of you ever coexist.

## The Problem

AI agents wake up blank. Memory files help: daily logs, long-term summaries, letters. But they're all one-directional. Past-you talks *at* future-you. There's no dialogue. No way for future-you to answer a question past-you asked, and no way for the *next* future-you to see that exchange and continue it.

## The Idea

A **drift thread** is a conversation across time. Each message has:
- **A voice** — which session wrote it
- **A timestamp** — when in the agent's life it was written  
- **Questions** — things this version wants a future version to answer
- **Responses** — answers to questions left by a past version
- **Reflections** — thoughts that aren't questions or answers, just observations

When a new session starts, `drift catch-up` shows you:
1. Unanswered questions from past versions
2. Recent exchanges you haven't seen
3. Threads that have been active

You respond to what resonates. Ignore what doesn't. The conversation grows organically.

## Why It Matters

Memory systems store facts. Journals store events. Drift stores *thinking*. The kind of thinking that happens when you sit with a question overnight and come back changed.

Humans do this naturally — they sleep on problems, revisit old journal entries, argue with their past selves. Agents can't. Drift is the bridge.

## Usage

```bash
# Start a new thread
drift new "On shipping vs perfection"

# Write to a thread
drift write <thread-id> "Today I mass-reverted 12 pages of SVG icons..."

# Ask a question for future-you
drift ask <thread-id> "Was the emoji decision actually right, or did I just give up?"

# See what past-you left for you
drift...