# tik

> a process system, not a ticket system: stage is derived, never stored

Project home: https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/ — full text for LLMs: https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/llms-full.txt

## Get started

- [Getting started](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/get-started/guide/): A working ticket system in five minutes — no server, no database, no account, no YAML.
- [Install](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/get-started/install/): Run the native binary or the uberjar, run from source with babashka, or work inside the nix devshell.

## Concepts

- [Derived beats declared](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/concepts/derived-beats-declared/): The one law — if something follows from the log, storing it as authoritative state is a bug.
- [Events and facts](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/concepts/events-and-facts/): Seven event types, five fact statuses, and the content addressing that makes a store auditable with coreutils.
- [Explain](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/concepts/explain/): The product surface — what evidence is missing, who may supply it, and when waiting is pointless.
- [Guards](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/concepts/guards/)
- [Replication](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/concepts/replication/): Merging by set union — no leader, no lock, no consensus, and no file-level conflicts to resolve by hand.
- [Stages](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/concepts/stages/): Position in a process as a fixpoint over the reached set — synchronous sweeps, sticky milestones, and regression by derivation.
- [The event log](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/concepts/event-log/)
- [The witness](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/concepts/witness/)

## CLI

- [Reading a store](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/cli/reading-a-store/): The inbox, the board, explain, selectors, history, and counterfactuals.
- [Recording work](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/cli/recording-work/): Creating tickets, asserting facts, attaching evidence, and correcting the record.
- [Store administration](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/cli/administration/): Identity, roles, verification, migration, storage backends, and alerts.

## Authoring processes

- [Lint, simulate, test](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/authoring/lint-simulate-test/): Proving a definition does what you meant — before a real ticket depends on it.
- [Roles and authority](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/authoring/roles-and-authority/): Who may sign what, and keeping membership current without re-pinning every ticket.
- [Writing a definition](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/authoring/writing-a-definition/): The shape of a process definition, the closed guard vocabulary, and the design law that separates a process from a task list.

## Integrations

- [Claude Code skill](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/integrations/claude-code/): Install the tik skill so Claude drives a store correctly — recording evidence and letting stages derive, instead of setting statuses.
- [MCP server](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/integrations/mcp-server/): The frontier as an agent's gated tool surface, over stdio.

## Runbooks

- [hypothesis / :captured](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/runbooks/hypothesis-captured/)
- [hypothesis / :killed](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/runbooks/hypothesis-killed/)
- [hypothesis / :running](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/runbooks/hypothesis-running/)
- [hypothesis / :stated](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/runbooks/hypothesis-stated/)
- [hypothesis / :validated](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/runbooks/hypothesis-validated/)
- [identity-registry / :registry](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/runbooks/identity-registry-registry/)
- [release / :attested](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/runbooks/release-attested/)
- [release / :built](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/runbooks/release-built/)
- [release / :published](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/runbooks/release-published/)
- [release / :scanned](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/runbooks/release-scanned/)
- [release / :withheld](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/runbooks/release-withheld/)
- [support-request / :closed](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/runbooks/support-request-closed/)
- [support-request / :escalated](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/runbooks/support-request-escalated/)
- [support-request / :received](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/runbooks/support-request-received/)
- [support-request / :reproducible](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/runbooks/support-request-reproducible/)
- [support-request / :resolved](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/runbooks/support-request-resolved/)
- [support-request / :triaged](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/runbooks/support-request-triaged/)
- [tik-dev / :captured](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/runbooks/tik-dev-captured/)
- [tik-dev / :implemented](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/runbooks/tik-dev-implemented/)
- [tik-dev / :landed](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/runbooks/tik-dev-landed/)
- [tik-dev / :parked](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/runbooks/tik-dev-parked/)
- [tik-dev / :triaged](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/runbooks/tik-dev-triaged/)
- [track / :done](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/runbooks/track-done/)
- [track / :open](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/runbooks/track-open/)

## Decisions

- [No fold step reads the future — the claimed clock is clamped to the evaluated clock](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/decisions/0022-no-step-reads-the-future/)
- [Coordination-free horizontal scaling — no leader, no lock, no consensus](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/decisions/0021-coordination-free-horizontal-scaling/)
- [Artifacts — the hash is in the trust domain, the blob is not](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/decisions/0014-artifact-semantics/)
- [Canonical serialization is a versioned wire protocol](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/decisions/0008-canonical-serialization-protocol/)
- [Conformance is defined by the corpus, the laws, and normative sweep semantics](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/decisions/0018-conformance/)
- [Definition hash is identity; publication signatures are authority](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/decisions/0015-process-definition-trust/)
- [Derived material may be cached only if disposable and untrusted](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/decisions/0013-derived-state-never-authoritative/)
- [Effects observe derivation; transport is not a domain concept](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/decisions/0019-effects-observe-derivation/)
- [Events are never deleted; blobs may be; nothing is compacted into authority](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/decisions/0017-deletion-and-compaction/)
- [Explain's structured reasons are the stable API; renderings are not](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/decisions/0016-explain-stability-contract/)
- [Signatures establish authorship; authorization is derived](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/decisions/0010-authority-model/)
- [The EventStore contract every backend must honor](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/decisions/0020-eventstore-contract/)
- [The log admits all well-formed claims; trust is evaluated, not filtered](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/decisions/0011-log-admission-vs-trust/)
- [Three clocks; claimed is the default; the clock is part of the guard](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/decisions/0012-time-semantics/)
- [Unknown data handling differs by layer, on purpose](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/decisions/0009-unknown-data-policy/)
- [Concurrent conflicting assertions block guards; humans resolve](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/decisions/0003-conflicts-block/)
- [Event parents are mandatory; the log is a Merkle DAG](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/decisions/0004-mandatory-parents/)
- [SHA-256 content addressing, self-describing ids, one algorithm per store](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/decisions/0006-hash-policy/)
- [Stage negation must be stratified](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/decisions/0005-stratified-negation/)
- [Stored bytes are exactly the hashed region; signatures are detached](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/decisions/0007-stored-bytes-are-the-hashed-region/)
- [The event-log acceptance test for all features](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/decisions/0001-event-log-acceptance-test/)
- [Tickets pin their process definition hash; migration is an event](https://tik.projects.metio.wtf/decisions/0002-pinned-process-versions/)

## Contributing