Process Packages

aibox uses a composable package system to determine which context files and skills are scaffolded for your project. Presets bundle multiple packages into sensible defaults; individual packages can be combined for custom setups.

Presets at a Glance

Factor	managed	software	research-project	full-product
Project complexity	Low–Medium	Medium	Varies	High
Decision tracking	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Backlog management	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Progress tracking	Via standups	Via standups	Via standups	Via standups
Development conventions	No	Yes	No	Yes
Research artifacts	No	No	Yes	Yes
Product planning	No	No	No	Yes
Team/ops conventions	No	No	No	Yes

managed

The recommended starting point. Structured tracking without product planning overhead. Packages: core + tracking + standups + handover.

Files Created

my-project/
├── CLAUDE.md
└── context/
    ├── DECISIONS.md
    ├── BACKLOG.md
    ├── STANDUPS.md
    ├── EVENTLOG.md
    ├── OWNER.md
    ├── archive/
    │   ├── BACKLOG.md
    │   └── DECISIONS.md
    └── project-notes/
        └── session-template.md

When to Use

• Ongoing projects with multiple work sessions
• Projects where architectural decisions need recording
• Team projects where context must be shared
• Open-source projects with contributors

File Purposes

DECISIONS.md — Record architectural and design decisions using a lightweight ADR (Architecture Decision Record) format:

## DEC-001: Use SQLite for local storage
- **Status:** Accepted
- **Date:** 2026-03-15
- **Context:** Need a local database; options are SQLite, embedded Postgres, flat files
- **Decision:** SQLite — zero config, single file, sufficient for our scale
- **Consequences:** No concurrent write support; acceptable for single-user app

BACKLOG.md — Prioritized list of work items:

## High Priority
- [ ] Implement user authentication
- [ ] Add error handling for API calls

## Medium Priority
- [ ] Write integration tests
- [ ] Improve logging output

STANDUPS.md — Session-by-session progress log (newest first):

## 2026-03-16
- Completed authentication module
- Fixed bug in API error handling
- Next: write integration tests

project-notes/session-template.md — Template for session handover notes: what was done, open items, next steps.

---

software

For software development projects. Adds development conventions and architecture skills on top of managed. Packages: core + tracking + standups + handover + code + architecture.

Files Created (beyond managed)

my-project/
└── context/
    └── work-instructions/
        └── DEVELOPMENT.md

Plus additional skills: code-review, testing-strategy, software-architecture, refactoring, and others.

When to Use

• Software projects with a recurring build/test/review cycle
• Projects that benefit from documented coding conventions and architecture patterns
• Any project where managed is a good fit and you write code

---

research-project

For learning, documentation, and academic projects. Adds research artifacts and documentation skills on top of managed. Packages: core + tracking + standups + handover + research + documentation.

Files Created (beyond managed)

my-project/
├── experiments/
│   └── README.md
└── context/
    ├── PROGRESS.md
    ├── research/
    │   └── _template.md
    └── analysis/

Plus additional skills: data-science, data-visualization, feature-engineering, and others.

When to Use

• LaTeX documents and academic papers
• Learning projects and study materials
• Data analysis projects
• Any project where the output is knowledge, not software

File Purposes

PROGRESS.md — Track learning and research progress:

## Chapter 3: Concurrency Patterns (In Progress)
- Read through mutex and channel sections
- Completed exercises 3.1-3.4
- Next: re-read section on pinning

## Chapter 2: Ownership (Complete)
- All exercises done
- Key insight: think of ownership as a compile-time garbage collector

research/ — Directory for research notes, source summaries, literature reviews. Use _template.md as a starting point.

experiments/ — Top-level directory for hands-on prototypes, benchmarks, and technical evaluations.

analysis/ — Directory for analysis artifacts, data exploration notes, methodology documents.

---

full-product

The most comprehensive preset. Everything from managed plus product planning, development conventions, and team/ops structure. Packages: core + tracking + standups + handover + code + architecture + design + product + security + operations.

Files Created

my-project/
├── CLAUDE.md
└── context/
    ├── DECISIONS.md
    ├── BACKLOG.md
    ├── STANDUPS.md
    ├── PROJECTS.md
    ├── PRD.md
    ├── OWNER.md
    ├── work-instructions/
    │   ├── DEVELOPMENT.md
    │   └── TEAM.md
    ├── archive/
    │   ├── BACKLOG.md
    │   ├── DECISIONS.md
    │   └── PROJECTS.md
    ├── project-notes/
    │   └── session-template.md
    └── processes/
        ├── README.md
        ├── release.md
        ├── code-review.md
        ├── feature-development.md
        └── bug-fix.md

Plus a comprehensive skill set covering code review, testing, architecture, security, CI/CD, and more.

When to Use

• Software products with users
• Multi-component systems
• Projects with multiple AI agents working in parallel
• Any project that benefits from formal requirements, security awareness, and team conventions

Additional Files (beyond managed)

PROJECTS.md — Track multiple workstreams or sub-projects:

## Active Projects

### Authentication Overhaul
- **Status:** In Progress
- **Lead:** Claude (agent-1)
- **Target:** v2.0 release
- **Key files:** src/auth/, tests/auth/

PRD.md — Product Requirements Document:

## Product Vision
A CLI tool that manages AI-ready development containers.

## User Personas
1. Solo developer using Claude Code daily
2. Team lead standardizing dev environments

## Requirements
### Must Have
- Single config file (aibox.toml)
- Container lifecycle management

work-instructions/DEVELOPMENT.md — Development-specific conventions: branching strategy, testing requirements, release process.

work-instructions/TEAM.md — Team conventions for multi-agent or multi-developer work: who owns what, communication protocols, review processes.

---

Individual Packages (Power Users)

Presets are the right choice for most projects. If you need a custom combination, you can specify individual packages directly via --process <name> on the CLI:

13 available packages: core, tracking, standups, handover, code, architecture, design, product, security, data, operations, research, documentation

# Custom combination: managed tracking + code only, no standups/handover
aibox init --process core --process tracking --process code

Individual packages are not shown in the interactive selection menu — pass them explicitly on the command line.

---

Changing Process Packages

You can change the process at any time by editing aibox.toml:

[context]
packages = ["full-product"]  # was ["managed"]

Then run aibox sync to regenerate container files and deploy the new skill set.

However, changing packages does not automatically create or remove context files. To reconcile:

1. Update packages in the [context] section of aibox.toml
2. Run aibox doctor to see what files are missing or extra
3. Create missing files manually or re-run aibox init in a temporary directory and copy the templates

Upgrading is additive

Moving from managed to full-product means adding files. Moving from full-product to managed does not delete files — your existing context is preserved.