intent driven development

Phase 0: Setup

Before starting the investigation, you configure chant for working on a shared open source repository. The key decision: keep your specs local so they don’t clutter the project’s git history.

Silent Mode

$ chant init
Initialized .chant/ directory

$ chant silent
Silent mode enabled. .chant/ added to .git/info/exclude.

Silent mode adds .chant/ to your local git exclude file. Your specs, research documents, and execution logs stay on your machine. When you eventually submit a pull request, it contains only the code changes – no .chant/ artifacts.

This matters because your investigation trail is personal workflow. The upstream project doesn’t need to see your hypothesis elimination table or your three failed reproduction attempts. They need a clean fix with tests.

What Silent Mode Does

1. Adds .chant/ to .git/info/exclude (local-only gitignore)
2. Suppresses warnings about untracked spec files
3. All chant functionality works normally
4. Nothing from .chant/ appears in git status or commits

When Not to Use Silent Mode

If you’re the sole maintainer and want specs tracked in the repository, or if your team has agreed to share specs, skip chant silent. The default behavior tracks specs in git, which is useful for team workflows where investigation history should be shared.

Configuration

Your .chant/config.md for this workflow:

defaults:
  silent: true
  main_branch: "main"

If you’re working on a fix branch instead of main, set main_branch to your branch name so worktree merges land in the right place.

With setup complete, you’re ready to start investigating issue #1234.

Next: Comprehension