Follow one commitment — User Auth — from first pitch to retro. You'll see exactly where your normal workflow becomes Heliostat's input, and where it doesn't.
during cool-down
start of cycle
daily, for weeks
1 week after cycle
Heliostat is a GitHub App with three narrow permissions: repository metadata, repository webhooks, and your email address. No code access, no issues, no PRs. Install it on only the repos you want to hand to Heliostat — organizations and individual accounts both work. Push events flow to a single app-wide webhook; Heliostat matches commits to your scopes automatically. Uninstall any time from your GitHub account settings.
Before you commit weeks, draft a pitch: name the pain, pick a t-shirt size, sketch the solution, surface risks. Pitching is where bad ideas get caught cheaply.
Five fields, one page. Heliostat auto-saves as you type and gates the "Mark ready" button on a readiness checklist — problem, solution, and rabbit holes all have to be present before a pitch can be committed to. An optional "Other notes" field catches everything that doesn't fit above. "Ask The Senior" is available from the moment you open a pitch — it'll flag shallow pitches before you commit.
The pain. Not the fix.
Broad strokes. Precise = building.
Where could you get lost?
Extras that don't fit above — links, references, constraints.
Pick the pitches. Assign each a short tag. The decision ritual matters even when the only stakeholder is you — don't drift into work.
Heliostat lists every pitch you marked ready. Click "Commit" on the ones you'll run this cycle — one XL, or a few Ms and an L, or four Ss. Whatever mix fits the cycle. Each committed pitch needs a scope tag: any short word that'll link future branches and commits back to it.
Any short word. No required prefix — auth will match branches like feat/auth-oauth, bug/auth, and commits like fix(auth): ….
Ship. Every day you move the dot; every push flows into the right scope. Stale scopes flag themselves, interruptions log themselves, and the hill chart keeps you honest.
Work the way you already do. A push to feat/auth-oauth matches the tag's branch pattern; a quick fix committed straight to main still matches if the commit message names the tag.
The direction marker comes from the type prefix (feat / spike / explore / wip / poc read uphill; fix / test / refactor / chore / docs read downhill). It's a second opinion for your next check-in — the hill chart doesn't move on its own.
A pager goes off. You push hotfix: pager timezone bug to main — no scope tag in the branch, no tag in the message. Heliostat doesn't lose the commit; it logs it as unplanned work at 0.5h (estimated) so you don't forget to account for it. Tap the hours to fix them later.
Logged via ⚡ · informs next cycle sizing
Dashed border = estimated, still needs your confirmation.
Every day you move the dot — a small, honest adjustment. Heliostat shows the commits since your last check-in with their direction split so you can calibrate. A second opinion, never a verdict.
More uphill than downhill — still more figuring-out than executing. Matches the dot at 55: past the crest, not coasting yet.
~ and cut.
Prefix a scope's title with ~ when it's a nice-to-have. It still shows up and gets worked on — but when the calendar runs out, nice-to-haves are first to cut. Cut manually anytime; the hill chart keeps the trace, and the cut scope comes back as a fresh pitch with problem and solution prepopulated so nothing's lost.
Cut scopes move back to the pitch list as raw drafts — title, problem, solution, rabbit holes all preserved. Re-pitch next cool-down, re-commit next cycle, or let them go.
No feature work. Fix lingering bugs, update dependencies, jot rough ideas for next cycle — and run the retrospective. All on one page. Close cooldown when you're done; only then does a new cycle start.
Two panes: a checkable list of small tasks on the left (bugs, docs, tech debt); an idea scratchpad on the right. Promote an idea to a pitch when it's ready — Heliostat drops you back into Pitch with the title and text prefilled.
Small tasks — bugs, docs, tech debt.
Seeds. Promote to a pitch when ready.
Better onboarding flow — single-step project tracking after sign-in
Offline dashboard support
Public API docs?
What shipped, what interrupted you, what would you do differently. Interruption % over 15% signals the next cycle should be shorter — or have more buffer. Unfinished scopes hit the circuit breaker: re-pitch and re-commit, or let them go.
Re-evaluate. Cut once = look harder the second time.
~ marks nice-to-haves; cut whenever you need to.Everything else — deciding the t-shirt size, moving the dot, cutting scope, writing the retro — stays with you. That's the whole point.
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