Your project has a light cone

Every event in physics has two cones: the past cone and the future cone. These cones define what can influence an event and what it can influence in turn. No outside factor can impact the event through either cone. The boundary between these cones is so strict that physicists use the term "elsewhere" to describe events outside this boundary.

Tasks in software projects sit at this junction between the past and future. Some work must exist before the task can begin, while other work will be affected when the task changes. But, the specific dependencies and potential impacts of a task are often hard to pinpoint. They exist within the dependency structure, a concept that is not typically considered until something goes wrong.

The Grove protocol, an open-source tool for managing long-running, agent-driven projects, uses a physics-based approach to answer these critical questions. Before writing a line of code, an agent asks for the causality cone of the task it is about to start. This cone reveals the dependency structure, the order in which tasks must be completed, and the potential ripple effects of any changes.

This information helps agents navigate the project more effectively, reducing guesswork and memorization. By computing the cone from the graph structure of the project, rather than relying on external documents, Grove ensures that the agent always has an up-to-date view of the living project. This dynamic approach is crucial as coding agents take on more responsibility for larger parts of our work.