Philosophy

These are the framework’s standing opinions. The generator splices short summaries of the relevant ones into a project’s CLAUDE.md; the full text lives in the CORE library.

1. Context frugality

Context is the scarcest resource. A session should read the minimum needed to do its carved task — the handoff’s “Context pointers”, the relevant rules/ file, and the files it actually edits. Re-scanning the whole repo each session is the default failure mode transcend exists to prevent.

2. Handoff-first

Work is carried across sessions by a compact handoff document, not by a long conversation. Each session ends by updating the handoff; each session starts by auto-loading it. The handoff is the durable, low-token bridge across /clear, /compact, and brand-new sessions. See Context & Handoff.

3. Carve small tasks

A session targets ONE module-scoped task with a clear definition of done. Smaller carves mean lighter context, cleaner handoffs, and fewer half-finished threads.

4. Layered enforcement, chosen deliberately

Conventions are documented (Tier 1), nudged (Tier 2), or hard-blocked (Tier 3). The right tier is a deliberate per-rule choice, not a global default. Block only what genuinely must not happen; nudge the rest; document everything. Friction is a cost — blocking hooks are scoped narrowly so they never fire on unrelated actions. See Enforcement Tiers.

5. The harness is owned by the project

The generated .claude/ is committed and shared by the team. It is a living artifact: transcend can audit it, the team can hand-edit it, and transcend preserves those edits rather than clobbering them.

6. Adapt, don’t impose

The same core principles render differently per stack. transcend proposes sensible defaults from a stack profile and the developer chooses — the output is bespoke, not boilerplate.