Project Orbit

Never lose track of your projects again.

Project Orbit is a local-first system that scans all your projects, tracks their state, surfaces what needs attention, and bridges data between them. It's your autonomous project convergence layer — built because its author had 12+ side projects and couldn't keep track of them all.

pip install project-orbit
cd ~/your-projects
orbit init
orbit scan        # Inventory everything
orbit dashboard   # Open the command center
orbit run         # Autonomous allocator cycle

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Why?

If you have more than 3 projects, you've felt this:

• Projects go cold for weeks because you forgot about them
• Data should flow between systems but doesn't
• When something breaks, you discover it days later
• Every session starts with "what was I working on?"

Project Orbit watches everything, surfaces what needs attention, and bridges data between projects. It doesn't decide what to build — it tells you what's drifting and lets you (or the allocator) act.

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Installation

pip install project-orbit

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Quick Start

1. Initialize in your projects directory

cd ~/code
orbit init

This creates orbit.json with default settings.

2. Scan everything

orbit scan

Output:

Scanning 12 projects...
  ✓ trading-system (Python, 142 files)
  ✓ web-app (Node.js, 89 files)
  ✓ blog (Python, 23 files)
  ✓ api-server (Go, 45 files)
  ✓ docs (Markdown, 67 files)

3. See what needs attention

orbit priority

Output:

Priority Queue:
  1. trading-system (32/100) — stale for 3d, 4 uncommitted files
  2. blog (20/100) — stale for 14d
  3. api-server (15/100) — 2 failing tests

Next action: trading-system — git status shows uncommitted work

4. Open the command center

orbit dashboard

Generates orbit_dashboard.html — a single HTML file with all project state, prioritized by need.

5. Run the autonomous allocator

orbit run

Runs scan → priority → bridges → advances the top-priority project. Add to cron for fully autonomous operation:

# Every 30 minutes during work hours
*/30 9-18 * * 1-5 cd ~/code && orbit run

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How It Works

Project Orbit has four layers:

Scanner

Walks your projects directory, identifies project roots (git repos, Python packages, Node.js packages), and extracts:

• File counts and types
• Git status (stale, clean, dirty)
• Last activity timestamp
• Test results
• Dependencies

Priority Engine

Scores each project 0–100 on need for attention. Factors:

• Days since last commit (older = higher priority, caps at 14 days)
• Uncommitted changes
• Failing tests
• Dependency drift (outdated packages)

Bridges

Cross-project data flows. Built-in bridges:

• Git history scanning
• Dependency drift detection
• Staleness alerts

Allocator

The decision engine. Runs scanner → priority → bridges, then picks the #1 priority project and advances it. Logs all decisions.

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Configuration (orbit.json)

{
  "projects_dir": ".",
  "ignore_patterns": ["node_modules", "__pycache__", ".git", "venv"],
  "staleness_days": 7,
  "hooks": {
    "before_scan": "./scripts/pre-scan.sh",
    "after_priority": "./scripts/notify.sh"
  },
  "bridges": {
    "git_health": true,
    "dependency_check": true
  }
}

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Commands

Command	Description
orbit init	Create orbit.json in the current directory
orbit scan	Scan all projects and write state
orbit priority	Calculate and display priority queue
orbit dashboard	Generate HTML command center
orbit run	Full allocator cycle (scan → priority → act)
orbit status	Quick summary of all projects

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What It Is Not

Project Orbit is not a build system, CI/CD pipeline, or project management tool. It doesn't create tasks, assign work, or manage deadlines. It simply tells you what's happening across all your projects and surfaces what needs attention — so you can focus on building instead of context-switching.

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License

MIT