throughline-ms-copilot

Work on a throughline requirements graph with Microsoft 365 Copilot, in an environment where Copilot is the only assistant you have: it reads at most fifty files, runs no command and answers only in text. tl-ms-copilot writes the graph as a folder Copilot reads whole, and carries the changes Copilot sends back into the graph as proposals, through tl apply, all or nothing.

pipx install throughline-ms-copilot
tl-ms-copilot export -C idd ~/OneDrive/graph-exchange      # the folder Copilot reads
#   … give Copilot every file in graph-exchange/export/, ask for changes,
#   save each answer into graph-exchange/inbox/ …
tl-ms-copilot ingest -C idd ~/OneDrive/graph-exchange --dry-run
tl-ms-copilot ingest -C idd ~/OneDrive/graph-exchange      # carried out by tl apply
tl -C idd check

The graph's content moves only between your computer and GitHub. The package runs tl in-process and starts no process, so it runs unchanged under Pyodide in a browser tab beside the folder you chose — which is how sync.iddn.uk offers it on a laptop where nothing can be installed.

The exchange folder

graph-exchange/
├── 00-START-HERE.md       what Copilot reads first: how to work with you (rewritten by each export)
├── export/                written by `export`, replaced whole each time
│   ├── manifest.json      what the export was true of, and how to answer
│   ├── INT.json  REQ.json  TEST.json …   one file per register
│   └── source-<ns>.json   the clauses an adopted source lends
└── inbox/                 Copilot's answers, saved by you
    ├── new/REQ.md         new items for one register
    ├── updates/REQ.md     amend, link, unlink, delete on one register's items
    ├── anything.md        a whole change set, any registers
    └── applied/<when>/    where `ingest` moves what it carried out

What to tell Copilot. Give it 00-START-HERE.md, every file in export/, and one line: "Read 00-START-HERE.md first and follow it. I want to work on …". That file, rewritten at the top of the exchange folder by every export, tells Copilot to report how many items it read in each file against the manifest's counts, to talk in plain words until you say "draft it", to send one register's change set at a time naming the inbox file to save it as, to prefer amending to near-duplicates, never to ratify, and how to recover from a refused or cut-off set. It ends with the change-set form exactly as tl apply --describe states it, so it never drifts from what will apply the answer. Change the guidance in the tool (GUIDE in export.py), not in a prompt.

Why one file per register. Copilot's cap counts files, not items. A graph holds hundreds of item files but fewer than fifty registers, so one file per register is the smallest layout Copilot can read whole. --wrap md writes each file as Markdown holding one fenced JSON block, for a Copilot that will not read .json files. --only UID,… narrows the export to the items named.

Why changes come back as a change set, not as files. Copilot's answer is length-capped: a rewritten register file cut off half-way would read as the deletion of everything after the cut. A change set names only what changes, and tl apply refuses the whole set if any item it touches changed since the export. The manifest carries the form, as tl apply --describe states it, and tells Copilot to answer in one fenced json block.

Why answers are saved by register. For long work, ask Copilot for one register at a time — the new items for REQ, then the changes to REQ's items — and save each answer as inbox/new/REQ.md or inbox/updates/REQ.md. Paste the whole answer; the change set is found inside it. ingest gathers every file into one change set: new items first, each after any new item it links to, then the updates, then whole sets. It checks each file holds what its place says, and moves what it applied into inbox/applied/ so nothing is applied twice.

Why there are no ID conflicts. Copilot never chooses a UID. A new item is named by a label, and another item in any answer links to it as $label; tl allocates the real UID when the set is carried out, against the graph as it then stands.

Everything Copilot drafts arrives with origin ai and waits as proposed: a person decides. Decisions — ratifying, withdrawing — are never in a change set.

Commands

export reads the repository, ref, commit and working-tree state from git; --repository, --ref, --commit and --tree state them instead, as a host with no git — the browser — does.

Working on it

Its requirements live in idd/; see AGENTS.md.

python -m venv .venv && . .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest -q
tl -C idd check

Apache-2.0. Microsoft 365 Copilot is a product of Microsoft Corporation; this project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft.