Sidecat A Python prototype
The first generation proved the shape of the problem: AI-assisted work needs durable records, resumable orchestration, and governed external effects. It is retired — its job was to find the real edges of the problem, and it did.
Architecture
Three generations, one problem.
Sidecat is on its third build of the same idea: serious AI-assisted work needs durable state, explicit authority, and recoverable evidence — not just the ability to act. Each generation kept what survived and shed what had grown heavy.
A Go runtime
The second generation made those ideas usable day to day — durable work records, gates, evidence, receipts, and service checks. It also exposed the cost of a sprawling command surface, so the next build mines it for mechanisms rather than preserving its whole shape.
A ground-up rebuild
The current generation is a rebuild around a smaller language, stricter object contracts, and clearer surfaces. It keeps the lessons that survived and drops the accumulated surface area, so the durable record — not a pile of commands — is the thing you work with.
Where it is headed
The durable record is the product.
The rebuild is organized around one idea: the object system — work, authority, evidence, review, replay — is the source of truth, and every surface is a lens over it. The goal is governance that speeds work up rather than slowing it down: less time rebuilding context, fewer silent failures, and clear hand-offs between an operator and one or more agents.
Durable state
Work survives across sessions, so the assistant, operator, and review surfaces all refer to the same record instead of a chat history.
Explicit authority
Anything that spends trust — commits, pushes, deploys, external calls — goes through explicit authority and leaves a receipt.
Recoverable evidence
What happened is retained next to what the agent was shown, so the work can be reviewed, replayed, and recovered.
Replayable language
Work is expressed in a small, durable language, so a later agent can re-read and resume it rather than reconstruct it.
This is the working direction of an active rebuild, not a finished specification. The fuller product vision is still being written.