Idea to Project

Every shipped project starts as a fleeting thought. This guide walks through NeuralRepo’s recommended workflow for taking an idea from initial capture to a completed project.

The Idea Lifecycle

NeuralRepo uses five statuses that map to natural project phases:

Status	Phase	What Happens Here
captured	Inbox	Raw idea, no evaluation yet. Just get it down.
exploring	Research	Investigate feasibility. Add notes, links, and related ideas.
building	Active development	You are writing code, designing, or creating.
shipped	Done	The project is live, published, or complete.
shelved	On hold	Not abandoned, but not active. Revisit later.

Step-by-Step Workflow

1. Capture the idea.

   Use whatever method is most convenient — Siri, Claude, CLI, web app, or email. Do not overthink it at this stage. The goal is to not lose the thought.

   nrepo push "Browser extension that highlights text and saves to NeuralRepo"

   The idea is created with captured status.

2. Triage and tag.

   Periodically review your captured ideas. Add tags, flesh out the body, and decide whether to explore further or shelve.

   nrepo tag 134 chrome extension mvp
   nrepo edit 134 --body "Should integrate with the Share Sheet on desktop browsers..."

   Caution

   Editing the body re-embeds the idea and re-derives its auto-detected relations and duplicate flags from the new text. Manual links survive; system-created ones may change.

3. Move to exploring.

   When you decide to investigate an idea, update its status:

   nrepo move 134 exploring

   During exploration, research feasibility, check for prior art, and add notes. Use the body field as a living document.

4. Break it down with relations.

   Large ideas benefit from sub-ideas. Create child ideas for specific components, then link each one to the umbrella idea — the source of a parent relation is the child:

   nrepo push "Content script for text selection"
   # Then link as child — child first, parent second:
   nrepo link 143 134 --type parent
   
   nrepo push "Popup UI for saving highlighted text"
   nrepo link 144 134 --type parent
   
   nrepo push "Background service worker for API calls"
   nrepo link 145 134 --type parent

   These appear as children of the umbrella idea, creating a natural work breakdown structure.

   Note

   Linking is a Pro feature, and every id above is the database id rather than the #number a listing shows. See Idea identifiers.

5. Branch for variants.

   If you are considering multiple approaches, use the branch command to create variants:

   nrepo branch 134 --title "Browser extension — Chrome-only MVP"
   nrepo branch 134 --title "Browser extension — cross-browser with WebExtension API"

   Each branch is a new idea whose parent_id points at the original. The visible parent relation is created by the background queue a few seconds later, so it will not be in the response you get back — check with nrepo links if you need to confirm it landed.

6. Generate an AI spec.

   When you are ready to build, use the develop endpoint to generate a full project specification from your idea and its relations:

   curl -X POST https://neuralrepo.com/api/v1/ideas/134/develop \
     -H "X-API-Key: nrp_your_key_here"

   This requires a BYOK AI key, which is Pro-only. The AI reads the idea, its children, and related ideas to produce a structured spec with architecture recommendations, milestones, and open questions.

   Caution

   develop writes. The generated spec is appended to the idea’s own body, not returned as a separate document — so running it twice appends twice. Keep the original body short if you plan to use it.

7. Pull to your local project.

   Bring the idea and its spec into your working directory:

   nrepo pull 134 --to ./my-extension

   This creates a markdown file with the full idea context — title, body (including the generated spec, since it lives in the body), tags, and related ideas.

8. Build it.

   Move to building status and start working:

   nrepo move 134 building

   As you build, update the idea body with progress notes, decisions, and links to the actual code repository.

9. Ship it.

   When the project is live:

   nrepo move 134 shipped

   Add a source_url pointing to the live project, repository, or release page.

Using Tags for Phases

Beyond status, tags help you track cross-cutting concerns:

• mvp — minimum viable version of the idea
• v2 — future improvements after the initial ship
• blocked — waiting on something external
• needs-research — requires investigation before building
• weekend-project — scope fits a weekend

Tip

Combine status filters with tag filters to create focused views. For example, filter by building status and mvp tag to see only the active work you are shipping next.

Example: From Idea to Shipped

Day 1:  nrepo push "Habit tracker with streaks"           → captured (id 155)
Day 3:  nrepo move 155 exploring                          → exploring
Day 3:  nrepo tag 155 mobile react-native mvp
Day 5:  nrepo push "Streak calculation algorithm"         → id 156
Day 5:  nrepo link 156 155 --type parent                  → 156 is a child of 155
Day 5:  nrepo push "Push notification reminders"          → id 157
Day 5:  nrepo link 157 155 --type parent
Day 7:  POST /ideas/155/develop                           → spec appended to the body
Day 7:  nrepo pull 155 --to ./habit-tracker
Day 8:  nrepo move 155 building                           → building
Day 14: nrepo move 155 shipped                            → shipped

Next Steps

Building an Idea Graph Connect ideas into a rich network of relations for better organization.

Claude Code Workflow Use Claude Code alongside NeuralRepo for AI-assisted development.

Status Workflow What each status means and how statuses drive stale detection.

nrepo branch Fork an idea into a variant, and what the queue does afterwards.