Every fresh session starts too cold.
The task is still real, but its rationale, open questions, and next move are scattered across a chat the new agent cannot see.
PROJECT STATE YOU OWN
Your agents change.
Your work stays.
A new agent can enter work it did not start.
Keep canonical tasks, decisions, and working state with the project—not dependent on one chat or provider. Continue in another supported coding agent without re-briefing it.
The model can change. Canonical project state remains yours.
CODING AGENT 01
Session complete configured client CODING AGENT 02
Entering project configured client CODING AGENT 03
Available configured client INFERENCE ROUTE
Available configured route PERSISTENT PROJECT PLANE
state available .ostk / project
TASK Refine retry boundary
DECISION Backoff stays at adapter
CHANGED src/retry.rs
NEXT Run focused tests
NEW AGENT
“What am I walking into?”
Context restored from project state
THE INTERFACE CHANGES. THE PROJECT PLANE PERSISTS.
THE BREAK IN TODAY'S WORKFLOW
The expensive part is not starting.
It is starting over.
Coding agents can move quickly inside one session. The fracture appears between sessions, tools, people, and providers—exactly where project work needs to remain coherent.
Tool choice becomes a trap.
A better model or a different coding agent is available, but switching means briefing it from scratch and hoping nothing important gets lost.
Fast agents create invisible work.
More changes arrive faster, while decisions, handoffs, and conflicting edits become harder for a person or team to reconstruct.
THE 60-SECOND DEMO
A new agent can enter work it did not start.
This is the cold-orientation test: end one connected agent session, open a fresh session—optionally in another harness—and ask one question.
00:00 AGENT A
Connected agent A
Session exits with work in flight
- Task opened
- Decision recorded
- Partial edit present
00:24 PROJECT
Working state persists
Task, rationale, file generation, and next move remain available outside the first conversation.
taskdecisionfiletrace
00:60 AGENT B
Fresh agent session
Fresh session enters
YOU What am I walking into?
ORIENTATION RESULT
01 / TASK Refine the retry boundary.
02 / WHY Backoff belongs at the adapter.
03 / NEXT Review src/retry.rs, then run the focused tests.
No pasted transcript—a run condition. Second harness optional. One project-owned canonical state.
WHAT MAKES THE HANDOFF POSSIBLE
Own your substrate.
The substrate is the durable project layer beneath the agent: working state, decisions, coordination, and trace. Agents can come and go; this layer remains under your control.
Why ownership mattersIS PROJECT INFRASTRUCTURE
The part of agent work that should outlive a session.
- Durable tasks and decisions
- Shared orientation for supported agents
- Inspectable coordination and trace
IS NOT ANOTHER PLACE TO WORK
Not a model, router, chat interface, or cloud workspace.
ostk does not ask you to replace the coding surface you prefer. It sits below supported tools and keeps the project frame available between them.
MODEL PROVIDER ROUTER HARNESS
Custody
Canonical working state is kept with the project instead of belonging to one chat account.
Legibility
Tasks, decisions, and traces remain inspectable by people and supported agents.
Exit
Change the model, provider, router, or coding surface without abandoning the work already captured.
START FROM YOUR ACTUAL GOAL
One product.
Three useful entrances.
You should not need to understand the internal modules before getting value. Choose the failure you want to remove first.
01
I already use a coding agent
Carry the work into the next session.
Start with the tool you use today. Give a fresh supported agent the task, decisions, and next step without pasting the old chat.
Start the handoff path 02
I want local or private inference
Change where the model runs, not how the project remembers.
Connect a configured local-model route while the durable working state remains with the same project.
Start the local path 03
I am coordinating a team or CI
Give parallel agents a shared frame.
Surface in-flight work and conflicting writes so agents and people can coordinate without relying on one private conversation.
Start the team pathEVIDENCE BEFORE CLAIMS
Proof you can inspect, repeat, and compare.
Portability is a behavior, not a slogan. Each claim should resolve to a configured client, a repeatable handoff, or a published measurement.
01
Continuity
Repeat the handoff.
The first-win path has a visible pass condition: a new supported agent names the task, rationale, changed file, and next action.
See the first win02
Performance
Compare combinations, not slogans.
Needle Bench publishes model-and-harness outcomes separately. Results are provider-specific; there is no universal savings claim.
Open Needle Bench03
Compatibility
Know what is supported.
Support is integration-specific. Check the model and endpoint matrix before treating portability as a product promise.
View supported models BEFORE YOU INSTALL
The boundaries should be legible.
- What works?
- Support is integration-specific. The compatibility matrix names supported models and endpoints.
- Where is state?
- Canonical project state is kept with the project. Some continuity modes send conversation history or context to the configured provider; anchored Anthropic sessions can use Anthropic Files.
- What does it cost?
- Token, latency, and solve-rate effects vary by combination and are reported separately.
- Can I inspect it?
- The implementation, project artifacts, and operational trace remain available for review.
FIRST WIN
Keep the work.
Change the agent when you need to.
Start in an isolated project, complete the cold-orientation handoff, then bring the same durable frame to your own repository.
INSTALL OSTK v7.7.7
Review compatibility and the per-integration data path above before installing on macOS or Linux.