The open trip standard
A short public note on version-controlled trips: hard checks in git, soft review on PRs, and traveler memory outside the template.
A short public note — not a research paper. No internal decision numbers.
What it is
An open trip standard is a forkable GitHub repository shape for one operational journey. Trip truth is Git. Hard rules are declarative config run by a domain-neutral engine. The template is useful with no Alcove account.
The first public starter is a Japan summer itinerary shape: fork it, retune hard constraints, and plan with the GitHub agent plugin you already use. Install the Alcove GitHub App when you want adversarial PR review.
Hard checks vs soft facts
Hard checks are deterministic. Identical repo state yields an identical result. They may fail CI for impossible states — broken schema, impossible times, a configured hard limit, a missing required link.
Soft facts are review context. Walking distance, weather sensitivity, prestige, and “must-see” lists are not CI failures unless you configure a hard limit. A planning budget total is not a failure just because it looks large.
Hard checks must not encode taste.
How change happens
main is the accepted trip. Agents propose on branches. The traveler merges. A closed pull request is a rejected or deferred proposal — not something to hide by deleting history.
Material decisions land in the same commit as the state they change. Chat agreement is not a decision.
Evidence workspace
When a review concern needs work, open a typed Issue:
- Research — retrieve existing evidence for a specific open question; cite sources; stop when answered or unknown.
- Experiment — state one requirement-fit option and seriously attempt to falsify why it should work.
Link the parent pull request or unresolved review thread. Prefer primary sources.
What stays out of the public template
Traveler preferences, postmortems, and cross-trip lessons live in Alcove subject memory. The trip repo lists who is on the trip by opaque id only. A party of two on one journey does not automatically constrain a later solo trip.
Where Alcove fits
Alcove sells adversarial GitHub App review and hosted traveler memory. It does not become the planning frontend. It does not auto-merge. Deterministic CI and soft review remain different jobs.
You plan the trip. We try to break it before reality does.