The Engine Room — Handover

Team Handover • January 2026

Project Handover

The Engine Room

Business Operating System for AI-first teams

POC StageJanuary 2026From: Tim

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Agenda

What We'll Cover

~30 minute walkthrough

1
The Big Concern
Why this handover includes a warning
5 min
2
What We Built
Overview of the system and current state
10 min
3
Codebase Tour
Where things live and how to navigate
5 min
4
Open Questions
Blockers and decisions needed
5 min
5
Your First Week
What we need from you
5 min

Full document: catalyst/HANDOVER.md

The Big Concern

We built features,
not user experiences.

What We Built

  • •Knowledge hierarchy + drift detection
  • •Triage queue, chat, quick capture
  • •Real-time presence & collaboration
  • •Calendar + Google integration
  • •Filter/thesis evaluation system

What We Missed

  • •"What does a user DO?"
  • •Clear entry points
  • •Feature boundaries
  • •The smallest valuable loop

Your First Job

Not to finish features — to validate we're building the right thing.

A Possible Reframe

Maybe It's Just Three Actions

Tell

"Here's what happened in my meeting"

Ask

"What should I focus on?"

See

"Here's what's drifting"

"The Engine Room keeps you aligned."

Everything else is implementation detail.

What We Built

Four Build Phases

Phase 1

Foundation

Complete
  • Module scaffold, types, constants
  • Database migrations (prepared)
  • Mock data layer with seed data
Phase 2

Command Centre Core

Complete
  • Unified shell, triage queue, chat
  • Quick capture + activity feed
  • Detail pages (CC-01 to CC-12)
Phase 3

CC Enhancements

In Review
  • Mode toggle, widgets, alignment
  • Presence, live updates, collaboration
  • Calendar, Google auth (CC-13 to CC-25)
Phase 4

Filter/Thesis

In Review
  • Thesis editor & viewer
  • Engine, Talk, Gatekeeper integration
  • Audit system (Filter-01 to Filter-05)

Entity → Vision → Goals → Workstreams → Tasks + Context + Conversations

Codebase Tour

Where Things Live

Key Folders

app/(app)/app/ → Routes

modules/engine/ → Business logic

modules/engine/types.ts → All types

modules/engine/data/ → Data access

catalyst/ → Project docs

Tech Stack

Next.js 15 (App Router)
React 19 + TypeScript
Tailwind CSS 4 + shadcn/ui
Supabase (database + auth)
pnpm (package manager)
pnpm install && pnpm dev

Then visit localhost:3000/app

Open Questions

Needs Your Input

Blocking

Ripple Integration

We don't know what the AI backend can do. All AI code is placeholder.

Blocking

Data Model

Are workstreams necessary? My lean: flatten to Goals → Tasks.

Unclear

Context Orchestration

Complex system built before we have a working AI backend.

Unclear

Filter/Thesis System

Now built (Filter-01-05). Does it belong with Engine or separate?

Your First Week

Understand, Don't Build

Day 1

Walk through /app end-to-end

Day 2

Read vision & experience docs

Day 3

Review 3 briefs + implementation

Day 4

Write down what confuses you

Day 5

Draft answers to 5 questions

The 5 Questions

1. What's the one thing we should ship first?

2. What should we delete or defer?

3. Where do feature boundaries need redrawing?

4. What user problem are we solving?

5. Would you use this? Why or why not?

Question Everything.

The best outcome might be that you tell us to throw half of it away and start simpler.

Welcome to the Engine Room.

Let's figure out if it's the right thing to build.

— Tim