wai /waɪ/
wai will enable AI-assisted software developers to recover the full context of a project not touched in 30+ days by reducing context-recovery time from 15 minutes to <2 minutes within 6 months (by February 2027), as measured by time from wai prime to correctly identifying the project's phase, purpose, and most recent decision, compared to reading git log, source comments, and README without wai.
wai — pronounced like "why" — is a command-line workflow manager for AI-driven development. It can also be read as "way", and that's intentional: the tool's focus is capturing why it was built that way.
Most specs define what to build. Wai extends the workflow to also inform — preserving the research, reasoning, and decisions that shaped the design. When you revisit a project months later, the spec tells you what exists; wai tells you why.
Organizes artifacts using the PARA method (Projects, Areas, Resources, Archives) with project phase tracking, agent config sync, handoff generation, and plugin integration.
Design Principles
- Desire Path Alignment — Pave the cowpaths, make common workflows shortest.
Example: wai status suggests the next command based on your current phase.
- Self-Healing Errors — Errors suggest fixes, not just report problems.
Example: wai doctor --fix auto-repairs common workspace issues.
- Progressive Disclosure — Simple by default, powerful when needed.
Example: -v/-vv/-vvv reveals progressively more detail.
- Context-Aware — Offer next steps based on current state.
Example: auto-detects git, beads, openspec — no configuration required.
Installation
Cargo (crates.io)
cargo install wai-cliInstalls the wai binary.