Ship docs

The lookup. Not the rationale.

Reference for the Ship console grouped by surface, in the order you'll meet them. The Navigator captures intent, the Process walks it, the Inbox catches what needs a human, the Audit log records the rest. For the long‑form rationale, read the book.

Most reference pages are stubs while we rewrite them for the May 2026 surface. The outline below is settled; prose lands as the open epics close.

Orientation

3 pages

What Ship is

A workspace for AI-assisted product delivery. Humans own intent, agents act inside fences, every action leaves a trail.

Vocabulary

Workspace · Navigator · Inbox · process · specialist · routine · artifact · knowledge · evidence — the words you'll meet on every screen.

A day in Ship

Morning: open your own agent over MCP, work the decisions, spot-check the trail. The console hub is the thin surface you glance at.

Setup

4 pages

Quick checklist

The operator's first hour — sign in → connect your agent over MCP → bind a tracker → walk Process → work the first decisions.

Workspaces and access

Sign-in, workspaces as the tenancy unit, roles, last-owner protection, switching contexts.

Connect a repo

Install the Ship GitHub App, pick activated repos, understand the two-layer install/activation split.

Bind a tracker

One tracker per workspace. Linear and GitHub Issues are live today; Jira / GitLab / Azure DevOps are coming soon.

The Navigator

4 pages

The Navigator chat (fallback)

Your own agent over MCP is the front door; the console chat is the fallback surface for capturing intent and drafting work.

Project-first planning

Intent capture starts at the project level. Show details discloses scope; explicit phrases switch modes.

Memory across threads

Per-message extraction. Prior memories surface inline in chat. What gets remembered, what doesn't, and how to forget.

Switching and exiting drafts

Mid-thread intent flips: Switch keeps context, Exit clears the draft. The inline CTA confirms.

Process

4 pages

The seven states

Backlog → Planning → Executing → Reviewing → Awaiting input → Blocked → Closed, connected by a Default flow. One ticket walks them in order.

Specialists and bundles

Named agent roles attached to states. Implementation specialist, Validation bundle, Code review, Planning bundle.

Routines

Recurring work bound to process stages — most fire when the tracker FSM enters their stage; a few stay time-scheduled (digest, retro). Event-driven dispatch, not a clock-based picker.

Reading the process editor

The flat list of processes; open one for the flow view of stages, agents, and edges. Where to attach specialists, where to add a stage.

Inbox

3 pages

Decision work, not notifications

Only items that need a human: clarifications, approvals, failures, blockers. Worked through your agent (inbox_* tools) and the /approve page — never a raw firehose.

Item types and routing

Three tiers — clarification/approval; failure/blocker/exception; improvement/stuck/report. Each has its own routing rule and disposition path.

Disposition

Resolve, approve/reject, acknowledge, or dismiss — over MCP (approval_echo) or the web /approve/{id} page. Every disposition is logged.

Knowledge

3 pages

Buckets

The unit of grouping, served by per-workspace Lighthouse. Workspace and project scopes; repo scope is legacy read-only. When to split, when to merge.

Sources and ingestion

Import sources — GitHub repos · web pages · file upload · Notion/Confluence. Automatic schedule plus on-demand runs.

Distiller and review

Nothing publishes silently. Imported notes flow through routing, synthesis, and human review before they're queryable.

Analytics and audit

3 pages

DORA-4

Deployment frequency · lead time for changes · change failure rate · MTTR. No built-in page — read them against your run and PR data.

Live system

Real-time workspace state — the home dashboard priorities feed and the dashboard_get MCP tool. No standalone Analytics page.

The audit log

Every workspace, member, integration, pipeline, repo, improvement, clarification, invite, and agent action. Filter and grep.

Local workbench

3 pages

shipctl

Local CLI. Pull bundles, fetch knowledge, send feedback, work offline against a memory adapter. Read-only from the server's view.

The .ship folder

What lives in your repo: knowledge starters, policies, bundles. The single sanctioned write path is the harvester.

Local sandbox

Laptop-offline profile. The path for running Ship without a network round-trip.

Reference

3 pages

Glossary

Every term in the manual, alphabetical. Cross-linked to the chapter where it first matters.

Troubleshooting

Common symptoms (Inbox is empty · routine missed · agent stuck) and the first three things to check.

Changelog

Dated releases. What changed, what broke, what's still being calibrated.