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 pagesWhat 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: drain the Inbox, glance at the DORA-4 dashboard, top up Knowledge. The shape of every operator's day.
Setup
4 pagesQuick checklist
Eight steps for the operator's first hour — Sign in → Drain → Walk Process → Read DORA → Browse Knowledge → Audit → CLI.
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 is the smoothest path; Jira / GitHub Issues / GitLab / Azure DevOps supported.
The Navigator
4 pagesChat as the entry point
Navigator is the chat surface inside the console. It captures intent, drafts work, and hands artifacts to the pipeline.
Project-first planning
Intent capture starts at the project level. Show details discloses scope; explicit phrases switch modes.
Memory across threads
Per-message extraction. The /memory page in the console. 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 pagesThe eight states
Backlog → Planning → Executing → Reviewing → Awaiting input → Blocked → Closed (plus 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
Scheduled jobs that pick work, run autopsies, send daily retros. Event-driven dispatch replaces clock-based pickers.
Reading the process editor
Graph view of stages, agents, and edges. Where to edit lanes, where to attach specialists, where to add a stage.
Inbox
3 pagesDecision work, not notifications
Only items that need a human land here. Stuck PRs, orphan tickets, learning captures, daily retros — never the raw firehose.
Item types and routing
Stuck work · Improvement · Report · Learning capture · Daily retro. Each has its own routing rule and disposition path.
Disposition
Address, dismiss, or escalate. Every disposition is logged; nothing leaves the Inbox without a record.
Knowledge
3 pagesBuckets
The unit of grouping. Workspace, project, repo, user scopes. When to split, when to merge.
Sources and ingestion
Local markdown · GitHub repos · web pages. Scheduled ingestion with per-source cadence.
Distiller and review
Nothing publishes silently. Imported notes flow through routing, synthesis, and human review before they're queryable.
Analytics and audit
3 pagesDORA-4
Deployment frequency · lead time for changes · change failure rate · MTTR. Recomputed every render from real workspace data.
Live system
Single page · uptime % · last run · failure count · ingested today · routines · daily retro queue · specialists.
The audit log
Every workspace, member, integration, pipeline, repo, improvement, clarification, invite, and agent action. Filter and grep.
Local workbench
3 pagesshipctl
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 pagesGlossary
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.