sample-project

Sample Project — a tiny todo CLI

This is the practice substrate for the methodology tutorials. It is intentionally small, plain, and throwaway: a stdlib-only Python todo-list CLI with a real test suite and a short backlog. You will run real methodology sessions against it.

It ships without any methodology files (no SESSION_RUNNER.md, no CLAUDE.md, no BACKLOG.md-as-task-tracker). Installing the framework onto this project is exactly what you do in Tutorial 1 — see ../README.md for the series index.

Try it

cd docs/tutorials/sample-project

python3 todo.py add "write the report"
python3 todo.py add "submit the report"
python3 todo.py list

State is stored in todos.json in the current directory (override with --file PATH or the TODO_STORE env var). todos.json is throwaway — delete it any time.

The build equivalent (run this after every change)

python -m pytest        # the runner the tutorials document
python -m unittest      # stdlib fallback — zero dependencies

Both should report all tests passing. In methodology terms this is your build equivalent: green tests are the gate, not "it ran once on my machine."

What's deliberately missing

The CLI has add and list but no way to mark a task done — even though each task already carries a done flag. Wiring up todo done <id> is the first feature you build, end-to-end, in Tutorial 2. The backlog lists the rest, including a couple of rough edges that Tutorial 5 uses as cautionary cases. Don't fix everything at once — that's the whole point.