Idea Garden
How Trellis detects abandoned work and makes every exploration a reusable asset.
Overview
The Idea Garden is one of Trellis' most distinctive features. It automatically detects abandoned work — context switches, stale branches, reverted changes — and makes them discoverable and revivable.
Detection Heuristics
| Heuristic | Trigger | Signal |
|---|---|---|
contextSwitchDetector | File-set pivot | Ops in unrelated dirs followed by a context switch away |
revertDetector | Complementary ops | Ops undone by a subsequent inverse (add→delete, modify→revert) |
staleBranchDetector | Time + no milestone | Ops on non-main branches untouched >7 days without a milestone |
Using the Garden
# List all clusters
trellis garden list
# Filter by status or file
trellis garden list --status abandoned --file auth.ts
# Search by keyword
trellis garden search --keyword "authentication"
# Inspect a specific cluster
trellis garden show <cluster-id>
# Revive a cluster into a new branch
trellis garden revive <cluster-id>
# Statistics
trellis garden stats
# { total: 12, abandoned: 7, draft: 3, revived: 2, totalOps: 156, totalFiles: 23 }
Best Practice
Before starting new work, check the garden:
trellis garden list
trellis garden search -k "parser"
Someone (including past-you) may have already explored the problem space.