Daily Workflow

Start every session the same way

A session that starts with recall inherits everything previous sessions learned:

etch_recall_project_memory     → digest + record brief first, always
etch_get_status                → availability, unsaved changes
etch_get_document_tree         → current document

If recall reports the digest stale (records advanced 10+ revisions or the digest is older than 7 days), refresh it near the end of the session with etch_write_project_digest.

Project Memory

Project Memory is a bounded, machine-local store keyed by one normalized site URL. Staging and production URLs are separate keys with separate records; moving between them is an explicit rebind, never an automatic merge.

Tool	Use
etch_recall_project_memory	Read the digest and brief. Always first.
etch_remember_project_memory	Store a confirmed Decision, Observation, or Reference the user stated.
etch_inspect_project_memory	Audit exactly what is stored, per project.
etch_correct_project_memory	Fix a stored record's payload under an expected revision.
etch_forget_project_memory	Delete one record or a confirmed aggregate.
etch_write_project_digest	Write/refresh the narrative digest (purpose, conventions, recent work, open threads).
etch_recover_project_memory	Explicitly rebind after a URL change, or quarantine a corrupt store.

What it stores: bounded, allowlisted facts - decisions, observations, references, a digest, and an activity log (the last 50 successful non-read operations per project). What it never stores: credentials, raw page payloads, or your user skill files. Successful non-read calls are appended to the activity log automatically, so a returning session can see what was recently done.

Two habits keep it healthy:

• Confirm before remembering. The tool stores user-confirmed statements, not agent guesses.
• If a staging site becomes production (or a domain changes), the agent runs a recover preview first and applies the rebind only after confirming the target is empty and both URLs are the same project.

ACSS-aware styling

On sites running Automatic.css, the agent should work in tokens, not invented values:

etch_detect_acss    → detected, version, stylesheet URLs, sample palette/scale variables

When detection reports ACSS, the bundled acss core skill takes over styling: variables first (var(--token)), the t-shirt spacing scale, the 7-step shade system, contextual backgrounds with automatic text color, the .scheme--dark + light-dark() dark-mode flow, and b:/s:/m:/l:/xl:/xxl: breakpoint prefixes.

Detection needs the builder tab to allow page probing. If AI tooling is connected in safe mode, etch_detect_acss reports that the sandbox withheld page access - switch the tooling to unsafe mode to enable detection, or confirm ACSS manually and let the agent read the bundled skill anyway. See Troubleshooting.

For global CSS - @keyframes, @property, @font-face, utility classes, root variables - the stylesheet tools persist immediately, so prefer them for site-wide CSS and buffered styles for document-specific rules.

Agent skills

The server ships skills that teach agents the correct Etch workflow, and your agent should read the core skill before its first edit on a site:

Skill	Contents
etchapi	The 13 block variants, safe block shapes, read-then-write flow, stylesheets, loops, components, CSS authoring rules.
acss	The ACSS token-first workflow and the full variable catalogue.

Your own conventions go into user skills - markdown files under mcp/skills/user/<slug>/SKILL.md, manageable through the tools (etch_create_local_skill, etch_update_local_skill, etch_validate_local_skills) or by hand. User skills are local to the machine and never leave it. etch_list_skills shows everything available.

Working across targets and documents

• Multiple tabs. Every builder tab with AI Connector clicked appears in etch_list_targets; the agent selects the working target explicitly. Different agents may work different targets simultaneously.
• Navigation. etch_go_to moves the builder between areas (builder, templates, style manager, content hub, loop manager, asset manager); etch_open_post / etch_open_template switch documents - refused while buffered changes are unsaved.
• History. etch_undo / etch_redo walk the document; undo is the always-available recovery from a bad apply, repeatable step by step.
• Color scheme. etch_get_color_scheme / etch_set_color_scheme keep generated style values matching your builder theme.

End-of-session routine

Before wrapping up a substantive session:

1. Save (or explicitly discard) any buffered document changes.
2. Store the session's durable facts with etch_remember_project_memory - confirmed decisions, observations, references.
3. Refresh the digest with etch_write_project_digest if recall flagged it stale or the session changed direction.

The next session on that site starts where this one ended.