Snapshots

Snapshots are human-reviewable summaries of current workspace state. They help teams understand what TOW believes is important at a point in time, especially after onboarding, a major planning change, or a period of rapid activity.

A snapshot is not a replacement for Memory or Docs. It is a summary built from them.

Canonical state

Only an active snapshot represents trusted current snapshot state. A generated or pending-review snapshot is a draft until a person reviews and activates it.

When to use snapshots

Generate a snapshot when:

• Completing first workspace onboarding.
• Preparing for weekly or executive review.
• Starting or closing a major project.
• Reviewing strategy after a customer, fundraising, product, or technical change.
• Checking whether TOW's current understanding matches the team.
• Resetting the workspace after a period of noisy updates.

Snapshots are most useful when Memory has been reviewed first. If memory is stale, the generated snapshot may be stale too.

Snapshot types

The snapshot type describes the intended summary.

Common types include:

Type	Use for
current_company_state	The main baseline for company-wide context.
daily_summary	A shorter summary of recent operating state.
weekly_review	A periodic summary for leadership or team review.
cto_state	Technical architecture, model, data, infrastructure, and engineering context.
strategy_state	Priorities, market, positioning, risks, and non-goals.

The available types may expand as the workspace evolves. Choose the type that best matches the review you want to perform.

Generate a snapshot

To generate a snapshot:

1. Open Snapshots.
2. Choose a snapshot type.
3. Add an optional title if the default title is not specific enough.
4. Select the intended project scope, if this should be project-specific.
5. Select Generate snapshot.
6. Wait for Agent running to complete.

Generated snapshots usually start as generating and then move to pending_review. Review the body before activation.

AI-generated content

Generated snapshots use AI and active memory. They may summarize correctly, but they can also miss nuance, overstate certainty, or carry forward stale memory. Review every section before activation, especially sections about strategy, customers, technical architecture, finances, risks, compliance, or external commitments.

Edit before activation

Snapshot review is an editorial step. Treat the generated body as a draft.

During review:

• Remove unsupported claims.
• Change guesses to "Unknown" or a clearly labeled assumption.
• Add missing current priorities, blockers, risks, and decisions.
• Correct stale customer, roadmap, product, or technical details.
• Ensure each section is understandable to a new teammate.
• Keep the summary concise enough to scan.

If the generated snapshot exposes a memory problem, fix the source memory as well. Editing the snapshot improves the summary, but it does not automatically correct Memory.

Activate a snapshot

Activate a snapshot only after it accurately represents the intended company or project state.

When a snapshot is activated:

• Its status becomes active.
• It becomes the current trusted snapshot for that type and scope.
• The previous active snapshot of the same type and scope is marked superseded.
• The activation time becomes the new valid-from date.

Activation is a deliberate review action. It turns a draft summary into trusted workspace context.

Snapshot statuses

Status	Meaning
generating	TOW is creating the draft snapshot.
pending_review	The draft is ready for human review.
active	The snapshot is trusted current state for its type and scope.
superseded	A newer active snapshot replaced it.

If a snapshot remains in generating, check the Agent Run status and refresh after processing completes.

Project snapshots

Snapshots can be organization-wide or project-specific.

Use an organization snapshot when the summary should describe company-wide priorities, risks, customers, product direction, and operating context.

Use a project snapshot when the summary should describe one initiative, customer implementation, product area, or team workspace.

Project scope

Confirm scope before generating or activating a snapshot. A project snapshot should not be used as the company baseline, and a company snapshot may include context that is too broad for a project review.

What to check in a snapshot

Before activation, ask:

• Does this reflect the company or project as it stands today?
• Are priorities and non-goals clear?
• Are risks, blockers, and open decisions current?
• Are customer, product, technical, data, model, and evaluation sections accurate?
• Are unsupported areas marked as unknown?
• Did stale or archived memory influence the summary?
• Would a new teammate understand what matters after reading it?

If the answer is no, edit the snapshot and correct the source memory or docs that caused the issue.

Source memory

Snapshots track the memory items used to generate them. Those source memory IDs help explain why a summary said what it said.

Use source memory when:

• A snapshot statement seems surprising.
• You need to audit where a claim came from.
• You are comparing a current snapshot with an earlier one.
• You want to correct stale assumptions at the source.

Do not rely only on the snapshot body for high-impact decisions. Open the supporting memory, docs, decisions, risks, or tickets when the decision matters.

Maintenance rhythm

Enterprise teams usually get the most value from a predictable snapshot rhythm:

• Generate after onboarding.
• Regenerate before weekly or monthly operating review.
• Regenerate after major strategy, customer, product, technical, or staffing changes.
• Compare active and superseded snapshots when explaining why priorities changed.
• Keep Memory clean so generated snapshots stay useful.

Snapshots are a review tool. Their value comes from the combination of AI summarization and human activation.