Reference

Glossary

Action

A project-defined terminal command. Actions are markdown files in the Spruce project's actions/ folder. Running an action opens a terminal session in an artifact's worktree and executes its command. See Actions.

Artifact

A structured markdown document: feature, task, bug, chore, memo, or any custom type. Artifacts have frontmatter fields (status, priority, assignee, relationships) and a markdown body. See Artifact Types.

Base bundle

The built-in bundle that ships with Spruce, containing the default templates (feature / task / bug / chore / memo) and default views. New projects start from the base bundle.

Bundle

A packaged snapshot of templates, views, and actions, shared across projects or teams. Not a snapshot of artifacts. See Importing and Exporting Bundles.

Claim (comment)

An agent operation that marks a comment as being worked on. Shows a spinner in the UI with a short description of the work. Claims auto-release when the agent replies. See MCP Tools.

Code repository

A git repo with source code, linked to a Spruce project. A project can have zero, one, or many linked code repos. See Per-Project Settings.

Daemon (Spruce daemon)

A persistent background process that handles terminal PTYs and session state. Spawned on demand by the Spruce app; shuts down on app quit. See Spruce CLI.

Focus bar

The always-visible strip of artifact chips at the top of every page in Spruce. See The Focus Bar.

MCP tool

A function exposed over the Model Context Protocol that an AI agent can call to interact with Spruce (read artifacts, add comments, etc.). See MCP Tools.

Memo

The built-in artifact type that groups features into larger initiatives: Spruce's "epic" concept. See Artifact Types.

Nevermind

A one-click cancel for a comment that's been routed to a running agent. Posts a status line on the thread, signals the agent to stop via a [reply-cancelled] PTY tag, and returns the comment to the unrouted state so you can re-route or resolve. See Comments → Nevermind.

The Choose how to handle this comment menu Spruce shows under the reply box on an open comment that isn't already routed to an agent. Lists every running session on the artifact ("Send to <session>") and every forwarding-capable action defined in the project ("Start new <action>"). See Comments → The route menu.

Forwarding (comment forwarding)

An action's forward: [comment-added] setting that lets a running agent session absorb new user comments mid-loop, without re-launching the action. When no session is listening, Spruce instead surfaces a route menu (send to a running session, or start a new action). See Comments → Routing comments to agents.

Plan canvas

The shared underlying canvas (toolbar + board / list / grouped layouts) that every view (saved or by-type) renders on. There's no top-level "Plan page" you navigate to; opening a view is what gets you to the canvas. See the Filter, group, and sort section in Views.

Project (Spruce project)

A folder in your OS application-data directory that holds a plan: artifacts, templates, views, actions. Separate from any linked code repos. See The .spruce Directory.

Relationship

A field type on templates that links one artifact to another (e.g. a feature's tasks). See Relationship fields.

Start Working

Action on an artifact that creates a dedicated git branch and worktree in a linked code repo. See Branches and Worktrees.

Sync

Committing and pushing the Spruce project to its git remote. Scoped to the project, not any linked code repo. The sync menu lives in the sidebar header.

Template

A markdown file defining an artifact type's schema (fields, options, display). Templates live in the project's templates/ folder. See Editing Built-in Templates.

View

A named configuration of filters, group-by, sort, layout, and visible fields applied to your project's artifacts. Built-in views ship with new projects; custom views are saved as one markdown file per view in the views/ folder. See Views.

Worktree

An isolated git checkout of a branch, created for an artifact when you click Start Working. See Branches and Worktrees.

How Spruce Thinks — the concept map all these terms sit in.