Groundwork Lite: Giving Your AI Assistant a Memory
David Balzan·March 1, 2026·3 min read
I've lost count of how many times I've started a coding session and had to re-explain the entire project to my AI assistant.
"What are we building again?" "Where did we leave off?" "What's already done and what's next?"
The assistant is incredibly capable — it just has no memory between sessions. So every time you open a new chat, you're back to square one. That friction adds up fast.
The Backstory
A while ago I built a much bigger system for myself — a full development methodology with 11 slash commands, templates, decision logs, and a fairly detailed playbook. It worked great for my own projects.
But when I tried showing it to other people, the reaction was almost always the same: "This is… a lot."
So I took a step back and did what any sensible builder would do: I stripped it down to the five commands I actually use every single day. That's how Groundwork Lite was born — the essential core, nothing more.
What Groundwork Lite Actually Is
It's a clean production-ready monorepo starter (React 19 + Hono + Turborepo) with a tiny AI workflow layer on top.
The whole idea is simple: five plain slash commands that read and write normal Markdown files. That's it. Your AI assistant suddenly remembers the project, the current phase, what's done, and what's next — without you having to repeat yourself.
It works with Claude Code, Cursor, and VS Code Copilot. No plugins, no extensions, no lock-in.
How It Works
The magic is surprisingly simple.
Instead of relying on chat history (which gets messy and expensive), everything important lives in a few small Markdown files that both you and the AI can read and update.
The loop looks like this:
/start-session → you code → /check-task → /update-focus → next day → /start-session again
- CURRENT_FOCUS.md remembers exactly where you left off
- PRODUCTION_ROADMAP.md keeps the big picture alive
- Phase folders hold detailed task checklists
It feels like your AI finally has a notebook it actually checks.
The 5 Commands
| Command | What it does | When you use it |
|---|---|---|
/kickstart | Sets up your project docs and roadmap | First time on a new project |
/plan-phase | Creates a clear task list for the current phase | Start of every new phase |
/start-session | Loads everything the AI needs to know right now | Beginning of every coding session |
/check-task | Marks tasks complete and updates progress | After finishing something |
/update-focus | Saves what you got done and what's next | End of a session |
That's literally the entire workflow.
The Stack
It comes with a solid, modern monorepo out of the box:
- React 19 + Vite 6 (frontend)
- Hono 4 (lightweight API)
- Turborepo 2 (monorepo tooling)
- TypeScript 5 + Tailwind 4
Everything is ready to go — no weird config, no missing pieces.
Why Plain Markdown Files?
Because they're the most reliable memory we have.
- The AI reads them quickly (low token cost)
- You can open and edit them yourself anytime
- They work in every IDE and every tool
- They live in git, so your progress is versioned and safe
No databases, no special formats, no lock-in. Just files.
Try It
It takes about two minutes to get running:
git clone https://github.com/davidbalzan/groundwork-ai-lite.git cd groundwork-ai-lite pnpm install && pnpm dev