Pack candidate: beads — version-controlled issue tracking

[arcaven]

Context

beads (gastownhall/beads) is a Go CLI providing version-controlled issue tracking with a Dolt database backend. It has 20k stars, rich edge types (17+), compaction/memory decay, and gate/await primitives for workflow control.

Part of: #9 (SDD system survey)
Ref: kos finding-042

System Profile

• Repo: gastownhall/beads
• Language: Go CLI
• Stars: 20k
• Fingerprint: .beads/ directory with Dolt database
• Storage: Dolt (versioned SQL — git-like semantics for database state)

Artifact Layout

.beads/
  <dolt database files>   # tool-managed, not sideshow-managed
AGENTS.md                 # generated agent configuration
.claude/
  hooks/                  # tracking hooks (similar to chainlink)
  rules/                  # agent rules

What Sideshow Would Manage

1. Configuration files — initial .beads/ config (not the Dolt database itself)
2. AGENTS.md generation — templates for agent configuration docs
3. Claude Code hooks — .claude/hooks/ for issue tracking enforcement
4. Rules — .claude/rules/ for agent behavior with beads

Sideshow would NOT manage the Dolt database — that is runtime state owned by the beads CLI.

Why This Is Interesting for Sideshow

beads has several features that make it a compelling pack candidate:

• AGENTS.md — beads generates an agent configuration document. Sideshow could manage the template that drives this generation
• Rich edge types (17+) — these define relationships between issues. The edge type vocabulary could be a managed configuration
• Compaction/memory decay — beads has built-in knowledge lifecycle, which aligns with kos's confidence tiers
• Gate/await primitives — workflow control that could integrate with marvel's scheduling

Implementation Notes

• Like chainlink, this exercises the hooks installation path
• The Dolt database is out of scope for sideshow
• beads and gastown are related (gastown uses beads) — supporting beads first establishes the pattern
• AGENTS.md template management is a new artifact type: sideshow manages the template, beads generates the output
• Version detection may require querying the Dolt database or a config file — needs investigation