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Operational workflows — release checklists, health patrols, diagnostics — create beads that are worthless the moment they close. Wisps are molecules instantiated in the vapor phase: real beads you work through normally, flagged Ephemeral=true so they stay out of sync and can be deleted wholesale later.

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What are Wisps?

  • Issues in the main database with the ephemeral flag set — worked on with normal bd commands.
  • Local by design: excluded from federation push by default (federation.exclude_types defaults to [wisp]) and not part of the shared audit trail.
  • Deleted in bulk by bd purge or bd mol wisp gc once closed.

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Wisp vs Pour

AspectMolecule (bd mol pour)Wisp (bd mol wisp)
Persistencepermanent, part of historyephemeral, purged when done
Syncsynced like any beadexcluded from federation push
Use casefeature work, anything worth referencing laterrelease runs, operational loops, health checks
Formulas can declare phase = "vapor" to recommend wisp instantiation — pouring a vapor-phase formula warns.

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The Wisp Lifecycle

# 1. Create — from a proto, or ad-hoc
bd mol wisp <proto-id> [--var key=value]
bd create "One-off check" --ephemeral

# 2. Execute — normal bd operations work on wisp issues
bd ready --mol <wisp-id>
bd update <id> --claim
bd close <id>

# 3a. Keep it after all: squash promotes to persistent (clears the flag)
bd mol squash <wisp-id>

# 3b. Or burn: delete without creating a digest
bd mol burn <wisp-id>

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Managing Wisps

bd mol wisp list      # list all wisps in the current context
bd mol wisp gc        # garbage collect old/abandoned wisps
bd purge --force      # delete all closed ephemeral beads

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Forcing a Phase

bd mol bond accepts phase overrides when combining work: 
bd mol bond mol-critical-bug wisp-patrol --pour   # persist a bug found during a patrol

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Best Practices

  1. Wisps for operational loops — patrols, release runs, diagnostics.
  2. Molecules for tracked work — anything with audit value gets poured, not wisped.
  3. Squash before you delete — if a wisp surfaced something durable, bd mol squash promotes it; burning is irreversible.
  4. Garbage collect regularly — bd mol wisp gc or bd purge --force.