Workpads

The record is the unit

Workpads is organized around the PADS model — Processes, Actions, Details, Story — and this model is stable. Every release of Workpads must preserve the integrity and completeness of the PADS structure. The encoding may be refined, the surfaces may multiply, the transports may vary. The four-component record shape does not change. It is the contract with every operator who has ever saved a job record in Workpads.

Offline and private by default

No account is required for baseline Workpads use. No network connection is required to create, edit, or share a record. Local-first behavior is the default; remote features are extensions, never prerequisites. Every release must maintain this: if connectivity drops, nothing breaks. If the Workpads service disappears, your records remain intact, readable, and portable. This commitment is not optional — it is the design parameter from which every other decision follows.

Shareability without friction

Job records encode as compact URLs that self-load on the receiver's end. No app download. No account on the receiving end. No data connection required. The encoding must remain transportable over SMS, email, or any text channel. Each release of Workpads must preserve or improve the compactness and self-loading property of share payloads. Coordination should be as lightweight as a text message — because for many of our users, it literally is.

BASICS conformance is not aspirational

Workpads is the reference implementation of the BASICS Standard. This means each release must meet BASICS Core tier conformance as a shipping requirement, not a future milestone. Where the standard evolves, Workpads evolves with it. Where Workpads exposes a gap in the standard, the gap is documented and the standard is updated. This feedback loop between reference implementation and specification is how BASICS remains a living framework rather than a document.

The CLI leads

The Workpads CLI is not a simplified version of the browser client. It is the reference client — the first implementation, the most complete, and the one against which all others are validated. Browser and mobile surfaces consume the same service contracts as the CLI. No surface may offer a capability the CLI does not. This discipline keeps the contract honest and prevents the gradual divergence that makes tool suites unmaintainable over time.

Compatibility across constraints

Workpads began with the hardest deployment target: KaiOS feature phones without touchscreens, navigated by D-pad, with limited JavaScript runtimes and intermittent SMS-only connectivity. Every release must maintain behavioral consistency across CLI, browser, and mobile surfaces — including on constrained devices. The constraints are features. A tool that works on a twenty-dollar phone over SMS is a tool that works everywhere.