Cultivating software in proportion
Bonsai is a read-only practice for observing and stewarding software portfolios over long periods of time.
Rather than optimizing for activity, output, or popularity, Bonsai helps developers understand their projects in terms of intent, structure, change, and fit. It exists to support pruning, preservation, deliberate inaction, and long-horizon care.
Bonsai treats software projects as living systems. Growth is not assumed to be good. Activity is not assumed to be progress.
- A portfolio-level lens for understanding code over time
- A way to notice drift, excess, stagnation, and quiet completion
- An alternative to social trust signals like stars or hype
- A tool for deciding what to leave alone
- A productivity tool
- A task, issue, or project manager
- A replacement for GitHub, GitLab, or git itself
- A scoring, ranking, or gamification system
- A system that demands attention or action
Bonsai is observational, not corrective.
Bonsai evaluates projects through a simple, fixed lens:
Intent → Shape → Motion → Fit → Action (or Inaction)
- Intent — what the project claims to be
- Shape — what the code looks like
- Motion — how it changes over time
- Fit — alignment between intent, shape, and motion
- Action — prune, preserve, freeze, split, archive… or do nothing
Inaction is a valid and often correct outcome.
- Growth is not inherently good
- Stability is not neglect
- Popularity is not health
- Maintenance is a form of care
- Restraint is a design choice
This project is in Phase 0.
No UI.
No automation.
No recommendations.
The current focus is defining the model, language, and constraints before any implementation.
TBD