Work Decomposition

Overview

Break high-level goals into MEOWs (Molecular Expressions of Work) - the fundamental atomic units in Gas Town. Each MEOW becomes a bead (git-backed work unit) or wisp (ephemeral task).

When to Use

• Before creating a convoy
• When a goal is too large for a single agent
• When parallel execution would benefit progress
• When work needs tracked attribution

Process

1. Analyze the goal and project context
2. Identify natural seams for decomposition
3. Create MEOWs with clear boundaries and dependencies
4. Classify as beads (persistent) or wisps (ephemeral)
5. Map dependencies between MEOWs
6. Estimate effort and assign priorities

Decomposition Principles

• Each MEOW should be completable by a single agent
• Dependencies should form a DAG (no cycles)
• Prefer more smaller beads over fewer larger ones
• Wisps for throwaway work (scaffolding, exploration)
• Every MEOW gets attribution tracking

Tool Use

Invoke via babysitter process: methodologies/gastown/gastown-orchestrator (analyze-work step)