Now-Next Methodology

January 15, 2026 · View on GitHub

Keep your AI on track across sessions with two simple files: NOW.md + /next command

🚀 Setup

Claude Code:

curl -o ~/.claude/commands/setup-now-next.md https://raw.githubusercontent.com/soutone/now-next-methodology/main/templates/claude-code/setup-now-next.md

OpenCode:

curl -o ~/.config/opencode/command/setup-now-next.md https://raw.githubusercontent.com/soutone/now-next-methodology/main/templates/opencode/setup-now-next.md

Then in any project:

/setup-now-next

💡 How It Works

NOW.md tracks your project state:

  • Recent accomplishments (what got done)
  • Current status (where you are)
  • Next steps (what to do next)

/next tells your AI to:

  1. Read NOW.md
  2. Pick the next task
  3. Implement + test it
  4. Update NOW.md
  5. Commit changes

Your AI maintains context across sessions. No more "what were we working on?"

✨ Daily Workflow

You: /next
AI: [reads NOW.md, implements feature, updates state, commits]
AI: ✅ Done! Added user authentication. Next: password reset

You: /next
AI: [continues from where it left off...]

That's it. Just run /next whenever you want to continue development.

🎯 Real Projects Using This

🔧 Customization

The templates are starting points. Edit NOW.md sections to fit your needs:

  • Add metrics, dependencies, architecture decisions
  • Remove sections you don't need
  • Change commit formats in /next command
  • Adapt to your tech stack

See templates/ for the files that get created.

🤔 Why This Works

AI assistants are great at executing but can't remember state between sessions.

NOW.md externalizes that state into a markdown file both you and the AI can read.

Simple pattern that works.

🤝 Contributing

Found this useful?

📄 License

MIT - Use it however you want.

Just a workflow that worked for me. Hope it helps you too.

If it does, ⭐ the repo!