Capture session-directory inference as a draft intent (itd-12)

.abcd/development/intents/drafts/itd-12-session-dir-inference.md

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+---
+id: itd-12
+slug: session-dir-inference
+spec_id: null
+kind: null
+suggested_kind: null
+reclassification_history: []
+builds_on: [itd-10]
+severity: minor
+---
+
+# `cd` Into a Session and Every Command Just Knows
+
+## Press Release
+
+> **Every `testimony` command now infers `-session` from where you are standing.** `cd sessions/2026-08-08_173038` and run `testimony report` with no flags — the command recognises the current directory as a session (it holds a `manifest.json`) and uses it directly. The explicit `-session DIR` flag still works and still wins when given, for scripts, CI, and anyone working from outside the session directory.
+>
+> "I kept re-typing or copy-pasting the same timestamped path into every command in a session's lifecycle," said Carol, running a full transcribe-merge-report-analyze-review pass. "Once I could just `cd` there once, the whole thing felt like working inside the session instead of aiming commands at it from a distance."
+
+## Why This Matters
+
+Every pipeline command (`transcribe`, `merge`, `report`, `analyze`, `review`) currently requires an explicit `-session DIR`, refused at a usage error when omitted. A single session's lifecycle runs several of these commands in sequence against the same directory, so the same path gets typed or pasted repeatedly — small friction on its own, compounding across a session and worse across many sessions in one sitting. `git`, and plenty of other directory-scoped CLIs, solve exactly this by inferring their working context from the current directory rather than requiring it named on every invocation. Pairing this with `itd-10`'s proposed fixed default session location makes the natural workflow "go to today's session, run the commands," rather than "look up and paste a path every time."
+
+## Why This Matters Less Without itd-10
+
+This intent stands on its own — inference from the current directory works regardless of where sessions live — but it compounds with `itd-10`: a fixed, predictable session root makes `cd`-ing to "the session I am working on right now" a short, memorable path rather than a long one buried under whatever directory happened to be current at capture time.
+
+## What's In Scope
+
+- When `-session` is omitted, each command checks whether the current working directory itself looks like a session directory (holds a `manifest.json`) and uses it if so.
+- An explicit `-session DIR` flag always overrides inference, unchanged from today — no behaviour change for existing scripts, CI, or anyone naming a session explicitly.
+- Applies uniformly across `transcribe`, `merge`, `report`, `analyze`, and `review` — the five commands that already require `-session`.
+- A clear usage error when neither an explicit flag nor a usable current directory is available, distinct from today's generic "-session is required" message, naming what was checked.
+
+## What's Out of Scope
+
+- Walking up parent directories looking for a session root (the way `git` searches upward for `.git`) — inference is limited to the exact current directory; a session directory that has been `cd`-ed into directly, not merely a descendant of one.
+- Any change to `record`/`demo`, which create sessions rather than operate on an existing one and take `-out`, a different flag with a different meaning.
+- Multiple candidate session directories in the current directory, or any kind of session selection UI — inference only applies when the current directory itself is unambiguously one session.
+
+## Acceptance Criteria
+
+- **Given** the operator's current directory contains a `manifest.json`, **when** a pipeline command runs with no `-session` flag, **then** it operates on the current directory exactly as if `-session .` had been given.
+- **Given** an explicit `-session DIR` flag, **when** a pipeline command runs from any directory, **then** the flag is used and the current directory is not consulted at all.
+- **Given** the operator's current directory does not contain a `manifest.json` and no `-session` flag is given, **then** the command refuses with a usage error naming that neither an explicit `-session` nor a usable current directory was found.
+
+## Open Questions
+
+- Should inference also cover `record`'s or `demo`'s own `-out` root (running from inside the sessions root rather than inside one specific session), or is that a different, unrelated ergonomic gap?
+- Does silently defaulting to the current directory risk a mistaken run against the wrong session for an operator who forgot which directory they were in — should the command print which session it inferred, every time, to make the implicit choice visible?
+
+## Audit Notes
+
+_Empty. Populated by intent-fidelity-reviewer when intent moves to shipped/._