How do I know a project made of docs updates is finished?

Tares tells you through a question. After the last milestone, the orchestrator asks whether the project is finished, and when you answer that it is done, Tares marks the project Done with your words. It then moves the project to the finished list on the Crew page. Stopping the crew is a separate step, tares factory crew down.

How it works

A project made of docs updates finishes the same way as any project you hand to the software factory for Claude Code. The builders work through the tickets, the reviewer reviews each pull request, and the builder merges once the verdict passes and CI is green. The project is finished when you say so.

• The last milestone ends. When it does, the orchestrator brings you the choices the crew made on its own during it, as assumptions, in one question. You keep them or not.
• The orchestrator asks if the project is finished. You answer in the orchestrator’s session.
• You say it is done. Tares marks the project Done with those words, with every ticket merged, and moves it to the finished list on the Crew page.
• The orchestrator asks whether to stop the crew. This only happens when no project is left. It is a separate question from the one about the project.

The project page shows where you stand at any point. Across the top are four steps, Spec, Build, Review and Done, with a progress bar that has one segment per ticket. In the Tickets fold, each ticket shows one state: to do, in progress, in review, merged or blocked. A blocked ticket names the tickets it waits for. The GitHub fold lists the repos the project changes and their open and merged pull requests. Together these show whether the work is merged before you answer.

The full walk-through is in A project, end to end.

Set it up

1. Hand the project to the crew. If you have not set up the software factory yet, follow Get started. Plan the project from the repo with tares factory spec, followed by what you want to build.
2. Open the Crew page in the console, at http://127.0.0.1:8787/crew on a local Tares. The open project is listed under Projects, with its builders.
3. Open the project page and watch the progress bar. Each segment is one ticket, and the work is complete when every ticket is merged.
4. Answer the orchestrator’s questions in its session. The Decisions fold records each answer as you typed it, up to 4,000 characters. The Assumptions fold shows each choice the crew made on its own and whether you kept it.
5. When the orchestrator asks whether the project is finished, answer in your own words. In the example project, the person deployed the work first, then answered that it was fully deployed, working and done. Tares marked the project Done with those words.
6. Check the Crew page. The project now sits in the finished list, folded below the open projects.
7. When the orchestrator asks whether to stop the crew, stop it only if no project is left. This is the separate step:

tares factory crew down

This stops every station. Run tares factory crew up when you have the next project.

What you get

• A clear marker. The project page shows Done, and the project moves to the finished list on the Crew page.
• Your own words as the record. The sentence you used to close the project is stored with it, next to every other answer in the Decisions fold.
• A trail of the work. Every ticket, its pull request and its review rounds stay on the project page, and each assumption shows whether you kept it.
• Control over the crew. Marking the project Done does not stop the crew, so you can leave it running for the next project or stop it with tares factory crew down.
• Nothing lost on shutdown. Tares keeps the projects, tickets and answers when you stop the crew, so it carries on from them after crew up.

When something else fits

• If you want to pick a finished project up again, hand it to the crew again, for example with a follow-up spec. Marking it Done does not reopen it.
• If a station looks stuck rather than finished, check its state on the Crew page. A station that is Waiting for you stays stopped until you reply, and a Quiet one comes back with tares factory crew watch.

Related