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Flow Awareness

Flow Awareness enriches the agent’s context with a timeline of recent file activity from the current BMO session and a summary of recent terminal output captured in that session.

[options.flow_awareness]
enabled = true
max_file_events = 20
terminal_summary_max_chars = 2000
include_clipboard = true
clipboard_max_chars = 500
timeline_format = "separate" # or "unified"
OptionDefaultDescription
enabledfalseEnable flow awareness
max_file_events20Maximum file-change events to include per turn (0–100)
terminal_summary_max_chars2000Maximum characters of terminal output summary (0–10000)
include_clipboardfalseInclude a snippet of clipboard text in the dev-timeline when available
clipboard_max_chars500Maximum characters of clipboard snippet (0–5000)
timeline_format"separate"separate (default) or unified — unified emits one labeled stream (file/terminal/clipboard)

At the start of each agent turn, BMO prepends to the prompt:

  • A list of recent file activity from the session, including reads and tool-driven writes/edits when available
  • A truncated summary of recent terminal output from Bash tool calls in the session
  • Optionally, a snippet of current clipboard text (when include_clipboard is true)
  • Active development — agent stays aware of recent files you viewed or changed in BMO without you narrating them again
  • Debugging sessions — agent sees recent terminal errors as context
  • Clipboard snippet — when enabled, the agent sees what you have copied (e.g. code or error text) for context
  • Unified timeline — use timeline_format = "unified" for a single labeled stream (Cascade-style)
SurfacePurpose
bmo config show-flow-awarenessEffective config + in-process telemetry ring (metadata only)
/flow-awareness (TUI)Same ring snapshot in-session
list_recent_flow_awareness_eventsAgent tool JSON export of recent gather/timeline arms
bmo logs … | jq 'select(.msg|startswith("flow_awareness."))'Log forensics — see tracing

There is no HTTP/MCP/API to read the full dev-timeline body — injection stays prompt-only by design.

Maintainer scope, non-goals, and re-entry workflow: Workflow — Flow awareness in the product docs.