Multi-portfolio / multi-repo intents — track work that spans multiple systems

[jwaldrip]

Context

Haiku currently models intents as single-repo. An intent lives in one git repo, with one branch, one set of stages. State lives in .haiku/intents/{slug}/.

Real-world feature work often spans repos: frontend + backend, firmware + control plane, multiple microservices. There's no native way to model "this one intent crosses repo A and repo B."

Status

Tracked as future work. Quote from @jwaldrip:

"haiku has plans for multi portfolio stances that are designed to work across a number of systems, but nothing is implemented today. haiku tries not to stay opinionated about the underlying storage engine."

So the shape is intentionally not pinned to git/Linear/etc — it should work across N storage backends.

Reference implementation — Forge workspaces / umbrella mode

Forge implements multi-repo intents via "workspaces":

Bun-style umbrella. One .forge/domain.yml declares N child repos:

workspaces:
  - ./service-a
  - ./service-b

Each workspace is independent (own .git, own .forge/). 1 intent = 1 branch name across N repos. ensureBranch(workspaceAbs, intentSlug) creates idempotent branches in each workspace touched. Temper opens 1 PR per workspace; intent only closes when all PRs are OPEN or MERGED.

Sources:

• forge .forge/wiki/concepts/workspaces-umbrella.md
• forge .forge/wiki/concepts/cross-cwd-dispatch.md

What haiku might want

• Declare "this intent spans these N storage backends / repos / services" without coupling to a specific underlying system
• Branch invariant: 1 intent = 1 branch name (per repo if git-backed)
• Cross-repo gate aggregation: intent doesn't complete until all per-repo gates pass
• Cross-repo state aggregation (read-only or owning, given haiku's storage-agnostic stance)
• Review UI surfaces multi-repo work coherently

Open questions

• Forge's "one umbrella declares N children" pattern, or intent-declared repo list, or something else?
• Interaction with discrete vs continuous mode branches?
• How does the review/browse UI render N parallel repos?
• Storage backends beyond git — Linear, Jira, internal portfolio systems?

cc @juscyllan — forge has a working implementation; would love your input on what worked vs what was painful, and potentially direct contribution.