Windsurf Context Management with InitRepo
Windsurf Context Management with InitRepo — from InitRepo, the AI project planning document generator.
Cascade with full context
Windsurf's Cascade agent works best when it understands your architecture. Planning documents give it the system knowledge to make coherent multi-file changes.
Flows that stay on-spec
Each Windsurf Flow has access to your user stories and acceptance criteria. It implements what the story requires and stops at the scope boundary.
Persistent project knowledge
InitRepo documents travel with your repository. Every Windsurf session starts with the same ground truth — no context rot across sessions.
Windsurf and context
Windsurf's Cascade agent is designed for multi-step, multi-file tasks — exactly the kind of work where context quality matters most. A Cascade flow that runs 20 steps needs coherent context throughout; without it, later steps contradict earlier ones as the agent loses track of the project's structure.
Structured planning documents give Cascade a stable reference it can consult at any step. The architecture spec answers "where does this belong in the system?"; the PRD answers "is this within scope?"; the user story answers "what exactly should this do?". With all three in context, Cascade makes consistent decisions across the full length of a flow.
Adding InitRepo documents to Windsurf
- 1Generate your planning suite — eight deliverables covering an execution blueprint, analysis, PRD, design, architecture, stories, roadmap, and a context index.
- 2Add the documents to your project's
docs/folder. Windsurf indexes files in the workspace automatically. - 3Reference the relevant document in your Cascade prompt: "Implement the user story in docs/user-stories.md section P2S3, following the architecture in docs/architecture.md."
- 4Windsurf reads the documents as part of the flow context and implements against the spec automatically.
The difference in practice
Cascade makes up your API surface
Cascade reads your architecture spec's API design section
Multi-file changes create inconsistencies
Planning documents provide a consistent reference across all files
Each flow starts from scratch
Documents persist — every flow starts from the same ground truth
Scope creep in long flows
User story acceptance criteria define the scope boundary
See the Windsurf integration guide for a detailed walkthrough, or context engineering for AI coding for the underlying methodology.