When the process is judgment, not rules.

The top-ranked definitions (IBM, Atlassian, SAP, UiPath, Microsoft) treat it as orchestrating rule-based workflows: BPMN flows, RPA recorders, trigger-action logic. That framing covers maybe 30 percent of a real consulting process. The other 70 percent is unwritten judgment: an opening line phrased in your voice, an assistant cc'd at a specific contract threshold, a follow-up cadence tuned by the client. Clone's approach is to treat these unwritten rules as first-class by observing past examples and saving the pattern as a ritual.

Open src/components/how-it-works.tsx, lines 42-59. Step 03, titled "It learns your way of working," contains the canonical example. Clone reads the user's last 12 kickoff emails, surfaces three observed rules (personal opening line, SOW PDF attachment, cc when contract is $10K or above), asks the single yes-or-no question "Should I apply this template going forward?", and on yes saves the ritual as default-kickoff. The architecture backing for this is on lines 51-54 of src/components/architecture.tsx, principle 2, "Your workflows, your voice."

RPA records a single execution and replays it. If the execution you recorded was a bad day, the bot has a bad day forever. Clone's Step 03 does the opposite: it observes a dozen executions and extracts the repeating structure, then asks you to confirm the pattern. It surfaces the rule, not the keystrokes. The output is a human-readable ritual file, not an opaque replay script. A macro does what you did once. A ritual does what you consistently do.

It is the exact number in the code, not a marketing round. how-it-works.tsx literally says "your last 12 kickoff emails." Twelve is large enough for a pattern to emerge across typical consulting variation (new vs. returning client, different industries, different contract sizes) and small enough to stay inside a recent window where your voice and style are current. In practice, Step 03 runs on whatever slice of recent history is coherent, with 12 as the anchor example in the docs.

Yes, the ritual is a plain markdown file under ~/.clone/memory/rituals on your machine. Open it in any editor. Change the cc threshold from $10K to $15K, or add a new rule, save, and the next run uses the new version. No recompile, no redeploy, no canvas. The fact that the ritual is a file, not a row in a vendor database, is deliberate. It means the process belongs to you, can be read by a successor, and survives any change in the rest of your stack.

You say no to the single save prompt. The ritual never gets written. Nothing happens. You can also accept the pattern with corrections: "save it, but change the cc rule to >= $15K, not $10K." Clone edits the draft and writes the ritual with your correction. The whole interaction is reversible by design, per principle 4 in architecture.tsx. A wrong pattern has the same cost as a wrong email draft: you edit, you move on.

Any process that happens repeatedly in tools Clone can see. The Step 03 example in how-it-works.tsx uses kickoff emails because it is the easiest pattern to explain in a single code block. The same observe-and-codify loop runs on weekly invoicing, client check-ins, CRM updates from call transcripts, SOW drafting from proposal templates, and monthly billable-hours reports. Anywhere you do the same thing a dozen times with small unwritten variations, Clone can surface the variations and save the ritual.

Three things. First, the input surface: a Zap is a graph you build, a ritual is a pattern Clone extracts from observation. Second, the storage: a Zap is a row in a vendor database, a ritual is a local file you own. Third, the semantics: a Zap describes triggers and actions in terms of vendor APIs, a ritual describes an intent and a short list of observed rules in English. A Zap says "on row added, call API, parse response." A ritual says "on a signed SOW, open Gmail, open with a personal line, attach the SOW PDF, cc the assistant if the contract is above $10K."

The Planner layer (architecture.tsx line 13-16) reads your intent from the sentence you typed. If you said "automate my kickoff emails," the Planner asks Gmail for threads that look like post-signature handoffs: first reply after a signed document, a subject line referencing a project name for the first time, or a thread opened within 24 hours of a new CRM deal entering a won stage. It presents what it picked and you confirm or adjust before it starts observing. The 12-emails reading happens after the set is correct.

Structurally, yes. Principle 1 of the architecture is "Runs on your machine." Client files, contracts, emails, and transcripts never leave your computer. Clone's Planner makes the decisions but never ships the content of the emails it read to a vendor cloud. For a solo consultant serving healthcare, legal, or financial clients, that local-only posture is not a privacy preference, it is usually a contractual requirement. Traditional cloud BPA tools route the payload through their servers by design.

Install Clone, pick one process you do at least weekly, and ask Clone to observe it. Weekly invoicing is the most common first ritual. Clone reads your last handful of invoice runs, surfaces the rules you forgot you had (which clients get sent on which days, which rate to apply, when to use the retainer template vs. hourly), and asks to save the ritual. Ten minutes of watching, one prompt to confirm, and the next Monday's invoicing runs on a named ritual on your laptop. $49/mo, 21 days free.