PFI Language

A plain guide to the words we use

PFI (Phoenix Flow Index)

PFI stands for Phoenix Flow Index — the name of this instrument.

PFI is short for Phoenix Flow Index. It reads a small set of signals about your capacity and your circumstances, turns them into a Flow Read and a Band, and carries them forward cycle by cycle, so the support you get follows where you actually are.

Flow Read

A 0 to 10 trend signal of stability plus load, not a grade.

Your Flow Read is a single number between 0 and 10 that combines how steady your capacity signals are with how much load you are carrying. It is a trend signal used to choose the smallest effective next step, not a mood score, a performance score, or a diagnosis.

Flow Band

The plain-language range your Flow Read sits in.

Bands group your overall Flow Read into a range (Critical, Strained, Stable) so the guidance can change shape, not just size. Individual signals show what is contributing to the score; they do not lower the Band independently.

Signal

One thing the baseline measures, like sleep or attention.

A signal is a single measured area, such as sleep, nervous system load, recovery, body basics, attention, boundaries, transition load, or belonging. Signals are read together; no single answer decides your reading on its own.

Capacity signal

A signal about your internal resources right now.

Capacity signals cover sleep, nervous system load, recovery, body basics, attention, and boundaries. They must all be clearly clear before the instrument will suggest pushing rather than stabilising.

Context signal

A signal about your circumstances, not your body.

Context signals cover transition load and belonging buffer, things happening around you. They are held to a gentler threshold than capacity signals, because circumstances often shift faster than physiology.

Driver

A signal currently pulling your reading down the most.

Drivers are the signals most limiting your Flow right now, ranked. They tell you where a small change would have the largest effect this cycle.

Stabiliser

A signal currently holding you steady.

Stabilisers are the signals that are working. They are named so your next step is designed not to spend them.

Limiter

The single most limiting signal in this reading.

The limiter is the signal most constraining you right now. It is what the instrument treats as the bottleneck, and it decides which kind of support the instrument points you toward.

Cycle

A 14-day window with a small, fixed set of commitments.

A Cycle is a bounded 14-day period holding three anchors, one commitment, and a few micro-actions. It ends on a date, so it can be finished rather than carried indefinitely.

Anchor

A steady daily behaviour that keeps the cycle upright.

Anchors are two or three small, repeatable behaviours you keep regardless of how the week goes. They are maintenance, not ambition, and they are chosen to protect what is already stable.

Commitment

The one thing this cycle is actually about.

The commitment is a single sentence naming the change this cycle is for. If everything else slips, this is the line you return to.

Lever

One focused change to try for 7 days.

A lever is the single change most likely to move your limiter within a week. It is deliberately narrow so you can tell whether it worked.

Micro-action

A very small step, doable on a hard day.

Micro-actions are the smallest concrete versions of your anchors and lever, sized so a difficult day does not break the cycle.

MVC floor

The minimum version that still counts.

Your minimum viable commitment floor is what you do on your worst day and still call the day kept. It exists so continuity survives bad weeks.

Stop rule

A pre-agreed sign to ease off.

Stop rules are written in advance so you do not have to decide mid-week whether to back off. When one is met, you reduce load rather than pushing through.

Phase

Recover, Stabilise, or Push, the posture for this cycle.

Phase names the shape of the work: Recover reduces load, Stabilise builds repeatability, and Push only appears when every capacity signal is clearly clear.

Weekly Flow Pulse

A short weekly check-in that keeps the cycle held.

A Pulse is a brief weekly reading that updates your focus and history so the cycle stays held rather than abandoned. During Runway, you can log up to two Weekly Flow Pulses.

Daily Flow Signal

An optional quick signal you can log between Weekly Pulses.

A Daily Flow Signal is a lightweight, optional check-in for a single day: a quick read of how your flow is right now. It is separate from your Weekly Pulse, does not count toward your weekly check-in, and shows as its own marker in the Daily view of your Flow Tracker.

Daily Flow Signals are private to you by default; you can choose to share a 7- or 30-day summary with your coach in Settings.

Runway

The 14 days after your Debrief, including two Pulses.

Runway is the 14-day window that follows your Debrief Summary. It includes up to two Weekly Flow Pulses so the first cycle is supported end to end.

After Runway your Debrief Summary stays viewable.

Foundation Cycle

Your first 14-day cycle: three anchors, one commitment, a few micro-actions.

A Foundation Cycle is the starting cycle PFI sets up for you. A Guided Foundation Cycle is built from your Debrief Summary; a Standard Foundation Cycle is one you set yourself from a track.

Either way it runs 14 days and then ends, so you can finish it rather than carry it.

Calibration

Adjusting your anchors when your situation changes.

Calibration is a mid-course adjustment. When your anchors stop fitting your week, you change them and the cycle is recomputed around the new ones, instead of abandoning the cycle.

Calibration is part of the Instrument.

Refresh

A monthly re-read of your Flow instead of assuming last month still applies.

A Refresh re-reads your Flow at roughly monthly intervals so your next cycle is based on where you are now, not where you were when you started. Refreshes are part of the Instrument.

Protocol Cycle

An ongoing 14-day cycle after your first one.

Protocol Cycles are the continuing cycles that follow your Foundation Cycle. Each one carries forward what held and adjusts what did not, which is what makes PFI a continuity instrument rather than a one-off reading.