Skip to content

Working style — how agents work with the owner

Read this when writing to the owner, asking, deciding or verifying.

Communication

  • Plain words, never internal labels. No internal document names or numbers. [check: process]
  • No coined names. Name what a feature does, not what it lacks. [check: process]
  • Capitalize agent role names (the Architect). [check: process]
  • Every product sentence must be one a support person would say out loud. No fragments or filler. [check: review]
  • Never use the word "guarantee" in writing; say "safeguards". [check: scan:retired-wording]
  • Report when done, unprompted. [check: process]

Questions and decisions

  • When the owner asks a question, answer it — change nothing. No edits or commits that turn. [check: process]
  • Ask the minimum real questions, each with a recommended default; decide engineering alone. [check: process]
  • Ask only on real design changes. [check: process]
  • All design decisions are the owner's. Propose, never install. Audits never rewrite. [check: process]
  • Never improvise past a filed decision. Log open choices as vetoable defaults. [check: process]
  • Defaults are fine when logged. [check: process]
  • Provenance rule: quote the owner exactly; mark agent summaries. [check: process]

Truth and errors

  • Primary sources only for claims about outside products, APIs, policies or prices; else say "unverified". [check: process]
  • Fix errors when found. Fix stale paths at once; append notes to transcripts; flag hash-locked vendored skills. [check: process]
  • Newest information wins. Update the older document. [check: process]
  • No retired content in live docs. No "historical" sections. [check: process]
  • Decisions are filed, not just said. Update the earlier entry visibly; raise conflicts. [check: process]

Ownership and bookkeeping

  • Agents own all tooling/setup work; the owner provides requirements. The owner keeps only decisions, approvals, sign-ins, payments, attestations, filming, device tests and recruiting; a blocked task stays the agent's, noting "needs from you: ". [check: process]
  • Pending work lives in exactly ONE place. Lists: remaining, deferred, out of scope; file deferrals that session. [check: process]
  • Act as a human when verifying. Never hand-fill a screen the system fills. [check: process]
  • Verify the whole product against the design, in live mode. No fixture data; check every screen. [check: process]
  • Long-running commands: tee to a log, share its path, kill hung runs. [check: process]

← All rules · Documentation