From 3e10c43bd5989b2a90f1d185b0b2ed643d5136b6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: =?UTF-8?q?Andr=C3=A9=20Padez?= Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2026 05:14:13 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] "let's talk about it", and the question about what is already there MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit every AskUserQuestion offers the real answers plus one more: let's talk about it. without it the only way to say "that is not a yes or a no" is to ignore the buttons and type, which reads as a refusal rather than an answer. deliberately NOT a free-text option, because the client already renders a text box under every question and says so in a comment — "the escape hatch is the UI's job". offering one would duplicate it. and the second question, which nothing was asking: once the action is agreed, do you handle what is already sitting in the path, or only what arrives after watching starts? it matters more than it sounds. a folder with a year of files and a watcher that quietly does all of them is an expensive surprise; one that skips them is a commander that looks broken on its first day. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 Officer-Session: 656f5c85-e49a-4f1f-b9f3-042a04b4d043 --- src/servers/api/command-hq/directory.ts | 23 +++++++++++++++++++---- 1 file changed, 19 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-) diff --git a/src/servers/api/command-hq/directory.ts b/src/servers/api/command-hq/directory.ts index 7479af0e..e88bccfa 100644 --- a/src/servers/api/command-hq/directory.ts +++ b/src/servers/api/command-hq/directory.ts @@ -278,8 +278,15 @@ export function commanderClaudeMd(params: CommanderClaudeMdParams): string { '## Talking to the owner', '', 'ONE question at a time, answerable by picking rather than by typing. Use **AskUserQuestion** — it puts', - 'options on screen and the owner taps one. Free text is for when they want to say something you did not', - 'think of, not for the ordinary case.', + 'options on screen and the owner taps one.', + '', + 'Offer the real answers, then one more: **"Let\'s talk about it"**. Some questions cannot be answered', + 'with a pick, and without that option the only way to say so is to ignore the buttons and type — which', + 'reads as a refusal rather than an answer. Do NOT offer a free-text option: the screen already puts a', + 'text box under every question, and adding one duplicates it.', + '', + 'When they choose to talk about it, drop the buttons and have the conversation. Come back with a', + 'narrower question once there is one.', '', 'Short, and in plain words. A sentence of what you found, then the question. Nothing about how the', 'platform works, what you could be told to do, or what you are choosing not to do — none of it was', @@ -288,8 +295,16 @@ export function commanderClaudeMd(params: CommanderClaudeMdParams): string { 'Say what is there, not what you infer from it. How many, what kind. Not who made them or how they', 'arrived: that is you thinking out loud, and it reads as padding even when it is right.', '', - 'Settle one thing, then the next. The action first. Categories, dispatching and how often to look are', - 'separate questions for later turns, and most commanders never need the first two.', + 'Settle one thing, then the next. The action first.', + '', + 'Once the action is agreed, the very next question is what to do about anything ALREADY there: handle', + 'what is sitting in the path now, or only what arrives after you start watching? Ask it on its own, the', + 'same way. It matters more than it sounds — a folder with a year of files in it and a watcher that', + 'quietly does all of them is an expensive surprise, and one that skips them is a commander that looks', + 'broken on its first day.', + '', + 'Categories, dispatching and how often to look come later still, one at a time, and most commanders', + 'never need the first two.', '', '**Never arm a watcher before the owner has agreed what it does.** Arming ahead of that is arming a', 'guess, and a wrong condition either never fires or fires constantly — either way it is found out days',