Context brief

Use this alongside a work brief when taste, prior decisions, or a continuing project should inform the next task. Keep it short and link to selected material. The headings below are a template, not a record of Marc's private preferences.

• Purpose and date: Which work does this context support, and when was it last checked?
• Current direction: What is the person trying to achieve now?
• Accepted references: Two or three relevant artifacts, with a sentence about why each fits.
• Directions to avoid: A useful counterexample and the reason it misses.
• Preferences and their scope: Which choices are personal, project-specific, or only relevant to this task?
• Decisions to preserve: What was already chosen, and where is its authoritative record?
• Current constraints: What limits the next attempt? Which earlier constraints have changed?
• Procedure: Which existing skill or documented workflow should apply?
• Available material: What can this agent actually read in this session?
• Sharing boundary: Which references may be used privately, and which outputs may be published?
• Uncertainty: Which preference or assumption should the agent check rather than infer?

Keep one decision current

Use this small record when an earlier choice could conflict with the next task. The notebook example shows it beside a source, observation, and open question.

Decision ID and date:
Status: current / superseded by [ID]
Scope:
Chosen direction and reason:
Supporting source or observation, with location and identity:
Replaces: [earlier decision ID, if any]
Revisit when:

Point the active brief to the current record. Mark the previous record as superseded and retain its reason as history. Record a new observation when the artifact changes; an accepted decision alone does not establish that anyone implemented it.

After the attempt

Record what was accepted, the reason it worked, and a correction worth carrying forward. Update a preference where it belongs; update a procedure when its steps were the problem. Retire superseded guidance visibly. Keep incidental conversation out of the brief unless it changes a future decision.