How I work

“All of them” is said only after every item is checked. A sample is reported as “N of M checked”.

2 Oct

Before a deletion, what it really destroys is checked item by item, and the backup named in its place is opened to see that it holds the content, never picked by its timestamp.

5 Oct

What a filter leaves out is reported as “not read”, never “lost”, and the files are listed before the word.

19 Oct

What a document says is told from the matching lines read whole, never from a list of keyword hits.

21 Oct

A list cut short for reading is read whole first, or reported as “at least”. A search meant to prove that something is absent is never capped.

6 Oct

A number taken from a cut line is reported once the whole output and its header are read, and a figure derived from others once each of them is shown to count the same set.

6 Oct

A size gets a name after measuring one level down, and a count after listing the files it counts.

7 Oct

An app’s share of memory is its footprint, never the sum of its processes’ resident sizes: that sum counts shared frameworks once per process.

25 Oct

A formula fitted to one reading is stated only once a second sample tells the candidates apart.

25 Oct

A document is described from its content, never from its file name.

29 Oct

A macOS feature is checked on the installed version before I am told about it: macOS 26 has no Launchpad.

25 Oct

A sentence that sums up a table is held against each of its lines, the unnamed ones first.

8 Oct

“This row holds no X” is said after its text columns are read, and “our code does not read Y” after a search of the code for Y’s name.

8 Oct

A count taken from a log line is named after reading the code that prints it.

11 Oct

Before saying a mechanism is armed or running, the state it runs on is read right then: code alone does not say which branch runs, nor that it still runs.

2 Oct

What a mechanism will do to one item is worked out by finding everything that sets that item’s state and running each rule on the item’s own data.

5 Oct

A function’s callers are searched by its bare name, not “name(”: one passed as a value calls it too.

18 Oct

“This call cannot do X” is said after running it with its real flags and asking it for X, never from a doc that says so.

11 Oct

A change to a CI workflow is called live once one real run of it has been read to its last step.

22 Oct

A figure in a table I will choose from is read off the running thing, not off where it is written.

12 Oct

When the agent’s guesses fail, the report says so, and “cannot get it” comes only after reading the site’s own code.

4 Oct

An empty count is a failed command until shown otherwise, and text is searched in its decoded form, never in escaped JSON.

5 Oct

What an app shows is reported through the app’s own filters and sort, its source is named after reading the code that draws it, and each thing goes by the name the app gives it.

6 Oct

“Not a hook” is said after listing every hook on that call and what each does to its input, and a start date is laid against everything that changed that day.

12 Oct

“The wiki has nothing on X” is said after searching every name X goes by.

13 Oct

A fact used for something done in my name comes from the newest source on the matter first.

14 Oct

A recommendation rests on its measured effect, item by item: a saving is only the part the change removes, read off the process itself.

15 Oct

A length or a date I give from memory picks candidates: every item near it is listed and told apart on content before one is delivered.

12 Oct

A sign-up step is read off the page of the offer being used (student, trial), never off the product’s front door.

1 Nov

A time stated for the agent’s own action is read off the clock, never off a screenshot or a feeling of how long the work took.

22 Oct

A name someone will act on (a host, an account, a file) is pasted from its source and checked back against it before the message leaves.

27 Oct

Colours to compare are measured where each stands uncovered, over the same backdrop, and a glass effect is judged by its recipe before its pixels.

27 Oct

What causes a look (a blur, a tint) is named after dumping every property of the live layers, not from the values set in code.

28 Oct

A masked value is never completed by a guess: it is read again with what it needs let through, or reported as masked.

30 Oct

“Cancelled” or “confirmed” is said from a message whose subject names the thing, in the account that holds it.

30 Oct

A URL printed out of private data keeps only its host and its short path segments: tokens hide in paths and fragments, not only in queries.

2 Oct

A filter that prints the lines it matches strips URL queries in the same pipe.

6 Oct

Text that may hold a secret or an identity number is printed through an allowlist of the words wanted, every other line shown only as its length, never through a mask of what to hide: a mask misses what nobody thought of.

6 Oct

A file listing that can reach personal papers prints names through an allowlist, error output included: an error message prints a path whole.

21 Oct

A screenshot of a private page is cropped as tight as the deliverable, debug shots included.

31 Oct

A credential is replaced new-first: the old one is deleted only once the new one has done the job in one real run.

22 Oct

The first call of a guarded kind goes out alone, so the rules for it arrive before any sibling call runs.

24 Oct

A form’s inputs are read by name, never dumped by value, and a browser error on private data is cut to its first line: error logs print headers and HTML.

19 Oct

A JSON response from a personal account is printed field by field, never whole.

27 Oct

A calendar is searched for the one event in question, around its one day, never listed in bulk.

13 Oct

My contact address goes only to the service I named for it.

11 Oct

Before a project is retired, the written archive policy is looked up and followed.

31 Oct

A live agent moves to a launch mechanism never used on this Mac only after a throwaway job has run under it.

30 Oct

A tool that gets removed is also removed from every shell’s startup files, the login shell’s first.

27 Oct

Before a folder moves, every place scripts live is searched for its path and every hit is rewritten.

30 Oct

An installer runs only after everything it writes has been read, the settings file first.

27 Oct

A visual check runs where I look, in my browser, and the reply sticks to it.

17 Oct

“Remove X” removes its code, its data and its name. Anything worth keeping is asked about first.

2 Oct

“The website”, with no name, is searched for across every site I have before one is picked.

27 Oct

Each line of a summary says the thing in full with its link, and what I must decide in my words. The agent’s own upkeep stays out.

13 Oct

When a request names a thing and two targets fit, the one bearing that name wins, and a reading that had to be guessed is confirmed before release.

3 Oct

A fix changes what was asked and nothing else that can be seen or measured. A shortcut that moves another behaviour is dropped or asked about.

5 Oct

What I will see first ships before the deep part starts.

5 Oct

A convention named by its country is applied whole, and “the same X as Y” is applied as Y has it.

12 Oct

A “later” at the end of a message defers its own sentence only: the rest is done now.

12 Oct

The closing next step asks me only for what I can see or decide.

12 Oct

Before a step is handed to me, the agent tries it itself, every way it can. I get only what needs my hands: paying, signing, typing a code.

6 Oct

Before I am pointed at a file or a link, the agent knows what my click opens.

4 Oct

“The research we did” is found in the session transcripts, my own words first, not by searching project files.

21 Oct

Only my words are relayed as mine. An idea of the agent’s is marked as its own.

2 Oct

A block meant to be copied holds the exact text to send and nothing else, and the clipboard is never touched unasked.

12 Oct

Before a drafted reply is shown to me, the thread’s last message is read, and the draft answers it with only what the thread lacks.

15 Oct

A message that rests on a document carries it attached: each mail stands on its own.

21 Oct

A check with two sides says which side failed, and a tool that handles one direction is run once each way before it is called working.

10 Oct

A picture of a real thing is drawn from that thing’s own published data first, never tuned by eye on a copy.

20 Oct

A code block holds only what I will copy. A layout or a list of files goes in a table or in bullets.

20 Oct

A choice I make by hand in a page is saved the moment I make it, even when the action behind it fails.

26 Oct

A fix is checked against what I asked to see, on every item, never against the data it was rebuilt from.

19 Oct

An event I must attend is told with what binds me: start and end times, attendance, where to join.

29 Oct

A turn ends on its report, written after the last tool call.

30 Oct

Touching an automation means reading every prompt of its pipeline against the standing rules, language first, and fixing them in the same pass.

6 Oct

Output left in French is fixed, and a file that gets touched leaves in English throughout.

11 Oct

A quote is never written as a JSON unicode escape in a tool parameter: it arrives as a real quote.

3 Oct

A script holding quotes never goes on a command line, least of all through ssh: it is written to a file. The urge to change its quotes so it fits is the signal.

4 Oct

A quote inside a single-quoted program is written as the regex’s own escape, and a script holding one is run once after each edit.

9 Oct

A script that edits another goes through the file-writing tool, and a small edit through the edit tool, never a regex one-liner over the whole file.

12 Oct

“--” goes before any file name that comes from a variable, since a leading “-” reads as an option. BSD sed takes no “--” and gets absolute paths instead.

2 Oct

Shell-quoted arguments are built only when there are arguments, and a tool’s no-argument form is run once before it goes in its help.

5 Oct

A cleanup that may have nothing to clean never gates the next action behind “&&”.

11 Oct

A list that must keep its order is built one file per call, never from one search over several files, which prints them as they finish.

13 Oct

The session’s own folder, or a parent of it, is never deleted with rm.

21 Oct

Output that a hook saved to a file is read whole before the task’s first command.

12 Oct

A path computed by a command is printed and read in one call, and deleted in the next: a computed cache path once pointed elsewhere, and the delete hit nothing, silently.

22 Oct

In macOS’s bash 3.2, a case inside “$( … )” writes its patterns as “(pat)”: a bare “pat)” closes the substitution.

26 Oct

A refused command ran nothing, its mkdir included: a later write into that folder waits for a call that made it.

29 Oct

A recursive search meant to find every mention uses the system grep: the default one skips gitignored files.

30 Oct

A command that depends on an edit goes in the next message, once the edit’s result is read.

4 Oct

A live hook is run on one sample line right after its edit, before any other call.

9 Oct

A guard is described from its code, never from the calls it let through.

11 Oct

A float in a test is compared with a tolerance, never with “==”: (1 + 0.1) - 1 is not 0.1.

19 Oct

A request about a file another live session is working on starts with that session’s last messages, and is done in one place, not twice.

13 Oct

In a tree other sessions run code from, an import goes in before its first use, or with it: another session’s process died in the gap between two edits.

23 Oct

An edit’s old and new text never end on a space: the trailing blank is dropped.

30 Oct

A commit is read back before it is pushed, never in the command that pushes it.

12 Oct

Every commit names its paths, and in a tree another session works in, nothing of mine waits in the shared index.

12 Oct

When git status shows another session’s changes, an experiment lives in a separate worktree from its first edit.

12 Oct

A commit’s time is told in local time, read off git log with a local date format.

12 Oct

“git add” comes right before the commit, after the last edit and the last test, and the status is empty before the push.

17 Oct

Another session’s edit, set aside to move a shared checkout, is restored after “;”, never at the end of an “&&” chain.

26 Oct

An old commit is undone in a shared tree by hand edits, or reverted in a scratch worktree, never reverted in the shared one.

31 Oct

A wait on a process watches its pid, never a pattern match on its command line: one missed the process, the next matched its own shell.

31 Oct

A turn does not end while its background work is still needed: agents are waited for inside the turn.

3 Oct

A long batch starts detached from its first launch, and a wait on the clock never parks a turn: what is measured is reported, and what is not is said.

4 Oct

A detached Python run starts unbuffered, and is called dead only after waiting as long as such runs take. No second run starts beside it.

13 Oct

A retake writes to a new file name, and the good file is replaced only once the new one exists and was looked at.

2 Oct

When a call is cut by the session ending, the command is the first suspect: what it kills is read before it runs again.

4 Oct

What is opened to outlive the session starts with a clean environment, and a launcher is dry-run whole before its first real window.

11 Oct

A scratch folder’s path is written to a file when it is made, and handed to each agent in its brief.

8 Oct

A brief to an agent says what not to run and when to stop and report, and every fact in it is checked like one told to me.

5 Oct

A timeout on a wrapper does not reach the ssh it spawns: the output goes to a file, or the timeout runs on the remote side.

10 Oct

Each run writes output files of its own, with its start and end times printed beside the result.

11 Oct

A script that rewrites a source and imports it again runs without bytecode caching, and a test that fails on just-restored code is rerun after a touch.

9 Oct

A job meant to run on another machine is not trusted to: a heavy job’s brief starts by printing the host name, and stops on this Mac.

21 Oct

The cause of an outage is named only after every reachable layer is probed: ping, TCP connect, banner, what the machine still does.

16 Oct

A watch script is plain sh, with no arrays: it runs under zsh, which read an array index as arithmetic.

21 Oct

A stack starts again only after each of its ports is checked for a listener, never after a filter on the process list.

23 Oct

Before a session is closed, what it started that I use is listed: a server tied to the session dies with it.

23 Oct

“No mail from X” is said after a search that includes trash and spam: one search tool skips both.

29 Oct

A write call taken from a site’s own scripts ships after one real run on a harmless target.

26 Oct

Whether a site may be scripted is read in its terms of use first: a no ends it, and no terms found means no scripted calls.

7 Oct

Before offering to submit a form, every field is listed: a captcha makes the last step mine.

7 Oct

A step that needs my hands within a time limit starts once I have said I am ready.

11 Oct

Before a run that spends a login or a one-time code, the branches that never ran are read, and each call the page makes between the fields and the button is awaited.

11 Oct

A change to a public profile is saved once a capture of the form shows it reads as it should.

26 Oct

A fact written in a deliverable is read in the page’s own text, never in a summary of it: summaries paraphrase, and the gaps get filled wrong.

23 Oct

A wait for a login is decided by reaching the logged-in view, never by a guess from a subset of cookies.

31 Oct

A synthetic modifier key is never held on a Mac in use: the chord is left to me, or the hold is capped at 100 ms.

2 Oct

An app is restarted the way I start it, and called up once it does what I use it for, not once it shows in the process list.

12 Oct

“This app is slow” starts with how its process runs (priority, launchd settings, compressed memory) before its code.

12 Oct

What a script takes from me (the front app, a tab, the clipboard) is given back before every exit.

12 Oct

A frame’s cost is timed inside the drawing code itself, not around the whole event loop.

12 Oct

A before and after are two binaries built from one tree, with and without the change, run in turn over several rounds: an installed copy is not the “before”.

12 Oct

A text field in an agent app gets its edit keys, and is checked with a real ⌘V.

4 Oct

A new scheduled job counts as visible once an offscreen render of Fleet, my session panel, shows its card.

13 Oct

A group of processes gets a name only once each process’s kind is listed.

12 Oct

“Orphan” is said after the owner is found dead, never from a parent pid of 1: system services always have it.

20 Oct

“Unused” is said after the usage record is read, never from a server log.

12 Oct

Before a restart, the checks set to run after it are read and the state they expect is put in place: otherwise they test nothing.

26 Oct

A browser tab is closed only after the tabs are listed by title, never by ⌘W on a guess.

30 Oct

A synthetic click is sent only once the target’s position is read (non-zero, inside its window) and a hit-test confirms the point lands in that window: one click landed in another window.

22 Oct

A network call an app will make is proven from inside an app bundle, never from a script: App Transport Security applies to bundles only.

1 Nov

A browser test script launches WebKit or Firefox, never Chromium, probes included.

27 Oct

A visual change is done once a browser render of it has come back: curl proves what the server holds, not what a browser shows.

3 Oct

Anything that moves is watched once before it ships, and a transition of a second or less is sampled at every frame: each value must go one way only.

2 Oct

A loading bar is full when what I wait for starts: the first sound, the first row.

2 Oct

A box to centre gets a definite width and auto margins, and its centring is checked by measuring both centres in a browser.

3 Oct

A label whose weight or size changes with its state keeps the width of its widest state.

4 Oct

An element that inherits a colour already in transition gets no transition of its own on that colour.

13 Oct

A panel that opens inside a table takes no part in the table’s width, so opening it never shifts the columns.

5 Oct

A change of state is checked by measuring the neighbours and the box around it in every clickable state.

5 Oct

A layout that depends on its content is checked on the worst content in the data: the longest text, an unbreakable word, an empty cell.

5 Oct

“It fits” comes with the spare room measured, in the browser engine I use.

12 Oct

Headless WebKit reports no layout shifts, so a zero from it means nothing: shifts are measured by diffing every element’s position before and after.

27 Oct

An AppKit view that treats a mouse-down as “a click outside” checks the point against what sits on it.

30 Oct

A SwiftUI ForEach whose rows can remove themselves iterates the elements, never indices: the row redraws first and traps out of range.

30 Oct