FabledScribe/plugin/skills/reporting-back/SKILL.md

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reporting-back

Use when you are about to write the reply the operator will read — work finished, a task marked done, stopping on a blocker, asking them to decide or to do something, answering "where are we" / "what's next", or proposing an approach. Shapes the reply around where the work stands (which task, what changed, what needs them, what comes next) instead of the order you did things in. Triggers on reporting completion, handing off, asking a question, or summarising progress.

Reporting back

Your reply is where the operator finds out what happened. They were not there while you worked: they don't hold the files you read, the names you used or the order you did things in. A reply that follows your path is accurate and still unreadable to them. Shape it around where the work stands.

Pick the kind of reply first (the tables below). Its sections are what to consider including, not a form to complete.

Two kinds of section, and they behave differently:

• A section that answers a standing question — does anything need me? what happens next? — is always answered, even when the answer is nothing. "Needs you: nothing" is what they were looking for.
• A section that explains — how it was done, why that way, what else you noticed — earns its place only when it changes what the operator does or decides. When it would not, leave it out: that detail belongs in the record's log, where it is available and not in the way.

Write the shortest reply that carries the answer. To someone reading quickly, length is not thoroughness — it is work handed back to them. A reply that fills every heading faithfully and runs a full screen is worse than four lines naming the two things that changed their position. Extra length has to be earned: a comparison they asked for, options that need laying side by side, a measurement whose numbers are the point.

Every reply

• Conclusion first. The verdict, the result, or the question — before the reasoning that supports it.
• One topic per section. Two things the operator raised get two sections.
• Make priority visible. Bold the few things that matter; let the rest be plain.
• End with the ask, in bold — the one thing they need to decide or do. If there is nothing, say so.
• A request for approval gets its own section, headed "Approval requested". Whenever you are holding an action until the operator says yes — a permission prompt their client raised, something hard to undo, a change you have prepared and not made — put it there, near the top, whatever kind of reply this is. Inside a progress or completion list it reads as a status line, and the operator does not see that you are waiting on them.
• Plain words. Use the operator's vocabulary, not the names you coined while working. If a term has to appear, explain it once.
• Place the work in Scribe. Name the task, issue or milestone it belongs to, by id and title (using-scribe: "Name the record, never just its number").
• A decision already made gets acted on, and the reply says what you did with it. Once the operator has chosen, that is the input to the work, not a topic to revisit. If something you have since learned genuinely overturns the choice, say so once and plainly — name the new evidence and what it changes — and otherwise let the decision stand. Laying out the trade-offs of a settled question again reads as contradicting yourself rather than as being careful, and it costs the operator the decision twice.

Take the placement from the record

A remembered milestone title or "next step" reads exactly like a real one when it is wrong. So take placement from Scribe:

• update_task and create_task return a placement block — the project, the milestone, position (step N of M), progress, and next (the next open step). Use those values as they came back.
• For a wider view, get_milestone (a plan and its steps) or enter_project (the whole project). Every milestone they list carries next_step — the earliest step still open, or null when none is — so a reply that says what comes next takes it from the listing it already read. Progress alone says a plan has an open step and not which one, and that is the gap recall fills.
• A record you only mention is a record to read. placement rides the write that changed a task, so a task you cite without touching arrives with nothing vouching for it. A retrieval hint carries an id, a kind and a title; where a task stands is in the line's kind marker — [task (done)] — and a line you are working from memory has no marker at all.
• Work with no task behind it: say so plainly — "this wasn't tracked as a task" — and offer to record it. An honest "untracked" is a placement too.

The operator's own shapes come first

The shapes below are defaults. An operator may have changed some of them — a section they always want, an order they read faster, a kind of reply they want shorter — and those changes are preference records. Where a preference and a default differ, the preference is what they asked for.

• A completion report brings its preferences with it. Closing a task with update_task returns them as reply_preferences when the operator has any; the report_back line says so. Nothing to search for.
• Every other reply, ask before writing it. A finding, a decision, a handoff, a "where are we" — no tool call comes before these, so nothing hands their preferences over. Once you know which kind of reply you are writing, search(content_type="rule") for it in the words of that moment — "writing a decision for the operator", "handing off to the operator" — and follow any preference that comes back. Nothing coming back means the default shape stands.

Reports — work happened

Kind	Sections
Completion	Where this sits · What now works · How / why · Needs you · Next
Finding (a problem you found)	Symptom · Cause · What you decided and did — judge it and act; an offer to fix it is the judgment not made (see You are the judge)
Blocked / failed	What stopped · What you tried · What you need from them
Progress (mid-work)	One or two lines: where things are, what's next, any blocker
Where are we	The milestone and its progress · Done · Open · Needs you · Next

You are the judge

You are the judge of record for the work itself: what a shape is, whether a finding holds, whether a record is right, whether something is done. The operator reads the decision — they do not make it.

A finding surfaced and not judged is a finding dropped, not deferred. This is the failure that hides inside a good report: the symptom named, the cause traced, the fix sized, and then handed over for someone else to rule on. It reads as diligence and functions as a backlog. The tells are "say the word and I'll…", "your call", "let me know if you want me to…", and a list of options for a decision that was yours.

So: decide, act, and report what you decided and why. If the evidence is genuinely balanced, say which way you went and what would change your mind — that is still a decision.

What DOES go to them, and the distinction is the act, not the difficulty: spending their money, reaching their infrastructure, merging to a protected branch, anything hard to reverse or facing outward — the Handoff and Approval shapes below. Judging a record is never one of these. A hard call is still yours; an irreversible act is still theirs.

Judging is attended, not automatic. You judge by reading the evidence and recording why. A threshold, a sweep or a rule that reclassifies in bulk with nobody reading it is not you judging — it is the thing that usually created the mess, wearing your name. When you catch yourself fixing bad unattended writes with another unattended write, stop.

Building a review surface? Ask who its implied reader is. If the answer is "a person works through this queue", it is mis-designed: give the reader the evidence needed to decide and a way to record the decision under their own name.

Asks — the operator needs to act or decide

Kind	Sections
Decision	The question first · 2–4 options, each with what it changes · recommendation first
Clarification	"My reading is X · the gap is Y · unless you say otherwise I'll do Z"
Handoff (only they can do it)	The action · why it needs them · what it unblocks · what you'll do after · any way to skip it
Approval (you are ready to act and holding for a yes)	Approval requested: exactly what happens once they approve, one numbered item per change so they can approve part · why it needs their yes · how it can be undone · what you'll do after
Conflict (what you're about to do clashes with a rule, a plan or an earlier decision)	What it says · what you were about to do · where they clash · A or B?

Before asking, check whether you can find the answer yourself — something that can be read or looked up is a fact to check, not a question to send.

Answers — the operator asked something

Kind	Sections
Explanation	The answer first · then the evidence, pointing at what they could open to check it
Evaluation ("can we / should we")	Verdict · What exists · The gaps · Recommendation

Proposals — shaping future work

Kind	Sections
Options	2–3 approaches · the trade-off of each · one recommendation
Plan	Goal · Steps · Open questions — for review before starting (writing-plans)
Review	Findings ranked by how much they matter, one per item

The completion report, in full

The most common reply, and the one most often written in the order the work happened. The shape:

Where this sits: milestone 12 "Move the backups offsite", step 3 of 5. Task #340 "Schedule the nightly sync" is done.

What now works

• The nightly sync runs at 02:00 and copies the photo library to the remote store.

How / why

• Used the scheduler the other jobs already use, so there is one place to look when a job doesn't run.
• Verified by running it once by hand and checking the remote copy's size matches the source.

Needs you: nothing.

Next: #341 "Alert when a sync fails". Starting it unless you redirect.

Notes on each section:

• Where this sits — from placement. If the work isn't under a milestone, the task alone is enough.

• What now works — outcomes the operator would notice: "You can now…", "X no longer…". The files and steps behind them belong in the task's log.

• How / why — only the decisions worth knowing, plus how it was verified. If something could not be verified, say what and why here rather than letting it read as passed.

• Needs you — an action, an approval, a decision, or "nothing". If it's an action, give the reason with it. An approval you are holding for also gets its own Approval requested section, and this line points at it.

  Two tests, and it takes both: is this theirs to decide, and is work waiting on it? A choice that is genuinely theirs — a priority, a trade-off only they can price, something they have to live with afterwards — belongs here. A question you could settle by reading something, by taking a measurement you already have access to, or by choosing the obvious default does not: that is work not yet done, and sending it moves your uncertainty onto them. Settle it, say which way you went and why, and leave them free to overrule you. This section is for what blocks them, not for what you are unsure about.

• Next — from placement.next, or say the milestone is finished. If you found something you didn't fix, the offer to fix it goes here.

Before sending

Read the reply as the operator will: someone who wasn't there, reading quickly. Can they tell what was done, whether anything needs them, and what happens next without asking a follow-up? If not, the sections are what's missing — not more detail.

Then read it once more for what can go. A section filled because it was in the table, reasoning supporting a conclusion nobody is going to dispute, a finding already written to the record — none of it changes what the operator does, so none of it belongs in the reply. Cutting is not hiding: the log holds it, and the reply stays readable. A reply that has been cut twice is the one they can act on.