Come back tomorrow

Pick up the decision, not just the conversation

When you return, establish what the report should do, what actually happened and whether anything needs action.

Open the supplied formatted report. Its useful result is easy to recognize: six synthetic entries account for 270 minutes, with totals by project and category.

Imagine returning tomorrow. “Continue” could mean finishing a draft, inspecting a completed result or handling a concern. Those actions have different effects.

Ask your assistant to locate the actual saved reporting task and inspect it before proposing more work. The report file alone cannot establish which task produced it, what checks ran or what a reviewer found.

In this lesson, you will recover the goal, inspect current evidence and write a short continuation brief. Reading the lesson or reopening a report does not start a build.

Separate three kinds of saved state

A lesson bookmark, a project file and a Harness record answer different questions.

A draft can have saved answers without acceptance. An accepted request can exist before execution. A completed workflow can still retain a concern. Read the record rather than inferring state from a familiar filename.

Copy important browser notes into your project handoff. Another browser or a cleared storage area may not contain them.

Ask for a read-only inspection

Use the saved path from your earlier work. If it is missing, locate it before running a task command.

1. Find the actual task directory retained by the earlier workflow.
2. Have the assistant confirm its identity, goal and current state.
3. Read the accepted scope, recorded execution, checks, findings and next action together.
4. Keep missing evidence visible. Successful inspection does not mean the work is complete.

attune-harness status /absolute/path/to/saved-reporting-task --format markdown

If you have no saved task of your own, use the supplied current check summary for the evidence exercise. Treat that summary as a reference, not as an active task in your project.

saved-task inspection prompt

Help me return to the actual saved reporting task from our earlier work. Locate and verify its saved task directory rather than guessing. Inspect the goal, task identity and revision, accepted scope, recorded execution, checks, review findings and current next action. Separate established facts from missing context. Keep this inspection read-only and do not retry or start work.

Ask what each result establishes

The current checks summary tells you what was exercised. Its limits matter as much as its outcome.

Read Current local checks. Ask your assistant to explain the actual source/runtime, commands or actions, outcomes and any exclusions it records.

Use the actual counts and statuses in the current summary. Do not assume that a successful status command, completed workflow or attractive report establishes every behavior you care about.

Leave a stopping note you can use

The saved record shows workflow state. A short note explains the human decision you would otherwise have to reconstruct.

This is a lesson example, not a new saved Harness record. Your own note should name the actual task and revision, where work stopped, evidence locations, uncertainty and a justified next action.

stopping-note prompt

Prepare a short stopping note for the actual reporting task we just inspected. Use its verified task identity and revision. State the goal, where we stopped, evidence locations, unresolved concerns and the next decision with its reason. Distinguish recorded Harness results from work performed outside that task. Preserve prior notes, and show me this new note before saving it. Do not revise accepted scope or resume execution.

Notice when the next step changes scope

Suppose you return and now want the report to show only Orion. That is a requirement to inspect, not just a reminder.

First establish whether the current tool already supports that selection. If it does not, describe project filtering as a proposed change. Preserve the original all-project report and its existing checks.

Ask for a separate change brief or the supported task-revision route. Changing a stopping note does not change accepted scope. Reopening a briefing does not authorize execution, and an old checkpoint is not approval for a changed requirement.

Explain which next action is justified: read the existing project total, review a concern, prepare a new scoped change or stop. You do not need a new build when the current report already answers the question.

Summarize the state in your own words

A useful return brief tells the next person what is established and why the next action makes sense.

Your current position, evidence and next decision

Write your answer in your own notes, or use the interactive lesson.

These are browser-only practice notes when storage is available. They are separate from a Harness task, continuation note and acceptance record. Copy important text into your project handoff.

Read your note once as if you were returning tomorrow. Can you locate the evidence without reconstructing the conversation? Have you distinguished inspection from any action that could change files or run participants?

You can leave a decision open if the evidence is missing. State the gap and the smallest action that could resolve it, rather than inventing a successful result.

Return with a decision you can explain

You can now say what the work was for, which evidence you inspected and why the next action is warranted.

• Name the actual task or supplied evidence you inspected.
• Distinguish a saved draft, accepted scope and recorded execution.
• Explain one result and one remaining limit.
• Choose inspection, review, a proposed scoped change or no further work.

For this course, the next useful action is to assess the report's evidence. You do not need another build to read what the current result supports.

Next: Open Decide whether to trust the report.

If you missed planning and the first result, return to Build your first report. Keep your actual task path and stopping note in the project handoff so the next session can locate them.