Feature: Operator Agent — Proactive Contextual Nudges & Menu Pre-highlighting

[Dr-Agentic]

Motivation

The Operator Agent focuses on environment design and friction reduction. Its core job is pre-decision: making sure the user's next action is obvious and frictionless before the moment they're likely to fail — using only SpurTalk's own task completion data, not external APIs.

Proposed Behavior

Pattern-Based Nudges

• Operator learns individual friction patterns from task completion history (e.g., Tuesday 7PM always dips, writing tasks at 4PM consistently hard)
• Before the friction moment, Operator sends a nudge: 'I notice Tuesday 7PM tends to be tough — want me to break tonight's task into a 5-min warm-up?'
• One-tap confirm: 'Still on track' or 'Adjust my plan' — removes decision fatigue at the moment

Context-Aware Task Adjustment

• When a user marks a task as difficult or skips it, Operator logs the context (time, task type, energy level)
• Before similar contexts arise, Operator proactively swaps or reduces the task: 'You've been hitting a wall with writing tasks at 4PM — I've swapped tonight's writing task with your easier admin task. Sound good?'

Friction Protocol Surfacing

• If a user has built If/Then friction protocols (from Sentry Agent), Operator surfaces them before relevant moments
• 'BTW — you had a great protocol for when you're tired after work: [do 10-min stretch]. Want to use it today?'

How It Works — No External APIs

All pattern detection runs purely on SpurTalk's own task completion data and timeline history. Operator never reads external calendars, doesn't call third-party APIs, and doesn't manage the user's calendar or time.

Out of Scope

• Calendar integration (read or write) — general assistant territory
• Google Places / restaurant menus
• Any third-party OAuth integrations

Labels

enhancement, operator-agent, proactive-nudge

Milestone

M2 (User Engagement & Retention Features)

[Dr-Agentic]

Where Operator Lives in SpurTalk: new NudgeService + CalendarService in backend/src/services/. Integrates with Garden UI via /api/garden.

How It Slots In:

1. User opts into calendar sync (iCal or Google Calendar)
2. Operator detects upcoming high-friction events (dinner, late work session, travel)
3. Before the event: push notification or in-app nudge with pre-highlighted optimal choices
4. One-tap confirm: 'Still on track' or 'Adjust my goal' - removes decision fatigue at the moment

Key Features:

• ContextualMenuService: pulls restaurant menu via Google Places API, highlights goal-aligned options
• Pattern learning: Operator notices individual friction times (e.g., Tuesday 7PM) and preemptively nudges
• NudgeService fires based on user context signals, not just time-based reminders

Dependencies: Google Places API, iCal/Google Calendar OAuth integration.

[Dr-Agentic]

Updated scope: removed restaurant menu highlighting (general assistant territory, not SpurTalk scope). Operator Agent now focuses on: (1) pattern-based friction nudges from user behavior history, (2) context-aware task adjustments, (3) surfacing Sentry's friction protocols before relevant moments. No external calendar or places API needed.