Full proposal: dev/workspace/filebox/steps-preamble-changes.md.
Three moves, taken together:
- Deprecate Suggested next actions. It is a second routing mechanism beside the real one. Conditions carry the routing; the pointer duplicates it in prose, drifts from it, and gives an agent two places to look.
- Weight the step description. The one-line purpose statement stops being a scanning label and becomes the step's self-description to the reading agent.
- Declare the step's function. Below the purpose line, the builder names the step's function from a catalogue — bolded function name, normal text after. Catalogue: error, looping, routing, dormant, handover, support. A step with no declared function is an ordinary working step.
The gain: one routing mechanism instead of two; an agent that reads what a step does rather than inferring it from shared boilerplate; per-step instructions customised in place; a lighter preamble; higher fidelity.
Ripple
Large — this rewrites boilerplate copied verbatim into every DraftHorse document: both templates, steps.md, notation.md, handover.md, condition-writing.md, the build skill, saddler, and every existing skill and agent in extensions/.
Terminology settles here
error drain, error step, problem step and +Handle a Problem are four names for one thing, and error drain sits in the preamble line this refactor rewrites — it is in the universal preamble baked into every document, plus handover.md and saddler's Terms. Choose one set as part of this work rather than touching the same boilerplate twice.
Open questions
- Where does the function catalogue live so a builder can choose from it — the template, a
steps.md catalogue, or both?
- One function per step, or several? A handover step that also loops is plausible.
- Retrofit existing documents, or new documents only?
- Does the Step Usage Patterns catalogue in
steps.md survive alongside the function list, or does the function list replace it?
- Where do the legitimate uses of Suggested next actions go — the loop instruction, the exit of a finishing step, the bail off unmeetable conditions? Each needs a home before the slot is removed.
Full proposal:
dev/workspace/filebox/steps-preamble-changes.md.Three moves, taken together:
The gain: one routing mechanism instead of two; an agent that reads what a step does rather than inferring it from shared boilerplate; per-step instructions customised in place; a lighter preamble; higher fidelity.
Ripple
Large — this rewrites boilerplate copied verbatim into every DraftHorse document: both templates,
steps.md,notation.md,handover.md,condition-writing.md, the build skill, saddler, and every existing skill and agent inextensions/.Terminology settles here
error drain, error step, problem step and
+Handle a Problemare four names for one thing, and error drain sits in the preamble line this refactor rewrites — it is in the universal preamble baked into every document, plushandover.mdand saddler's Terms. Choose one set as part of this work rather than touching the same boilerplate twice.Open questions
steps.mdcatalogue, or both?steps.mdsurvive alongside the function list, or does the function list replace it?