Design calls

Every feature, fix or change starts with a decision. The agent proposes; the director decides.

How a design call works

When the agent reaches a decision the brief does not settle, it stops and presents 2 to 4 options with a recommendation. The director picks one, writes their own answer, or defers it. How do I decide what gets built, or change how something works? walks through a session of these calls.

Only the director's choice is recorded. The design document holds what was decided; the decision log holds one line on why.

When an option depends on facts nobody has checked, such as a service's limits, a licence or a store requirement, the agent first runs a read-only research item. Its note gives the options, the sources with their confidence and a recommendation, and the call is made with the note in front of the director. The note informs the call and never makes it (see /research, and I need facts before I decide for the steps).

What happens to undecided questions

Anything the director has not answered goes on the open-questions list. The agent never answers an open question itself. Values the director has not set yet are marked PLACEHOLDER in the code and config, so the project compiles and checks can run, but nothing real is in their place.

From decision to task

Each decision the director makes becomes one or more task items in TASKS.md. Each item is sized and names the files it touches, so the builder knows exactly what to read and what to change. See Task and model sizing.

During a build

A builder that runs into a decision its task does not settle stops and reports the task as blocked, with options and a recommendation. The question comes to the director, the answer is recorded like any other design call, and the task is rebuilt with it.

The agent proposes. The director decides.Agent development flow