Legacy to agent-ready: Clarify before you act
One opt-in prototype. Existing prompt records and every other detail page remain unchanged.
Legacy - sequential chat
Ask one question at a time
Ask me one question at a time until you have enough information to succeed at the task.
Risk: useful in a chat loop, but it defines neither a planning budget nor what the agent should do after questioning.
Agent-ready - bounded brief
Brief the work, then clarify
TASK [Describe the outcome you want.] CONTEXT [Attach or paste the facts, examples, and current source material the work depends on.] TOOLS [Name any tools the agent should use, or say none are required.] CLARIFICATION BUDGET Ask me up to 20 clarifying questions until you have enough information to succeed at the task. Group related questions when that reduces back-and-forth. Stop early when the remaining answers would not change the work. BOUNDARIES [Time, cost, sources, audience, privacy, and actions that need approval.] DONE MEANS [Define the deliverable and the evidence that proves it is complete.]
Dependencies
- #The task and desired outcome
- #Current source material or a clear statement that none is needed
- #Available tools and permissions
- #Hard boundaries and approval points
Done means
The agent asks only questions that can change the plan, stays within the ceiling, stops early when it has enough, and produces a brief with explicit inputs, tools, boundaries, deliverable, and acceptance evidence.
Test receipt
- Status
- Hypothesis queued for benchmark
- Source
- Christopher S. Penn, Sep 20, 2026
- Compared
- Legacy sequential instruction vs bounded package
- Pass criteria
- Better completeness and lower human cleanup without runaway questioning
- Evidence
- Prototype only. No performance claim yet.
Package manifest - v0.1
Version era: agent-ready · Task type: planning · Context: required · Tools: explicit · Clarification ceiling: 20 · Acceptance test: explicit · Model/harness: not yet benchmarked · Freshness: Sep 20, 2026 · Lint flags on legacy: unbounded completion, missing context, missing tools, missing definition of done.