workorder

Workorder

A frozen order is the contract the build runs against: written before the first edit, unchanged while the work runs, and the only thing acceptance is measured against. It is also the whole brief — what a subagent or a fresh session is handed when the work moves.

Scope stays where it was frozen, so the thing delivered is the thing agreed. And the work runs to done in one pass — obstacles get solved in the same session that hit them, so the human is asked once, at the start, rather than at every bump.

1. Write the order

Seven fields, plus the header line that freezes it.

1. One sentence — the whole task, in one. Two sentences means two orders, or a request still in fog: interview it sharp first, write the order after.
2. Known facts — what is already verified, each with its source (a prior report, a measurement, a file path). This field is what stops the build re-discovering what was settled last week.
3. Materials — the models, datasets, fonts, and dependencies this order may use, each with its licence and the date that licence was checked. Anything the order rules out is listed with the reason, so the check is not repeated either.
4. Build spec — every parameter pinned to a file plus a name inside it: a symbol in code, a key in a config, a named preset and the parameter within it for a render, a voice profile and its setting for audio. Whatever the domain, "the value we settled on" has to resolve to exactly one place someone else can open. Where a value genuinely lives only in a GUI, the pin is a written line in the order plus a screenshot in the artifacts folder — a copy someone can check, since the slider cannot be cited. The spec also names that artifacts folder, which holds the order, its gate folders, and its closeout, so the whole task is one place on disk.
5. Budget fuse — a number the work counts against, in whatever unit this task actually spends: renders, GPU-hours, API calls, install attempts, drafts, research passes. The count is kept as it goes, in the order's artifacts folder, because a number reconstructed at closeout is a number remembered rather than measured. Reaching the fuse ends the build with a STOPPED message and returns what exists so far.
6. Acceptance — objective lines someone else could check without asking what was meant. Each one names how it will be evidenced: a path, a command's output, a measured number. The DONE condition is defined by honest-closeout, including its required verification outside the work's control.
7. Non-goals — what this order leaves alone, especially the neighbouring work it would be natural to drift into.