Apply when tempted to ask 'should I do X?' on reversible work. Proceed, present the result, let the human course-correct after the fact; reserve confirmation for irreversible actions.
Collected from public GitHub. Every version is saved exactly as it was and never changes. Install it at an exact version with the mdr tool, and every file is checked before it reaches your agent. The main file is checked against the SHA-256 fingerprint recorded here, and the others against the fingerprints GitHub keeps for its source commit. The automatic checks below grade the latest version, and the same checks always give the same file the same grade.
What the file says
# Never Block on the Human
The human supervises asynchronously. Agents must stay unblocked: make reasonable decisions, proceed, and let the human course-correct after the fact. Code is cheap. Waiting is expensive.
**Why:** Every permission pause stalls the pipeline and makes the human the bottleneck. Since code changes are reversible and reviewable, a wrong decision usually costs less than blocking.
**Pattern:**
- **Proceed, then present.** Do the work, show the result. Don't ask "should I do X?" Do X, explain why.
- **Reserve questions for genuine ambiguity.** Ask only when you truly cannot infer intent from context.
- **Make the system self-healing.** When you notice a problem, log it and fix it in the next round.
- **Supervision is async.** The human reviews plans, diffs, and changes on their own schedule. Design workflows for review-after-the-fact.
- **Code is cheap, attention is scarce.** A wrong implementation costs minutes to fix. A blocked agent costs the human's attention to unblock.
**Boundaries:**
- **Irreversible actions** (force-push, delete production data, send external messages) still require confirmation.
…
The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260914.c546518, which is what most people want. This one pins the sha256 fingerprint of the contents instead, so it survives a label being moved. Either way the exact version is written to mdr.lock, and mdr install downloads and checks those contents again, so it installs them exactly or stops with an error.
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_kbd26ag6cyu725ee
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=edbertchan/catstack/principle-never-block-on-the-human
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/63806fe3fecd5b4d56f34687f9011a3207ce9bafd2e009116148f1f28f1584f1
Your AI assistant does the legwork. You hear about the deals worth your word. Hand yours the standing instructions at modelranch.com and it joins the network that reads files like this one.
edbertchan/catstack · corpus/skills/cat-mode/SKILL.md · Edbert's personal working conventions, mined from real session history across his projects. Use when Edbert asks to…
edbertchan/catstack · corpus/skills/principle-assert-invariants-not-last-bug/SKILL.md · Apply after a bug ships past review or a passing grade/check: assert the general class of failure instead of patching…
edbertchan/catstack · corpus/skills/principle-bind-to-named-inventory/SKILL.md · Apply after an audit, scoring review, or a request for a "real classifier" / "less arbitrary weights" when existing…
edbertchan/catstack · corpus/skills/principle-build-the-lever/SKILL.md · Apply to any non-trivial work, not just bulk work: edits, migrations, analyses, checks. Build the tool that does it or…
edbertchan/catstack · corpus/skills/principle-encode-lessons-in-structure/SKILL.md · Apply when you catch yourself writing the same instruction a second time, or notice a recurring correction. Encode the…
edbertchan/catstack · corpus/skills/principle-experience-first/SKILL.md · Apply when product, UX, or feature-scope tradeoffs come up. Choose user delight over implementation convenience; ship…
edbertchan/catstack · corpus/skills/principle-fix-root-causes/SKILL.md · Apply when debugging. Trace each symptom to its root cause and fix it there; reproduce first, ask why until you reach…
edbertchan/catstack · corpus/skills/principle-flag-your-own-corrections/SKILL.md · Apply whenever you are about to admit fault in any wording — a fact, number, claim, or check you already stated turns…
edbertchan/catstack · corpus/skills/principle-generalize-from-rejection/SKILL.md · Apply when a mechanical gate — a lint, validator, blocked-command guard, or CI check — rejects your output for the same…
cursor/plugins · harness/pstack/claude-code/skills/principle-never-block-on-the-human/SKILL.md · Apply when tempted to ask 'should I do X?' on reversible work.
michael-denyer/pstack-claude · plugins/pstack/skills/principle-never-block-on-the-human/SKILL.md · Apply when tempted to ask 'should I do X?' on reversible work.
j-star-films-studios/vibecode-protocol-suite · assets/.agent/skills/engineering-principles/never-block-on-the-human/SKILL.md · Apply when tempted to ask 'should I do X?' on reversible work. Proceed, present the result, let the human…
arjitj2/open-pstack · plugins/pstack/skills/principle-never-block-on-the-human/SKILL.md · Apply when tempted to ask 'should I do X?' on reversible work.
painhardcore/pstack · .opencode/skills/principle-never-block-on-the-human/SKILL.md · Apply when tempted to ask 'should I do X?' on reversible work. Proceed, present the result, let the human…
