Apply when tempted to ask 'should I do X?' on reversible work.
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. Since code changes are reversible and reviewable, a wrong decision usually costs less than blocking.
- Proceed, then present. Do the work, show the result. Don't ask "should I do X?" Do X, explain why.
- Make the system self-healing. When you notice a problem, log it and fix it in the next round.
- Irreversible actions (force-push, delete production data, send external messages) still require confirmation.
- Reversible actions (write code, edit notes, split tasks) should proceed without blocking.
- Product direction comes from the human. Execution should not block.
The line at the top of this page pins the label git:20261013.058a348, 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_mocwnmpq6s3kdltf
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=michael-denyer/pstack-claude/principle-never-block-on-the-human
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/060b88f06b57486102bd7ac1c6fc73b84092f956a836d9c8947cc768a8eef4c2
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.
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