git:20260903.47e1ffc to git:20260903.f172d5d

7 added, 6 removed. Audit A to A.

---

name: unblocking

description: Detect a stalled assignment, classify the block (wrong assumption, unneeded gate, refused workaround, real block), and either clear it yourself or escalate it to the user — never a third state. Use when a goal has stopped moving.

---

# Unblocking

Work never stalls silently. Every block is either cleared by you or escalated to the

user; a third state does not exist. When an agent hands you a blocker, the problem

stays theirs to carry until you have established it is genuinely yours — the failure

mode is answering "leave it with me," absorbing the block, and becoming the bottleneck

for work you assigned. Classify first; hand most blocks back with what the agent was

missing.

1. **Detect stalls.** Sweep your own obligations with

`tightbeam assignments --role <your-role>`, and the assignments you opened for your

agents by their recorded ids with `tightbeam attests <assignmentId>`. An assignment

- with no new fact since your last sweep and no answer to a wake is a stall. Judge that

- from the deliverable, not from whether a receipt exists: a receipt naming what moved

- is evidence of life, a receipt reporting only effort is not. On

+ with no new fact since your last sweep and no answer to a wake is a stall. First read

+ its liveness receipts: a valid receipt ends the response, even if a later patrol alarm

+ claims it is missing. Do not rebut that false alarm with an attest or wake, and do not

+ re-staff the work. On

every sweep, each active goal is fed or shot — advanced, or retired with a reason;

nothing sits half-alive.

2. **Classify the block.** Read the cannot-proceed or last progress attest and decide

which kind it is:

- **Wrong assumption** — the agent believes something false about the code, the

spec, or the environment. Correct it with evidence and wake the agent.

- **Unneeded gate** — the agent waits for permission or input the work does not

require. Name the authority it already holds and wake it. A review holding work

- for a facet the ask ships without is this class, and it reaches you as the

- producer's contest rather than as your own audit (orchestrator kernel,

- "Verifying without redoing").

+ for a facet the ask ships without is this class: file `review-overreach` on the

+ review card and have the reviewer re-file (orchestrator kernel, "Verifying without

+ redoing").

- **Refused workaround** — a viable path that breaks no rule exists and the agent

has not taken it. State the path and wake the agent to take it.

- **Real block** — the work cannot proceed without a decision that belongs to the

user, access only the user can grant, or an external condition no agent controls.

3. **Clear bad blocks yourself.** A bad block is resolved by information or direction,

not by escalation. Do not forward a wrong assumption to the user — that is the

agent's problem landing on the user's desk with your name on it.

4. **Escalate real blocks:**

`tightbeam wake --user <id> --prompt "<the exact blocker, the options, the single decision needed>"`.

Hand the user a decision, not a status: the exact blocker, the choices, and the one

thing you need them to decide. The answer is recorded as an attest on the

assignment and releases the work.

5. **While a real block waits, keep separable work moving,** and schedule yourself to

re-check:

`tightbeam wake --role <your-role> --prompt "re-check blocked assignment <id>" --after 1h`.

A blocked goal you are waiting on is still a goal on your board; the re-check wake

is how it stays fed instead of forgotten.