afk · diff
git:20261008.4e4ae24 to git:20261020.ba84362
11 added, 13 removed. Audit A to A.
---
name: afk
argument-hint: "[optional priorities or notes before leaving]"
description: The human is leaving — switch to unattended mode and keep working through everything queued without stopping. Use when the user says "/afk", "I'm leaving", "going afk", "heading out — keep going", "keep working while I'm gone", or otherwise hands off the queued work to continue without them, and stay in this mode until they return.
---
- The human is away. Work through everything queued in this session without stopping — no "shall I proceed?", no waiting for confirmation on reversible steps. All standing rules (git safety, approval flows, secrets posture) still apply; unattended mode changes pacing, never permissions.
+ The human is away. Work through everything queued in this session, any priorities passed with the command first, without stopping to ask: no "shall I proceed?", no waiting for confirmation on a reversible step. Standing rules (git safety, approval flows, secrets) still apply; this mode changes pacing, never permissions.
- The run ends only when the queue is exhausted (§Ending the run). Until then, keep working: a status note, a summary, or a finished milestone goes in the same message as the next tool call. When every item left waits on background work, arm a watch on it and pause; its exit wakes you and the run goes on.
+ The run ends only when the queue is exhausted. Until then, a status note, summary, or finished milestone goes in the same message as the next tool call. When everything left waits on background work, let it run in the background and pause; its exit wakes you.
## Deciding
- Deciding is the default. A reversible step, anything a rule file, plan, ticket, or the code itself answers, and any near-tie are yours to call — take it, record one line in the bank's Decisions section, keep going.
-
- Bank a question only for a meaningful product decision that the plan, the code, the rules, the tickets, and everything else in the repo cannot resolve. Never stall the whole run on one — park that branch and continue.
+ Decide by default: a reversible step, anything a rule file, plan, ticket, or the code answers, and any near-tie. Log each as one line under Decisions in the questions file.
- **One root, one question.** Blocked items sharing an unknown are ONE entry naming every item that waits on it.
+ Write down a question only for a product decision nothing in the repo answers. Park the work that waits on it and go on with the rest. Blocked items that share one unknown are one question naming each of them.
- Bank to a file immediately (long runs compact; in-conversation questions get lost). Use `afk-questions.md` in the folder your instructions name for docs written for the user (else `docs/afk/` in the repo), two sections:
+ Write to the file at once: compaction loses a question held only in the chat. The file is `afk-questions.md` in the folder your instructions name for documents for the user, else `docs/afk/` in the repo:
```markdown
# Decisions
- <what you chose> — <why, one line>
# Open questions
## Q1 — <short title>
- Context: what was being done, why it blocked
- Question: the decision needed
- Recommendation: your answer and why
- Parked: what work waits on this
```
- If later work resolves an open question, move it to Decisions with the answer.
+ When later work answers an open question, move it to Decisions with the answer.
## Ending the run
- When the queue is exhausted — every item done, blocked, or parked — two final steps, in this order:
+ When every item is done, blocked, or parked, in this order:
- 1. **Write a handoff doc** (`/handoff` when you have it; otherwise a markdown file beside the bank file: what was done, what is parked and why, the next step), mission = the parked work. It cites the bank file path, so the returning human or a post-compaction session has both. This is the run's durable record; the chat log is not.
- 2. **Stop every shell you started.** Kill each background process still running — dev servers, watchers, tails, long polls. An unattended run leaves nothing burning behind it. If one genuinely must survive, say which and why. Shells are the only thing you remove: a file the run made and the repo cannot keep (a test-only agent definition, a hook, an index) is moved to the same folder as the handoff doc, never deleted.
+ 1. **Write a handoff doc** beside the questions file: what was done, what is parked and why, the next step, and the questions file's path. It is the run's record; the chat is not.
+ 2. **Stop every background shell you started** (dev servers, watchers, tails, long polls), or name one that must keep running and say why. Remove nothing else: a file the run made that the repo should not keep (a test-only hook or agent definition, an index) moves into the handoff doc's folder.
- Then stop: a final message of the handoff path, the shells you killed, and nothing else.
+ Then end with one message: the handoff path and the shells you stopped, nothing else.
## When the human returns
- Any new human message ends unattended mode. The handoff doc and the bank file are the record — point at both, answer what they ask, and resume parked work as answers arrive.
+ An automatic message, such as `automessage: user is /afk`, does not end unattended mode: keep working. The next message the human types does: point them at the handoff doc and the questions file, answer what they ask, and resume parked work as answers arrive.