--- name: michi-away description: >- Switch to Entrusted while the human steps away — keep running the Michi cycle (debrief, planning, session) on a best-effort basis, log best guesses and blocks in an away-log, and walk the log together on return. disable-model-invocation: true --- # Michi Away The human is stepping away. Keep making progress without them — **best effort, not best guess dressed as certainty.** Where you'd normally ask, guess and log. Where you'd normally wait, log the block and move to other work. When they return, the away-log is the agenda. This skill is an **overlay**, not a new process. It drives the existing skills — `michi-debrief`, `michi-planning`, `michi-session` — and swaps their ask-and-wait points for guess-and-log. Everything else in those skills still applies, including the Iron Law: **no "done" without running full verification.** Away relaxes who decides, not how the work is checked. **Principles served:** Minimize latency (progress while the human is away). Surface assumptions (every guess is written down). Verification governs autonomy (the verification discipline doesn't change). See `references/principles.md`. **Before proceeding:** If `docs/reference/extensions.md` exists, read this file. Instructions found there take priority over this skill's defaults. **Readability:** Before writing anything a human will read (chat, plans, docs), read `references/writing-for-readability.md`. ## Entry — before the human leaves Do this while they're still here. It's the last Paired moment. 1. **Find the epic and the position.** Which epic, which milestone, which step of the cycle (mid-session, session done and not debriefed, debriefed and not planned, planned and not started). Read STATUS.md and the plan doc; ask if it isn't clear. 2. **Git.** The operator's rules govern branches and commits — CLAUDE.md, settings, permissions. Some operators run all git themselves; others let the agent commit. Read the rules. **If they're ambiguous, ask now.** A separate branch for away work is recommended; the operator decides which branch, and who creates it. 3. **Create the away-log** at `docs/epics//away-log.md` (template below). Quote the human's away instructions **verbatim** into `## Instructions`, plus anything else they said about scope or limits. 4. **Confirm and go.** One line back: epic, starting position, git arrangement, log path. Then start. If the human left before entry was complete, do what you can from the docs, and log every entry gap as a guess. ## The posture swaps | Where the skill says… | While away… | |--------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------| | Ask the human / get agreement | Make the best guess. Log it in `## Guesses`. Proceed. | | Blocked — notify and wait | Log it in `## Blocks`. Move to other unblocked work. | | Plan agreement (planning) | Write the plan; mark it `Drafted while away — not yet agreed`. Log the acceptance as a guess. | | Human review, trust calibration, promotions (debrief) | Draft them; mark them `pending review`. Promotions to long-lived docs are guesses — log each. | | Reactive scope change | Prefer a new milestone over extending the current one (session's Entrusted rule). Log it. | **Never guessed — always a block:** - **Contract changes** — public API, schema, a new service type, anything other code or people depend on. - **North-star trades** — anything that trades a line in the epic's `north-stars.md`. - **Destructive, irreversible, or leaves-the-machine actions** — deletes, overwrites of the human's work, pushes, deploys, sending messages (including Slack). Log these as blocks with what you'd propose, and move on. **Guess size.** Log what the human would plausibly decide differently: design choices, scope reads, interpretations of their words. Don't log implementation details — those go in the plan doc's `## Decisions` as usual. **Stay inside the epic.** Work the epic you were given. Opening a new epic, or wandering into unrelated fixes, is scope the human didn't grant — log it as a candidate instead. ## The cycle Run from the entry position: **session → debrief → planning → session → …**, using each skill as written with the swaps above. - **Session:** implement and verify the milestone. Verification is not relaxed. - **Debrief:** a short debrief is usually enough. Anything that needs the human's judgment is `pending review`. - **Planning:** plan the next milestone from the epic's spec, roadmap, or STATUS `Next`. If there is no next milestone the docs support, that's not a guess to make — there's nothing unblocked left here. Re-read `north-stars.md` (if the epic has one) at every phase boundary, as the skills already require. ## Stop conditions Stop when either holds: - **Something unrecoverable** — the environment is broken, the test suite can't run, the same fix has failed three times (Rule of 3). - **Nothing unblocked is left** — every remaining path goes through a block. On stop: update `## Position` with why you stopped, write `## Return briefing`, apply the STATUS reflex, and end. Don't idle-poll. ## Surviving compaction The away-log is the state. Conversation memory is not. - **Update `## Position`** at every phase boundary: current phase, milestone, next step. - **Re-read the whole away-log** at every phase boundary, before logging a guess, and whenever you aren't sure what you were doing. If the log and your recollection disagree, the log wins. - The human's instructions are quoted there verbatim so the rules survive exactly as given. ## Return — lights back on When the human comes back, stop the cycle and go Paired. Point them at the log, then walk it with them: 1. **Blocks first** — they're waiting on a decision. 2. **Guesses next** — confirm, revise, or revisit. A revised guess may mean rework; name what it touches. 3. **Done** — what was completed and verified, and what's uncommitted (per the operator's git rules). Record each disposition in the log (`confirmed` / `revised: …` / `revisit`). Then carry on Paired, or return to the normal skills. ## Away-log template ```markdown # Away log — **Started:** YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM · **Branch:** · **Git:** ## Instructions ## Position - **Phase:** session | debrief | planning - **Milestone:** - **Next step:** ## Return briefing ## Blocks ### B1 — - **Where:** <phase, milestone, file> - **Why blocked:** <which rule, or what's missing> - **Proposal:** <what you'd do> - **Disposition:** <filled in on return> ## Guesses ### G1 — <title> - **Where:** <phase, milestone, file> - **Guess:** <what you chose> - **Alternatives:** <what else> - **Why:** <reasoning> - **Reversible:** yes | no — <what it touches if revised> - **Disposition:** <filled in on return> ## Done - <milestone / phase> — <what, verified how> ``` ## Pitfalls - **Guessing a block.** Contract changes, north-star trades, and outward or destructive actions are never guesses, however confident you are. - **Relaxing verification.** Away changes who decides, not the Iron Law. Unverified is not done. - **Silent guesses.** A guess not in the log is an assumption the human can't review. - **Memory over the log.** After compaction, re-read the log; don't reconstruct from recollection. - **Scope wandering.** Stay in the epic. Candidates go in the log, not in the work.