Aglet

Triage an Unclear Agent Brief Before Work Starts

An unclear agent brief creates avoidable disagreement about what counts as progress. Triage should extract the decision the work supports, the evidence available, the permitted scope, and the expected handoff. Separate missing information from competing interpretations before anyone starts investigating.

Establish what is happening

  1. Name the decision

    Rewrite the request as one observable decision or deliverable, such as compare, diagnose, change, or recommend. Identify who will use the result and what they need to decide. Flag verbs like improve or check when no measurable outcome is attached.

  2. Inventory boundaries

    List repositories, records, environments, time windows, tools, and source materials in scope, then state exclusions and approval gates. Record what the agent may inspect, draft, or change. Mark unavailable context explicitly instead of filling gaps with assumed authority.

  3. Define the handoff

    Specify the required evidence, format, confidence language, open questions, and human action at completion. Add a stopping condition for insufficient evidence or conflicting requirements. Preserve the original request beside the rewritten brief so interpretation changes remain reviewable.

What to carry forward

Return a bounded brief with decision, scope, evidence, constraints, deliverable, owner, and stopping condition. Triage is complete when two readers would choose the same first investigation and recognize the same unacceptable result. Keep the brief open where the requested authority or outcome is still ambiguous.

Keep the decision with the work.

Use a Work Item in Aglet to record the problem, the evidence you have, and the next decision. Add an owner and priority, then keep updates in the discussion so the next person can follow the reasoning.

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