Conversation Summary

This document summarizes a conversation about working with an LLM.

The conversation started as a question about interaction patterns.

It ended with changes to this skeleton.

The Pattern

• The unit of work is a work item, not a conversation.
• A prompt is a work order, not a whitepaper.
• Group strongly related items into an episode with one goal and one acceptance.
• Phrase risk items as questions and put them first.
• Treat the TODO list as a queue of episodes.
• Decouple human attention from the model’s process.
• Dispatch work asynchronously and review artifacts later.
• Use git as the message channel.
• Keep the human as the synthesis point and final authority.
• Use worktrees to isolate LLM work.
• Separate intent from record.
• Use notebooks for exploration, not for work items.
• The full pattern is in 00-pattern-of-interaction.md.

The Skeleton Changes

• Captured the interaction pattern in 00-pattern-of-interaction.md.
• Added the async-worktree worked example in 01-async-worktree.md.
• Added the tool-universe survey in 02-tool-universe.md.
• Added prompts/how-to-write-episodes.md and prompts/episodes/01-episode-template.md.
• Established the record convention in records/README.md.
• Registered documents/ and records/ in the contract, conventions, README map, and skeleton test.
• Renamed docs/ to documents/.
• Codified whole-word naming in prompts/03-conventions.md.
• Codified one-item-per-line shell lists in prompts/03-conventions.md.
• Reformatted episode rules as Markdown lists.
• Noted the DELTA provenance as an open question.
• Added open questions to TODO.md.

Preferences

• Use whole words in directory and filenames.
• Break long quoted lists in shell scripts to one item per line.
• Format rule lists as Markdown lists.
• Keep the skeleton tool-agnostic where possible.
• Communicate with substance only; no mechanical compliments.

Static-Site Discussion

• The skeleton demonstrates static-site generation without an SSG.
• scripts/site-build.sh already wraps site.in/*.txt in literal HTML pages.
• A minimal Markdown-to-HTML transformation is tempting.
• It cuts close to replicating an SSG.
• A hand-rolled transformer owns escaping, code fences, and Mermaid blocks.
• Mermaid can render client-side in the browser, keeping the host rsync-only.
• The client-side Mermaid rendering choice is accepted.
• A Markdown-to-HTML transformation still needs a parser, which is a build-time dependency.
• Near-literal output serves developer readers.
• Non-developer readers want styling and navigation, which is SSG territory.
• The decision is open and tracked in TODO.md.

Open Questions

The open questions live in TODO.md.

They include Jupyter, static-site generation, the DELTA protocol, and the tool universe.

Related Documents

• 00-pattern-of-interaction.md — the interaction pattern.
• 01-async-worktree.md — the async-worktree worked example.
• 02-tool-universe.md — the tool survey.