Pruning My Pothos
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What Has to Survive for Work to Continue

A transcript records how the work got here. The next person needs where it stands and who owns the next step. Eight frames on the difference.

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  1. One exhausted runner hands the baton to the next, and trailing from it is the entire transcript of the race, while the new runner asks: so where are we? Full transcript, zero clue. Continuing work needs where things stand, not how they got here. A transcript reads: use Postgres, no, SQLite, fine, Postgres after all. Which one still stands? Continuing work needs current truth and an owner for the next step.

  2. Three questions: what happened, which is the record and evidence for looking back; where things stand, current truth for going on; and who owns the next step, which is the handoff. One file can serve all three, but they are different jobs.

  3. Thirty-five landmarks. Thirty-four demolished. In this repository's long-running handoff document, the list headed Key files touched names thirty-five paths, and thirty-four of them do not exist at the commit the article cites.

  4. A transcript shows a choice decided, reversed and decided again, and doesn't say which one governs. A current-state card does: database Postgres, decided at 14:15, next step yours. Length isn't the defect; ambiguity about what is current is.

  5. Watched the whole rerun. Still no plan. Replay reconstructs a past execution from what was recorded. Continuity preserves enough current truth for work to continue from here.

  6. An instruction, such as approval is required before publishing, is true for every piece of work. State, such as this change is waiting on approval, is true this afternoon and false tomorrow. Mixing them buries rules in status notes, or writes live status into the rules.

  7. This repository's handoff document, current.md, lists thirty-five key files touched, and thirty-four of them no longer exist at the commit the article cites. They were true when written. Make a handoff's position checkable: pin the version, date it, and name the owner.

  8. The next person needs what's done, what's true now, the next step, the constraints still active, and who owns it; then they can act. A longer record isn't the fix. Separate how the work got here from where it currently stands.