Fulcrum 6 of 18
Turning intent into scope and tasks
When the agent translates what the person wants into a plan, a task list or a handoff.
What goes wrong here
Translation loses meaning. The agent restates the ask in a tidier form that isn't what was asked. It drops the sub-asks it didn't understand and flattens nuance into black-and-white rules. Or it writes tasks so terse that whoever picks them up later has to guess what they meant.
How it compounds if nothing catches it
The plan becomes the thing the work is checked against. If the plan is wrong, every later check faithfully confirms the wrong thing. The tests pass and the evidence is real, but the result still isn't what the person wanted.
What the harness does here
declare-scope turns the ask into testable statements of what the person will experience ('When {situation}, {what happens}'). It records them with a certainty number, so the scope can't be quietly reinterpreted later. decompose turns a confirmed intent map into tasks without losing the person's words. gap narrows an overwhelming scope to one piece that can be finished, with a stated test for done. nested-intent2 writes a map in which each node carries enough intent for an agent reading only that node to act. intent is a writing standard that makes each statement checkable on first read. A confirmed scope can be saved as a 'seed': the confirmed intent plus a description of the finished result, which later work is checked against (align, dispatch-seed).
The pieces that act here
- /declare-scope
Decompose a task into testable UX intent statements and post to compaction. Use at the start of every non-trivial task.
- /decompose
Convert a confirmed intent map into zero-loss actionable tasks. Use after /align has produced a confirmed intent map. This is NOT a format converter — it's a reasoning guide that teaches you HOW to think about turning confirmed human intent into tasks that preserve every word of the original signal.
- /gap
Isolate a specific measurable gap in the current scope, predict what's next, and design a plan in human terms that communicates the gap boundaries and what will fix it. Use when you need to zoom in from a large scope to one concrete, actionable piece.
- /nested-intent2
Produce a nested intent map for a multi-layered initiative — top-level goal, child goals, sub-goals, cross-cutting intents — where each node carries an intent paragraph, in the voice of the person you're working with if you've calibrated it, with enough precision that a subagent reading just that node can act at 100% fidelity. Use when the human asks for nested intent on an initiative with multiple sub-goals, when a plan needs to be turned into a context-managed handoff package for subagents, or when an existing outline needs intent paragraphs added at each layer of nesting.
- /intent
How to write intent statements that a human can validate without guessing. Use when writing intent statements, testable contracts, scope declarations, or any documentation that describes what the system does or what a person experiences. MUST be consumed before writing to the Intent DB, before creating verification contracts, before writing journey documentation, or before any /declare-scope.
- /intent-lifecycle
Use when starting any feature, bugfix, or refactor — ensures the person's stated intent survives from conversation through planning, implementation, tests, commit, and audit, instead of quietly drifting at each handoff.
- /align
Figure out what the human actually wants before doing anything. Use when starting a session, when intent is unclear, when switching topics, or when the human says "/align". This is not a technical document — it's a guide for how to listen.
- /dispatch-seed
Pipeline from intent alignment to agent dispatch. Runs /align until confirmed, creates an observable seed file, generates a plan with a docs-first approach, then dispatches. The full lifecycle from "I want this done" to "an agent is working on it.