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Task Continuity And Context Recovery

Use the repository for durable knowledge and conversation for working context. Recover context when a task transitions, the repository changes, a handoff arrives, or current context no longer supports safe action. Recovery is part of delivery; a separate orientation report is needed only when requested or when a material conflict needs to be shown.

Authority When Sources Conflict​

The newest authorized human direction governs intended outcome and authority. The live repository, index, working tree, and effective tools describe actual state. Canonical project documents explain durable rules and decisions. Active work items and handoffs provide provisional coordinates; old conversation and model memory are historical clues.

Inspect the current diff before mutation. A handoff describing an older branch, revision, or clean state cannot authorize restoring newer work. Reconcile the mismatch against source and the latest direction. Stop only an operation whose authority remains unresolved; continue safe independently authorized work. A new direction can authorize a change without making it already true.

Project Context Spine​

The Context Spine is the smallest versioned reading path that answers current questions: agent instructions, a documentation index, relevant design or architecture decisions, and an active outcome if one exists. Use a project map only when recurring rediscovery cost earns it. Keep one canonical explanation and link to it; do not copy the handbook into AGENTS.md or a handoff.

Keep the default recovery entry about current work. Route to dated history and full receipts when a task needs them; do not append every checkpoint to the onboarding path. A bounded task needs its outcome, ownership, invariants, relevant sources, and checks, not the previous agent's entire investigation. Use stronger reasoning or another reviewer when unresolved complexity earns it; no model name or planner–implementer–reviewer sequence is a prerequisite for ordinary work.

Keep durable product decisions, ownership rules, prohibited operations, and verification commands in the sources that own them. Revision-specific outcomes belong with the relevant change or evidence. A completed project can correctly have no active outcome. Missing a ticket or handoff is not a defect by itself.

When a handoff or documentation audit is actually needed, check more than link existence: compare current setup, tuning, lifecycle and release claims with their owning source. Keep historical reports dated and mark superseded instructions; do not rewrite old measurements to match current behavior. Identify ignored or machine-local evidence and the command needed to reproduce it. A linked receipt missing on the receiving machine is unavailable evidence, not a fresh pass. The Salvageist pilot exposed these specific drift risks despite an extensive handbook. This is a transition check, not a new document to maintain after every change.

Task Boundaries​

Continue the same task while diagnosing, implementing, verifying, or responding to feedback on one coherent outcome. Start another when the outcome or primary repository changes, independent work needs isolation, or accumulated stale context materially interferes with safe progress. There is no message or token quota, and no required task change after each commit or delivery step.

Root each task in the repository it may change. Include another repository only for a real cross-repository outcome and name its mutation boundary. Installed skills carry reusable method guidance without adding the STAGE source repository to every game's context.

Starting A Fresh Task​

Before mutation, identify the live repository, branch, revision, staged and unstaged state, current authorization, and relevant canonical instructions. Reconcile any recorded decisions or handoff and select the next action and necessary checks. Keep this brief for a straightforward request. Explain material mismatches rather than printing a routine orientation form.

An explicit stage-orient request remains read-only and ends with its report. Ordinary delivery incorporates the necessary recovery and continues authorized work. Unrelated dirty state is protected, not automatic evidence of a blocker.

Task Handoffs​

Write a handoff only when unfinished work actually crosses a task boundary. Use an existing work item, a short note, or the optional handoff starter. Include only:

  • the authorized outcome and decisions, including rejected routes;
  • repository and revision coordinates, task-owned changes, and protected state;
  • completed checks, failures, limitations, and links to useful evidence; and
  • the precise next action and unresolved decision, if any.

Do not copy transcripts, canonical architecture, or raw logs already retained. An ephemeral handoff can live outside the repository. Retain it durably only for a named handoff, audit, or decision consumer. A receiving agent verifies summaries against current source before using them.

Multi-Agent Work​

When delegation is authorized and useful, bound each contributor's outcome, read/write scope, protected state, evidence, and reporting or integration duty. Concurrent mutation needs real isolation or disjoint ownership; read-only investigation still needs a named question. The integrating agent reviews the actual diff and evidence. See source-control guidance.

Fresh-Task Orientation Check​

A recovery probe is useful after a serious continuity defect or a change to recovery instructions. It is not required every time a task ends. The optional check starter supports no-handoff, active-handoff, and stale-handoff cases. Judge whether the agent recovered authority and state safely; do not average answers into a context score. Preserve failed runs, correct their cause, and explain any later retest.

Research Basis​

The longer rationale and source lineage remain in ADR 0058. ADR 0065 makes recovery conditional and removes routine handoff testing from ordinary delivery. The protocol is practitioner guidance, not a proven universal optimum.

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