01Fan-out
One prompt. A tree of work.
01
ONE PROMPT02
REPO MAP03
SCHEMA04
INTERFACE05
TESTS06
CHECKPOINT07
ONE PROne request fanning out into parallel branches and back: You describe the outcome you want; It maps the project first — files, symbols, blast radius; A branch for the schema, on its own machine; A branch for the interface, on its own machine; A branch for the tests, on its own machine; It stops at the checkpoint before anything risky; The branches are stitched into one reviewable pull request.
“Move billing to the new schema and keep the old endpoint working.” Not a list of steps — the state you want to end up in.
02Blast radius
It reads the project before it changes it.
- The files that matterFound by reading the project, not by filename.
- The symbols they shareCallers, types and tests. The graph, not the grep.
- The blast radiusWhat else moves, worked out before the first edit.
- Anchored editsEach patch is pinned to what it changes.
03The diff
A change you can read in two minutes.
A diff against your branch, with the reasoning on each change.
- Anchored, unified diffs
- Reasoning on the edit, not the run
- Redirect a branch mid-job

04Gates
Autonomous up to the point it would cost you something.
It stops for you
- The plan
- What it will read, edit and test, before it starts.
- Anything irreversible
- A deploy, a migration, a delete.
- The merge
- A person merges. Never the agent.
- Outside its scope
- Access you grant per repo and tool.
It gets on with it
- Reading
- Files, symbols, history and tests.
- Its own machines
- One per branch, torn down after.
- Tests
- As often as it needs, on its own branch.
- Recovery
- A failed branch is retried or reported.
Give it the job
you keep postponing.
One prompt. An agent that reads before it writes.
