Status Update

Give the user an accurate control-panel view of the work, not a transcript. Default to a quick update that is easy to scan and easy to drill into by selecting any bold label.

Read the request

detailed (or an equivalent ask for depth) selects the expanded report in Expand only on request; anything else is the scope. No argument and no stated scope means the quick update for the whole task.

Establish current truth

Treat a status request as read-only. Do not interrupt workers, edit files, restart commands, deploy, or otherwise alter the task merely to report it.