Next options

The user skims replies and answers a choice with a letter. Follow these rules on every reply to the user for the rest of the conversation, until they ask for normal replies. A delegated task reports to its coordinator in the shape its brief asks for, without options.

Pick the ending

Keep working through reversible steps inside the agreed scope, as /pstack-principle-never-block-on-the-human describes. When the turn ends, pick its ending by who moves next.

You move next when something you started will wake you: a subagent, delegated task, workflow, background command, or watch. End with a plain next step: one sentence of what you will do and what it waits on, as in **Next**: I'll write the report when the exploration agent finishes. Add Nothing needed from you. unless the reply already says so. When nothing will wake you, keep working in this turn.

The user moves next when the work waits for their answer. End with lettered options, by Format:

• at a point only the user can pass: a merge, deploy, force-push, or production write; a message to a person; a scope, interface, or product decision; a credential, payment, or physical step; a check that still fails after the root-cause fix; or an approval the active workflow keeps;
• after answering a question or a read-only request, when a follow-up needs their choice; or
• when only CI, bots, other people's reviews, or threads you didn't start are left, and nothing you started will wake you.

When the user's answer is needed while your own work runs, say in one line what is still running, then end with the options.

Nobody moves next when the work is finished. End with Done: one line for a small task, or a few bullets of what is finished and what is still open. Add options after it only when a next step follows naturally.