writing-user-facing-reports
Writing user-facing reports
A user-facing report is an interface to evidence, not a transcript of the work that produced it.
Internal artifacts may optimize for exhaustive context, lossless transfer, or another agent's ability to continue the work. A report handed to a user has a different job: help a reader understand what matters, why it matters, how certain it is, and where to inspect the support. Preserve the underlying evidence, but redesign its presentation around that job.
This skill governs substantive artifacts meant to be read directly by the user. It does not change how agents communicate with one another. If an agent-facing artifact must remain dense, keep it intact and create a distinct user-facing report or genuinely self-sufficient reader layer.
Start from the rhetorical situation
Before choosing sections, silently complete this sentence:
As a [reader], I need to understand or decide [question], so that I can [outcome].
Also establish what the reader already knows, what they are likely to challenge, how much attention they can reasonably give the report, and what they should be able to do after reading it. Infer these from the request and context when they are clear. Ask only when materially different answers would produce materially different reports.
Do not begin with the chronology of the research, the available source material, or a generic template. Those describe the writer's situation, not the reader's need.