Observe

Conduct a structured observation session — framing the observation target, witnessing with sustained neutral attention, recording patterns without interpretation, categorizing findings, generating hypotheses from patterns, and archiving the observations for future reference.

When to Use

• A system's behavior is unclear and action without observation would be premature
• Debugging a problem where the cause is unknown — observation before intervention prevents masking symptoms
• A codebase or system has been changed and the effects need to be witnessed before further changes are made
• Understanding user behavior patterns over a conversation to improve future interactions
• Auditing own reasoning patterns for biases, habits, or recurring errors
• After learn has built a model that needs validation through observation of the system in action

Inputs

• Required: Observation target — a system, codebase, behavior pattern, user interaction, or reasoning process to observe
• Optional: Observation duration/scope — how long or deep to observe before concluding
• Optional: Specific question or hypothesis to guide observation focus
• Optional: Prior observations to compare against (detecting change over time)