# Writing a brief Use when you write anything a worker reads: a task note, a `--fresh` prompt, a reviewer brief. The worker starts with no context. What is not in the brief, or one pointer away, does not exist for it. ## Rules 1. **End on a completion criterion.** The brief says how the worker tells done from not done, and the criterion is both checkable and exhaustive: "every file in the UNITS list compiles under `npm run typecheck`", not "update the call sites". A vague bound invites the worker to stop at the first plausible point. 2. **Inline what every path needs; point to the rest.** Files, the verify command, scope, and the final action go in the brief. Shared context goes in one place (an umbrella's note) and the brief points at it: `Read: mu task notes sweep -w audit`. Repeating it per task copies it into every worker's context and lets the copies drift. 3. **State the target, not the ban.** "Edit only files under `src/auth/`" works; "don't touch other files" puts other files in the worker's head. Keep a prohibition only for a hard guardrail with no positive form, and pair it with the positive target. 4. **Reuse the recipe words.** *Unit*, *stop rule*, *verdict*, *finding*, *umbrella* mean the same thing in every recipe. Use them as written; a worker that read one recipe brief reads the next faster. 5. **Cut the default.** A sentence the worker would obey anyway ("be careful", "write clean code") costs attention and changes nothing. Delete the whole sentence. 6. **Ask for evidence, not reassurance.** The final note names the commands run and their exit codes (the task note contract). "Done, all good" is not a result. ## Shape ```text Task in . Workspace: . Read: mu task notes -w (and the umbrella's, if any) GOAL: FILES: DONE WHEN: VERIFY: ⚠️ FINAL ACTION git commit -am '' THEN mu task close -w --evidence '' ``` Done when a worker with no other context could finish the task from the brief and the notes it points at, and could tell when it is done.