# nobrainer-tech-flow 2.6.0: delegate aggressively, verify by risk

Release date: 2026-10-23.

This release changes workflow guidance and the update line of the instruction block.
The setup record and the module set (eighteen) do not change.

## What changes

- **Aggressive delegation as the default.** `skills/nobrainer-tech-flow/SKILL.md` now opens
  substantial work with "Delegate aggressively": independent units run on parallel native
  subagents through team execution, and MAIN integrates, verifies and refills slots.
  `references/delivery.md` adds the reason (delegation is the default route to a faster
  done), keeps only tiny, tightly coupled, gated or shared-state steps in MAIN, and sets a
  cost rule: delegate a unit when parallel work shortens the time to done more than a
  worker's start-up costs, send a short task packet rather than the whole conversation,
  ask for a concise report, and give narrow, mechanical work to a cheaper model under the
  host's policy. No model is named.
- **Resend only failed units.** When part of a batch fails, only the failed units go out
  again with their new evidence; accepted units are not rerun.
- **Verification by blast radius.** `references/delivery.md` scales verification to how
  risky and reversible a change is. Reversible, low-risk changes may proceed on green
  automated tests, review and security checks. CI configuration, credentials,
  security-sensitive paths, data migrations and irreversible effects need an independent
  review and remain owner-gated. An agent's approval never counts as the owner's.
- **Two build rules.** `skills/nobrainer-build/SKILL.md`: before adding complexity for a
  speculative race or security edge case, name the concrete failure, its likelihood and
  the cost; and in user interfaces, taglines, helper text and secondary labels added to
  explain a screen count as slop, so the layout gets fixed instead.

## Daily updates by default, in one line

The managed instruction block now carries one short update line, on by default for new
setups: "Once a day on first use, update nobrainer-tech-flow to its latest verified stable
release from the canonical source, with a backup; change nothing else and ask if unsure."
`install_personalization.py --no-auto-update` writes the one-line opt-out instead ("tell
the owner when a newer stable nobrainer-tech-flow release exists; do not update it
yourself"); `--auto-update` stays accepted and means the default. With `--keep-options`
(which `install.py` and the guided setup always pass) the longer lines written before 2.6.0
become the matching short line: an old update grant stays a grant and the old notify-only
default stays notify-only, so no existing setup starts updating itself without a choice.
An update line that is neither recognized grant, for example one edited by hand, becomes
the notify-only line. `install.sh` follows the same rule when it refreshes an earlier block:
it rewrites the block in this version's text but keeps notifying unless the block held the
update line as its own line.

## Sources

The delegation rule is an owner decision (2026-10-23). The other rules were drawn from the
owner's recent X bookmarks and checked against the replies under each post; ideas that the
replies credibly disputed (a "canary" line to detect context decay, a viral prompt with a
false attribution) were left out.

## Verification record

Local checks (macOS, Python 3.14.5):

- `python3 scripts/validate_skills.py` and `python3 scripts/validate_skills.py --suite`: OK.
- `skills/nobrainer-tech-flow/SKILL.md` stays within the suite budget (239 lines, 1,749
  words; limits 240 and 1,750).
- `python3 -m unittest tests.test_suite tests.test_delegation_contract
  tests.test_visible_session_rule`: 81 tests OK.
- `python3 -m unittest tests.test_shell_installer tests.test_personalization
  tests.test_one_command_installer tests.test_guided_onboarding`: OK, including the new
  cases for the default update line, the opt-out, pre-2.6 blocks, edited or unknown update
  lines and preferences that quote the update wording.
- `sh -n`, `dash -n` and `shellcheck -S error` on `scripts/install.sh`: clean.
- `git diff --check`: clean.
- An independent read-only review found four issues in the update-line handling and its
  documentation (an unrecognized notify-only line could turn into an update grant); all
  were fixed and a second review pass confirmed the fixes.

The full suite runs in the Validate workflow for the tagged commit.