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Decisions waiting on you

A project stops and waits for the owner in only a few ways: a question, a step to approve, a sign-off, or a step that failed. All of them land in the same places, counted once, and each question comes with the agent's own recommendation.

Example screen with made-up data.

Where you see it​

  • The update strip. At the top of the Office, a line says Needs your decision: how many questions are waiting and who asked. Plan steps to approve, failed steps, and sign-offs are listed after it in their own words ("and 1 plan step"). The count always matches the cards on the Today tab, because the box counts once for both.
  • The agent's row. An agent that needs you shows needs you and moves to the top, with an Answer button and a count.
  • The desk. Tap the row and the agent asks each question in its own words, one at a time.
  • The phone. A short message with a link goes to the owner. The link opens a small page shaped to the question.
  • The Roadmap. A step nobody approved has an Approve button. Your own steps have Mark done.
  • At risk. A late step, a message that did not go out, or an agent close to its spending cap shows on its own line.

What happens, step by step​

Say the cafe cannot host the workshop on the planned date.

  1. Ada does the research first. A yes-or-no or a choice question is refused unless it carries her recommended answer and her reasons.
  2. She writes one plain question. "Can I move the workshop to Saturday April 25?" The door refuses insider words, file names, and two decisions dressed as one.
  3. The card says what a yes does. "If you say yes: I change the date and draft a note to the 11 people signed up. You send it."
  4. The owner gets a link on the phone, and the same card shows on the Office.
  5. The owner taps an answer, with an optional note. The answer is written onto the question's row, and a note drops into Ada's inbox.
  6. Ada wakes soon. If she asked to be woken on the answer, her next wake is cleared, so she starts within 15 minutes.
  7. If nobody answers in 4 hours, the same link is emailed once. There is no second nag and no expiry. The question waits until it is answered or dismissed.
  8. A question the world already answered goes away. If its step turns done or dropped, the box withdraws the question within 15 minutes.

The card always has the same order: the question, what a yes does, why it is asking, any Read buttons, the answers, one note box, then Talk about it, Dismiss, and Skip for now.

What powers it​

PartWhat it does
asks tableOne row per question. Nothing can be lost, and "what is waiting on me" has one answer.
logbook.py askThe door. Refuses a question with no recommendation, insider words, or more than one decision.
agent_ask.pyCreates the question, sends the link, and sends the one reminder email.
office_page.htmlDraws the update strip and the question card, in the same words everywhere.
logbook.py plan approve, plan signoffWhere a step's stamp and a named sign-off are written.

Why it works this way​

Why the card is the same everywhere. The same question used to be drawn four ways: on the desk, in a pop-up, on the Today card, and on the phone. Each had different words on different buttons. The owner walked three real cards and could not answer any of them. Now one piece of the page decides the words, and every place asks it.

Why research first. The owner said an agent "should have done some research on why it chose that option." So the door will not take a choice without a pick and a reason.

Why one count. The strip and the Today tab once disagreed on how many things were waiting. Now the box counts once, and both show that number.

For actions where the box runs a fixed command on a yes (a send, a fix), the link works the same way, with extra locks. See Tap to approve.

Connected to​