By Episode 13 the narration has leaked from Nova into Paul, who now announces each step of feeding the turtles. Assistants narrate because nobody told them not to. The good news is that output format is one of the things they follow best, as long as you say it once, clearly, and in a place they re-read.
Say what a reply is
Not “be concise”. That’s a mood. Say what the reply contains, in order, and what it never contains.
- Result first. What changed, or the answer. One to three lines.
- Evidence. The command you ran and what it printed, or the diff.
- Needs. Anything you have to decide or provide. Otherwise nothing.
Say what it never contains
- “Let me…”, “I’ll now…”, “Analyzing…”, “Great question”.
- Restating what you asked.
- Plans for work it hasn’t done yet.
- Apologies.
Prompt to steal
Reply format, every time:
1. Result: what changed or the answer. 1-3 lines.
2. Evidence: the command and its output, or the diff.
3. Needs: only if you need something from me.
Never include: narration of what you're about to do, restating my request,
progress updates, or apologies. If nothing changed, say "No change" and why.Put it in your rules file, not a single chat, so it survives the next session. This week’s Hint of the Week shows how to turn that into a reply contract the assistant keeps.
