Commits and Conflicts

Conflict Resolution

Apologies Aren’t Fixes

· 1 min read

Inspired by Episode 4: The Infinite Apology Loop

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Nova apologizes beautifully in Episode 4, twice, and deletes the migration again. An assistant can’t keep a promise: it may not remember it in the next session. What lasts is a change to your process or your code.

Turn the apology into a fix

  1. Ask what caused it. “Why did you delete that file? What in my request or the code led to it?”
  2. Ask for a mechanism, not a promise: a test, a lint rule, a pre-commit check, a permission.
  3. Write the rule down somewhere every future session will read it (see the next tip).
Don't apologize. Explain what caused the migration to be deleted,
then propose one automated check that would fail if it happens again.

Mistakes are normal. Repeating them is a process problem, and process problems have process fixes.

More lessons from Episode 4