task-contract

Copy the contract template and fill four required sections: at least three false-success conditions, expected evidence, a layered verification approach, and a replan budget. Then record it in the todo tool's notes and confirm it with the user before starting work.

False-success conditions describe ways a task can look complete while actually failing, such as tests passing because assertions were weakened or a clean git status hiding missing commit history. Each condition must be independently checked at task close, not merely asserted as checked.

Skip the contract for single-file edits like README or typo fixes, query or chat tasks, and cases where the user already provided explicit success criteria. Over-writing contracts for trivial work is treated as unproductive busywork.

A counter-metric pairs with each success metric to detect cheating paths, based on Goodhart's law. For example, test pass rate pairs with code review rejection rate, and both must look normal for the task to count as complete.

The replan budget caps retries per failure, typically one or two attempts. If an entire layer of steps fails, the agent must stop and re-plan rather than pushing forward, and any user request to adjust halts progress immediately.