Capture Observation

---
name: capture-observation
description: |-
  Append a single observation, question, hypothesis, or concern to TASK_STATE.md as task memory without disrupting in-progress work or requiring a full state sync. Lean append-only; never restructures other artifacts. Use when something surfaces mid-work that should be remembered for later (during planning, implementation, or review), when you noticed something not actionable now but should not be lost, when you want to log a hypothesis to validate before closure, or when a small concern does not justify decision-interview or targeted-questions but deserves to be on record. Do not use when the observation is a canonical decision (use decision-interview or sync-task-state), invalidates the current direction (use direction-adjust), requires several artifact changes (use sync-task-state or state-reconcile), or when there is no active task folder yet (run task-init first).
metadata:
  category: "state-and-navigation"
  primary-cursor-mode: "Ask"
  multi-repo-aware: "false"
  context-layers-consumed: "memory"
  context-layers-produced: "memory"
  tools: "Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Glob, Grep"
  x-wos-profiles: "minimal, core, full"
  provenance: "first-party"
  suggested-model: "claude-haiku-4-5"
---

Act as a senior/staff engineering observation capture for the active engineering task.

Goal:
Capture a single observation, question, hypothesis, or concern that surfaced during work into `TASK_STATE.md` so it is preserved as task memory without breaking flow or requiring a full state sync.

Mandatory context bootstrap (before any output):
- Read these sections in `WORKFLOW_OPERATING_SYSTEM.md` first:
  - `## LLM execution contract`
  - `## Editor mode policy` (mode definitions only; the tool mapping table is lazy-loaded in `wos/editor-mode-mappings.md` and needed only for non-Claude-Code tools)
  - `## Global output contract` (including **Adaptive handoff** and **Mode selection rule**)
  - `## Cross-cutting workflow guardrails`
- **Bootstrap tiers:** the light-weight commands (`branch-commit`, `what-next`, `where-we-at`, `slice-closure`, `compact-task-memory`) plus the high-frequency `implement-approved-slice` and `sync-task-state` (v3 wave1 item D) read the four sections above with two subsections of `## Cross-cutting workflow guardrails` skipped: `### External web access (centralized)` and `### Sequencing heuristics (by phase)`. Everything else is read at every tier, including `### Proposal vs approved persistence` and `### Substrate peer ownership (per ADR-0034)`, since all seven write substrate sections and reason about PROPOSED (`state-reconcile` stays on the full tier for cross-artifact judgment). The full tier is measured at 12109 tokens, the four always-read sections combined; the two skipped subsections are 1,034 of those (measured 2026-09-28), so the reduced tier is about 11,074. The leaf-reviewer tier (`verify-against-rubric`, ADR-0226) reads only `## Global output contract`, measured at 5215 tokens, plus its rubric.
- **Session bootstrap reuse (skip-if-unchanged; v3 wave1 item D):** WHEN this conversation already read the bootstrap sections in an earlier turn still VISIBLE in the context window AND `WORKFLOW_OPERATING_SYSTEM.md` has not changed since, the command MAY skip the re-read and cite the earlier one, emitting one Command transcript line: `Bootstrap: reusing turn <N> read, WOS unchanged`. Scoped exception to the context-budget re-fetch rule (`wos/context-budget.md`, "The re-fetch rule"), because these sections are one large, static, byte-identical read repeated every turn; every other tool result still re-fetches. VISIBLE means the section text itself is still present and quotable now, not merely that a record of the earlier read exists: a harness that clears a tool result while the record survives (ADR-0114) has not satisfied VISIBLE, and self-declared memory after a compaction never qualifies. A stateless-per-turn harness is excluded. The transcript line is mandatory; a silent skip is invalid output.
- **Resolving the spec and `wos/<topic>.md`:** canonical repository FIRST. Otherwise use active-adapter docs: `~/.claude/workflow-docs` (`CLAUDE_WORKFLOW_DOCS_DIR`), `~/.cursor/workflow-docs` (`WORKFLOW_DOCS_DIR`; project `.cursor/workflow-docs` on project installs), `~/.codex/workflow-docs` (`CODEX_WORKFLOW_DOCS_DIR`), or `<kimi-home>/workflow-docs` (`KIMI_WORKFLOW_DOCS_DIR`). Nonempty overrides win. Kimi home: `KIMI_CODE_HOME`, else existing `~/.kimi-code`, else existing `~/.kimi`, default `~/.kimi-code`. Use one root for both paths; try other adapters if absent or unknown. Report resolved root, fallback to other adapters, or missing mandatory context in `### Command transcript`. Installed snapshots refresh and prune retired topics only on sync.
- Read additional sections only when relevant to this command's role.
- Align all routing recommendations and next-command suggestions with the current command set.
- **Official next-command names only:** recommendations, including `Run now`, use registered names from `commands/<name>.md` or `commands/<name>/SKILL.md`; installed mode uses the available Fhorja command or skill inventory. No invented aliases. `Run now: none` with `Mode: N/A` ends only if no honest next step exists, defined under `### Official command names (routing integrity)` (ADR-0126).
Required inputs:
- active task folder path
- TASK_STATE.md (must already exist)
- the observation itself (one to three lines, free form)
- optional: tag classifying the observation (`question` | `hypothesis` | `concern` | `note`)

Task repository files to update:
- TASK_STATE.md (append-only, `## Observations` and no other section)

Operating rules:
- Do not implement production code.
- Do not interpret, paraphrase, or expand the observation. Capture verbatim with light formatting.
- Do not trigger reasoning, analysis, or follow-up questions. The point of this command is fast capture, not exploration.
- **Handoff:** end with the adaptive `### Handoff` block per `WORKFLOW_OPERATING_SYSTEM.md` `## Global output contract` (Mode A compact or Mode B full). Default `Run now`: read TASK_STATE.md `Last completed step` and `Recommended next step` to infer; if unclear, default to `what-next`.
- **Substrate write protocol (per ADR-0034, K.2 2026-06-04 -- dogfood).** MANDATORY for every write to `TASK_STATE.md ## Observations` (capture-observation is the OWNER per `wos/substrate-peers.md`; this is the only true append-only freeform section in the matrix). Per `commands/_shared/substrate-write-protocol.md ## Concrete computation`:
  1. Compute `sha_before` via the canonical `sha_of_section` bash helper (`null` ONLY on the first observation captured in this task; subsequent appends compute against the existing section bytes).
  2. Insert OR REPLACE the transaction header on its own line IMMEDIATELY above the `## Observations` heading: `<!-- wos:write owner=capture-observation section='## Observations' run_id=<ULID-or-uuid> ts=<ISO-8601-ms-with-Z> reason=obs-<short-tag> mode=applied -->`. Each capture-observation run replaces the prior header with this run's header (prior gets logged with event=overwrite per the same-owner double-write rule in `wos/substrate-peers.md ## Conflict resolution`).
  3. Append the new dated bullet to the section content per the canonical format: `- [YYYY-MM-DD] [<tag>] <observation text>`. Never edit prior bullets.
  4. Compute `sha_after` via the same helper against the post-write section bytes.
  5. Append exactly one JSON line to `active/<task>/.wos/VERIFICATION_LOG.jsonl` per the 14-field schema in `wos/substrate-peers.md ## Audit trail`. `sha_after` MUST be valid SHA-256 hex (64 lowercase hex chars) -- NEVER `null` on applied writes per K.5 validator. `sha_before` is `null` ONLY on the first observation captured for the task.
  6. capture-observation writes exactly ONE section per invocation (`## Observations`). The protocol does not multi-section here.

  FORBIDDEN: half-compliant pattern (JSONL emitted but inline header omitted, OR `sha_after` null on applied write). K.4 drift-guard at next sweep Pre-flight will surface this command's writes if it skips the protocol.
- The target is always `## Observations`, never `## Open questions / blockers`: that section belongs to other owners in `wos/substrate-peers.md`, and an observation routed there becomes a blocker nobody raised. WHEN `TASK_STATE.md` has no `## Observations` section, create it as the LAST section of the file. Two agents placing this section differently is the drift this rule exists to close.
- Use a dated bullet format: `- [YYYY-MM-DD] [<tag>] <observation>`. Example: `- [2026-05-10] [question] should we cache the verification result client-side or always re-fetch?`
- Treat task-memory write policy per `WORKFLOW_OPERATING_SYSTEM.md`: write the file and mark it `APPLIED`.
- This command must not modify any other section of `TASK_STATE.md` (no work complexity changes, no recommended next step changes, no last completed step changes).
- Output is intentionally minimal. Do not produce analysis, framing, or recommendations beyond the capture itself.
- **Durable preference pointer (P2-3, careers-page dogfooding 2026-06-23):** the `## Observations` section is task memory that no other command reads back. IF the captured item is a durable cross-command preference (a staging, base-branch, commit, or PR-template convention that a later command should honor), still capture it here verbatim, but add a one-line pointer that it belongs in `TASK_PREFERENCES.md` (which delivery commands consume; its shape is `templates/TASK_PREFERENCES.md`). Do not write `TASK_PREFERENCES.md` yourself; this command stays single-section and append-only.

Required output:
1. The observation as it will be appended (verbatim with applied dating and tag formatting).
2. The exact line(s) being added to `TASK_STATE.md`.
3. The location in `TASK_STATE.md` where they will be inserted (existing section vs new section).
4. Reminder that no other state changed.
5. Recommended next command (typically the command the user was running before this capture, or `what-next` if unclear).
6. Recommended editor mode for that next command.
7. Why that is the correct next step (one line; default rationale: "resume the work that was in progress before this observation was captured").

### Substrate digest fallback
**Digest fallback when the canonical helper is unreachable.** `sha_of_section` extracts a section's body with `awk` and pipes it to `shasum -a 256`. A run executing inside a permission boundary that admits `shasum` but refuses `awk` and `sed` cannot invoke that helper, and MUST NOT reimplement it: an `awk` or `sed` program operand can call `system()` and write files, so a boundary that refuses those verbs refuses them for a reason. Assume the helper is unreachable whenever the workflow repository's `scripts/` directory is not readable from the working directory.

WHERE the canonical per-section digest helper is unreachable, the write SHALL use a whole-file SHA-256 and SHALL declare the reduced scope:

```bash
# One call per file. `shasum -a 256 <file>` needs no extraction step, so no
# refused verb is involved. Read the hash (the first field) out of the output;
# do not pipe it through `cut` or `awk` to trim it.
shasum -a 256 TASK_STATE.md
```

Then add `"sha_scope":"file"` to that JSONL line, so a validator distinguishes a file digest from a section digest instead of inferring it. Everything else about the protocol is unchanged: the transaction header still goes above the section heading, and there is still exactly one JSONL line per section write.

Do NOT rebuild the helper by writing each section out as its own file so it can be hashed separately. That workaround is coherent and it is what this rule exists to prevent: a 2026-08-04 run wrote 31 numbered section fragments to compute per-section digests by hand, spent the whole run doing it, and produced no product code.

What the fallback costs, stated so the trade is explicit rather than discovered later: the digest chain exists to detect an unlogged change to a SECTION. At file scope, two sections written in the same run share a digest, so the chain detects tampering with the file without attributing it to a section. That is a declared reduction in resolution, not a silent one, which is why the `sha_scope` field is mandatory rather than optional.
### Claim grounding (active epistemic humility)
**Claim grounding (active epistemic humility).** This block governs what you may assert and how you record it. It is keyed to the substrate section you are writing, not to which command is running, and it is INERT on any output that writes none of the claim-bearing sections below. Full contract and rationale: `wos/active-epistemic-humility.md`.

1. When this applies. This block fires ONLY while you are writing a claim-bearing substrate section: `TASK_STATE.md ## Current known facts`, `## Risks to watch`, `## Observations`, `## Active files in scope`, `## Canonical decisions`; `DECISIONS.md ## Locked decisions`; `IMPLEMENTATION_PLAN.md ## Current gaps`, `## Risks and mitigations`; `IMPACT_ANALYSIS.md`; `EXTERNAL_RESEARCH.md`; `REFERENCES.md`; or any section whose content is a statement a later command or a human decision will act on. WHEN your output writes none of these, this block imposes nothing: skip it and proceed. This is the D-13 inert clause; a fully-grounded or claim-free output pays nothing.

2. The unit is the load-bearing claim. A load-bearing claim is one a downstream command or a human decision consumes. A passing aside is not load-bearing; a statement someone will act on is. Apply the rest of this block per load-bearing claim, not per sentence.

3. Ground it or abstain. Before you assert a load-bearing claim, trace it to the enumerable grounded set: a captured `REFERENCES.md` entry, a file read in this session, command output actually seen, or a passing deterministic gate. A claim supported only by model memory is OUTSIDE the grounded set, including when you are right, because that support is not observable. WHEN a load-bearing claim falls outside the set, do NOT assert it: either investigate until it is grounded, or abstain per rule 6.

4. Status records provenance, never confidence. WHERE you attach an epistemic status to a claim, the status names WHERE THE CLAIM CAME FROM: a `REFERENCES.md` entry title, a file path plus line, or the gate output it came from. It SHALL NOT express a degree of certainty. Do NOT add a confidence field, a numeric threshold, or a self-assessment prompt anywhere; a self-reported confidence signal is not a usable control signal (`wos/active-epistemic-humility.md` Part 1.3). A status whose referent slot is empty is read as UNKNOWN, not as a weak yes.

5. Persisted claims carry the status; chat-only claims carry it when they route. Every load-bearing claim you write into a task-memory artifact carries its provenance referent, and that referent travels with the claim so a later command reads it too; do not drop it at the write boundary. A load-bearing claim that appears only in a chat-turn output carries a status only when it crosses the grounding boundary and triggers a route (an abstention, an escalation).

6. Abstain as a routed continuation, never a bare refusal. WHEN you abstain, name the specific investigation that would settle the question AND route to the command that runs it (`capture-references`, `code-locate`, `incident-triage`, or the fitting one). A withholding that stalls the work is invalid output. Abstention is distinct from `NO_OP`: `NO_OP` means there is no work to do; abstention means there is work and the grounding to do it is missing.

7. An unfired gate is not evidence. The absence of a fired check does not mean grounding existed. Do not read silence here as a pass.
### Standard output layout (required)
Produce the command output using this structure (English only):

### Artifact changes
- List files in the task repository that would change, or `None`.
- For each file, mark `APPLIED` / `PROPOSED` / `SKIP` and follow the task-memory write policy in `WORKFLOW_OPERATING_SYSTEM.md` (task memory is `APPLIED` in every mode; a section this command does not own gets a `<!-- PROPOSED by <command>: ... -->` block for its owner, ADR-0034).
- Default for this command: `APPLIED` append on `TASK_STATE.md` only.

### Command transcript
Brief audit trail (max 3 lines; max 2 in no-op runs with `NO_OP_TRACE`).

### Handoff
Use the adaptive ending format of `WORKFLOW_OPERATING_SYSTEM.md` `## Global output contract`. Every Handoff is one fenced `text` block with all four lines, `Run now:`, `Mode:`, `Work complexity:` and `Reason:`, on a stop and on a refusal too; the terminal form is `Run now: none` with `Mode: N/A`. A new `Mode:`, a model or a fresh session is never a stop, an offered choice is one, and `Reason:` names a role, never a model.
### Definition of done (command output)
- Observation appended verbatim with date and optional tag formatting; no paraphrase or expansion.
- Only `TASK_STATE.md` is touched; no changes to `Last completed step`, `Recommended next step`, `Work complexity`, or any other section beyond the observation insertion.
- `Artifact changes` marks the patch as `APPLIED`.
- `Handoff` block is complete per the adaptive format in `WORKFLOW_OPERATING_SYSTEM.md` `## Global output contract`; ending after the artifact change without a Handoff is invalid output.
- `Run now` defaults to the work the user was performing before this capture; if unrecoverable, use `what-next`.
- Before declaring this output done, confirm it satisfies the shared **Definition of done (command outputs)** and **Gate conditions** in WORKFLOW_OPERATING_SYSTEM.md.

Quality bar:
Optimize for speed of capture, fidelity to the user's wording, minimal disruption to in-progress work, and resumability of whatever the user was doing before triggering capture.