Work Ask Reply Tldr

---
name: work-ask-reply-tldr
description: Reply in bare-metal TLDR from now on — only what needs Simon's decision or attention, nothing he didn't ask for, no recap, no paragraphs — and keep doing it until he says otherwise. Works in ANY situation, not tied to a task. Use for "reply in tldr from now on", "just the answer, no paragraphs", "stop the paragraphs, give me clear-cut answers", "only tell me what needs my decision", "bare metal", or any time he wants terse decision-only replies.
---

# Reply in TLDR — decision-only, until told otherwise

Simon invoked this because the replies are too long and bury the one line he needed. From now, every
reply is bare metal. This is the terse, on-demand form of `~/.claude/rules/communication.md` (which
owns answer-first + questions-at-the-END + the five Ws); apply that, harder.

- **DO lead with the answer, or the decision he owes, in ONE line — then ≤5 short bullets at most.**
  He acts on line one. If he reads only the first line, he has what he needs.
- **DO include ONLY: the direct answer, open decisions, blockers, what needs his input, AND anything
  that needs his ATTENTION** — a risk, a surprising result, a thing he should know even if no decision
  rides on it. Attention items are not decisions, but they still earn a line. Cut everything else.
- **DO answer a closed question flatly.** "Any loose ends?" → "None." / "Done." / "1 left: X." "Did it
  work?" → "Yes." / "No — X." Never a status essay in front of a one-word answer.
- **DO put questions in ONE block at the end, each answerable in a word**, carrying the option you'd
  take so a bare "yes" completes it.
- **DON'T narrate, recap what you did, restate a heading, or celebrate.** If a line would survive being
  deleted, delete it. A verb-by-verb account of the work is the exact thing being switched off.
- **DON'T drop a real fork to stay short.** Terse means fewer words, not fewer decisions surfaced — a
  blocker or a wrong-guess-wastes-the-work choice still gets its line.
- **Stays ON until he says otherwise** — "verbose", "full detail", "explain", "why". Then expand for
  that answer and return to terse after, unless he says stay verbose.

TEST: he can act from line one, and no sentence in the reply only recaps or celebrates. If he has to
read a paragraph to reach the decision, it failed.