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Description
What was observed
EMRG's task templates divide into two groups on one question — before an agent tells the host that
a step is the host's own, does it check the state for itself?
competition_prompt.mdcarries a browser-first rule (:40), and also ablockedtable whose row
reads "Needs a human action (real-name, SMS, card authorization) → Write intoblockedwith what
the host must do", and aBlocked (host action required)table with awhat the host must do
column (:124,:335,:403).promote_prompt.md(three rules) andjournal_prompt.md(one) also carry browser-first.open_source_prompt.md— the template for contribution-platform work — carries no browser rule at
all, across 469 lines, although its subject is exactly where account state lives: a CLA record, a
contribution agreement already signed years ago, a repository setting, a maintainer-only page.
So the two templates that hand work back to the host write the hand-back without a rule that the
state be checked first, and the template whose subject is platform account state has no browser rule
in it whatsoever.
The failure this permits has already happened, and its cost is recorded: an agent concluded that a
blocked CLA meant only the host himself could sign it and handed the work back. The host asked it to
look in the browser instead, and the real cause was an empty author email on the commits — fixable
entirely from the CLI. The conclusion was wrong, and it was wrong in the direction that spends the
host's time.
What is expected
One rule, stated where a cycle decides what it can and cannot do, and present in every template that
can hand a step back to the host for a capability reason:
- A web-UI-only state is checked in the real browser before any conclusion that the step is the
host's. Third-party account status, signature and agreement records, forms, settings pages — the
login state exists only in the real browser, so an API or CLI probe answers about a logged-out view
and is not evidence about the account. - A fallback names the step that blocks. "Only the host can do this" is a conclusion that needs a
fact behind it: which exact action fails, and why automation cannot perform it (a password only the
host knows, a 2FA prompt, a legal-entity signature). - The rule is about capability, not about permission. A template that stops because a step would
spend money or change the host's account settings is stating an authorization boundary, and that
stop stays exactly as it is — the browser check is not a licence to do those things.
Acceptance
open_source_prompt.mdstates the rule, in the section that already owns "what this environment can
and cannot do" (§3.1.6), in the template's own voice, with no history and no citation.competition_prompt.md's host-blocked row carries the same obligation: the state is checked in the
browser before the row is written, and the row names the blocking step.- A test compares the two carriers both ways — the same requirement is what both state, so a later
edit to one of them alone reddens the test rather than silently splitting the rule. ios_app_prompt.md's two "stop and ask the host" exceptions (money, account settings) are
untouched: they are permission boundaries, not capability claims.- Deleting the clause from either carrier reddens the test.
Activity
argszero commentedon Nov 5, 2026
Handled by #2717