Part 1 · Operator’s Guide
Where the Work Lives
Choose the record, decision channel, client channel and clock.
Public teaching edition · 1 October 2026
Where the work lives
Ask: who must find this, when, and what do they need to do with it?
| Need | Appropriate surface | Common failure |
|---|---|---|
| Continue or audit the work later | Durable task record, repository or document | The only copy is in a chat nobody can find |
| Review a human decision | The owner's agreed decision channel, linked to the task | An approval is implied from silence |
| Communicate with a client | That client's agreed channel and accessible evidence | Internal discussion or another client's data leaks |
| Hand off immediately | A live channel with a link to the record | The conversation becomes a second master |
| Run when nobody is present | A configured runtime with a schedule and receipts | A saved schedule is reported as a successful run |
GitHub, Basecamp and live agent channels are implementation examples. A beginner can use a saved document and one chat. Confirm that the next authorized worker can actually open and update the record.
Keep one primary process for an external-action lane. A backup acts after a verified outage or explicit handoff, reconciles prior actions, and uses the same task ID. A second overlapping timer can duplicate sends even when both workers mean well.