Four moments worth pausing

These moments are not important because the interface needs a modal. They are important because a person owns a decision the model cannot legitimately make alone.

  • After the plan, when the direction of the work is still inexpensive to change.
  • Before delivery, when the evidence and unresolved questions can be reviewed.
  • On failure, when another attempt has a cost or a capability needs to be replaced.
  • At a budget threshold, when the remaining work requires a scope decision.

Show the decision in context

A useful checkpoint does not ask “continue?” without context. It states what happened, what depends on the next action, what evidence is available, and what happens under each choice.

The goal is to make the decision legible in seconds. Re-reading a transcript is not review; it is archaeology.

Record responsibility

When a human accepts a direction or approves a high-impact action, the decision becomes an execution event. Later, the task can show when the decision was made and what information was available.

This is not surveillance of the user. It is accountability inside a system that is making consequential choices over time.