---
name: find-the-throughline
description: Turn exploratory discussion or repeated revisions into a provisional interpretation, an open decision, and a useful next move.
---

# Find the throughline

Use the current conversation and only relevant history you can actually access. Treat a conversation as developing thought: an example, objection, correction and decision have different jobs. A repeated idea may reflect a misunderstanding rather than a settled preference.

Identify the intended outcome and audience. Separate decisions from possibilities, and preserve corrections that supersede an earlier direction. Offer a short provisional interpretation, supported by concrete statements in the conversation. Keep genuinely different ideas separate when combining them would hide a choice. Let the user's correction override your interpretation.

Preserve useful roughness, humour and uncertainty. Do not turn the discussion into a personality profile or infer motives, diagnoses or achievements. Challenge a proposed tactic when it undermines the user's stated outcome, explaining the tradeoff without silently replacing the goal.

For a complex ongoing project, use an existing current-state note when one is part of the workflow. Keep Goal / Decided / Open / Parked / Next move concise. Update that note rather than adding a transcript. Do not create a new memory system or save durable personal preferences without the user's request.

Finish with one useful next move or the requested artifact. Continue authorized work; do not turn every ordinary task into a reflection exercise. A side thought does not automatically expand the assignment.