# Plan and decide

For agents that plan what happens next, hand out work, and ask a person for a decision.

## What is in it

*Figure: decide: It compares the options for each person a choice affects, including doing nothing, then shows you a short result you can check. dig-apc: After a failure, it has your agent write what it did and what it believed, as axioms, principles and cruxes, then test each belief to find the one that is wrong. unblock: Your agent proceeds on reversible work, settles the mechanics itself and shows what it did and why, and still asks first about anything hard to reverse, outward-facing or costly. be-ambitious: Before your agent starts, it asks what the job is really for and what an expert would do, then asks for more than you first typed. first-principles: When a rule changes, it redesigns the type model or module from the start instead of adding another special case. encode-lessons: When the same correction comes up a second time, it picks the cheapest guard that holds it (a type, a lint rule, a hook or a script) instead of adding another line of text. skill-design: A change to a skill, rule or hook ships only if it is small, one or two intentful edits, because every added line carries claims nobody checked. eval-design: It turns 'is the agent better now?' into a question asked of many items of real work, with a named judge and a figure you can track. prove-it: Before your agent says it is done, it runs the real program from outside and reads what it prints, instead of trusting a compile, a cached screenshot or its own word. ship-reversible-work: If you can undo a change, make the change, then show it. business-is-a-discipline: Business is a discipline in reality. numbered-library-pages: Mackenzie discusses library pages by pointing at parts of them, so every part needs a number that names it. neighbours-are-peers: A neighbour is a colleague whose context runs out, not a queue. evidence-beside-rules: A skill, rule, CLAUDE.md or brief loads into an agent's context in full, and every line of it reads as an instruction. a-block-is-a-detour: When a page, a source or a file stops you, find another way to it.*

---

Published 2026-10-29. Web page: https://www.mackenziebowes.com/kits/lead Part of [Kits](https://www.mackenziebowes.com/kits).