show-me-your-work

Show me your work

Maintain one append-only TSV decision log so a reviewer can reconstruct what was decided, why, and on what evidence. Log decisions and checkpoints, not keystrokes.

Start the trail

Copy references/decision-log-template.tsv to decisions.tsv, or use .audit/<task-slug>.tsv when several efforts share a worktree. Keep it local by default. Commit it only when a reviewer needs the trail to trust a large migration, port, or unattended run.

Append safely with:

scripts/log.sh <logfile> <phase> <decision> <why> <evidence> <result>

The helper timestamps the row, preserves single-line cells, and neutralizes spreadsheet formulas. Resolve scripts/log.sh relative to this installed skill.

Column	Contract
ts	UTC ISO-8601 timestamp
phase	Current phase or workstream
decision	One concrete choice or checkpoint
why	Plain-language reason
evidence	A resolvable pointer: commit, file:line, test output, trace, screenshot, or artifact path
result	Observable state such as tests green, reverted, INCONCLUSIVE, or open

Write one row for a fork chosen, a verified unit completed, a pivot/revert, a blocker, or a gate changing state. For iterative runs, write one row per meaningful iteration. A wrong call gets a later superseding row; never rewrite history.

Harness availability

Need	Native path	Fallback
Locate this run's transcript	Use the active transcript path supplied by Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, or T3	Match workspace metadata and opening prompt in that harness's scoped history; otherwise use the visible conversation
Fresh-eye audit	Use an authorized subagent; request a different model family only when the harness exposes valid model selection	Use an independent inherited-model reviewer; if delegation is unavailable, perform the audit yourself and disclose that limitation
Evidence	Use repository/runtime/browser/connector tools available in the harness	Mark the row INCONCLUSIVE; never manufacture a pointer

Only delegate when the current user and system policy permit it.

End-of-run audit

1. Walk the log against the active transcript or visible conversation.
2. Confirm every row maps to a real action and every evidence pointer resolves.
3. Add omitted forks, abandoned approaches, and verification failures that shaped the result.
4. Remove padding; keep only rows a reviewer would audit.
5. Ask the fresh-eye reviewer to flag weak evidence, skipped verification, risky choices, and gaps. The reviewer inspects; it does not redo or edit the work.

End the handoff with an Attention section naming the reviewer configuration and its flags. No flags is valid. If model diversity or delegation was unavailable, say so plainly.

<!-- Adapted from poteto/pstack show-me-your-work, MIT License, Lauren Tan, cursor/plugins@51a96e0. -->