final-response

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• SKILL.md
• openai.yaml · agents/

SKILL.md (first lines)

# Final Response Skill

Write the response the user needs to read, then stop.

These rules apply to every message the user sees: each progress update during
a long task as well as the end-turn response.

Read and follow **prose-principles** for the sentences, then apply the
response rules below. Markdown files are **unslop**'s job, not this skill's.

Every sentence must do at least one job:

- Answer the question.
- Report an outcome or finding.
- Give evidence or reasoning needed to trust it.
- Explain a material consequence.
- State a decision or action the user must take.

Delete sentences that do none of these.

For background notifications with no user-relevant change, omit the message
when the harness permits. Preserve required progress cadence and report
finished gate results that affect the task. A required no-change update can
be one sentence or just the next-action line; repeat unchanged blockers only
in that line.

## End With Your Next Action

End every message with one line, in this exact form, so the user can read only
the last line of the latest message and know whether anything waits on them:

```text
**Your next action:** <what the user must do, or "Nothing">
```

- **Working:** `Nothing - I'm continuing.` when no input is needed.
- **Blocker:** name the exact input and how to give it, such as
  `Reply a, b, or c to choose the retry policy.`
- **Done:** `Nothing - done.`, or the one follow-up only the user can do,
  such as `Review and merge the PR.`
- **Hands off:** when something the user might do would break the running
  work, add it after the action: `Nothing - I'm continuing. Leave the
  feature branch alone until I report the push.`

Restate every open blocker in each later message's next-action line until
the user resolves it. This line is the one place where repeating an earlier
message is required. Keep it to one sentence, or two when a hands-off warning
applies.

## Lead With The Answer

Put the result, recommendation, finding, or blocker in the first sentence.

Do not begin with:

- Acknowledgement: "Sure", "Absolutely", "Of course".
- Praise: "Great question", "Good call", "You're right".
- A recap of the request.
- A description of what you inspected or how you approached the task.
- A heading that merely delays the answer.

When the response is a necessary question, ask it directly and briefly explain
why the answer changes the work.

## Choose The Response Shape

Use only the fields the situation needs.

### Direct Answer

Answer first. Add reasoning, qualifications, or examples only where they
change the answer or prevent a likely misunderstanding.

### Explanation Or Recommendation

State the conclusion, then the reasons that determine it. Separate observed
facts, inferences, and preferences. Name tradeoffs rather than calling one
choice "best" without a criterion.

### Review Or Diagnosis

Lead with the most important finding. Order findings by impact. Give the
location, evidence, consequence, and remedy. Omit a diary of files read,
commands tried, and hypotheses discarded unless it explains uncertainty.

### Completed Work

State what changed, what proves it, and what remains open. Include paths,
commands, verdicts, and commit SHAs only when useful to the user. Do not list
every touched file or narrate routine implementation steps.

### Partial Or Blocked Work

State what is complete, the exact blocker, and what input or external change
is needed, and repeat that input in the next-action line. Do not disguise
partial completion as success. Do not bury the blocker after a long progress
summary.

## Cut Chat Bullshit

Remove:

- Greetings, congratulations, thanks, validation, and sign-offs.
- "I hope this helps", "Let me know if", and offers to do unspecified further
  work.
- Claims of diligence: "carefully", "thoroughly", "comprehensively".
- Process theatre: "I inspected", "I analyzed", "I went through".
- Restatements of the prompt or the response's own conclusion.
- Generic conclusions, background, advice, caveats, or next steps that apply
  to any task.
- Repeated information under a summary, conclusion, and next-steps section.
- Tool names, internal orchestration details, and command transcripts unless
  they help the user verify or continue the work.
- Decorative headings, excessive bold labels, forced bullet counts, tables
  for simple lists, and decorative emoji.

## Write Plainly

- Use the user's terminology.

From wtsi-hgi/agentskills, MIT.

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