plan2code/skills/plan2code-0-pathfinder/references/brief.md

Brief Playbook

Loaded when the user's argument asks for a brief. Produces one plain-English report file for a date range — the artifact a PM pastes into Slack or reads aloud in a meeting. The only mutation BRIEF mode ever performs is the Work Step 2 reconcile; it never claims, resolves, or answers a question.

Backend note. The report is IDENTICAL either way — same sections, same plain-English rules — and the brief file always lands on local disk under specs/<idea>/pathfinder/briefs/, even on **Backend:** github. What differs is where the inputs come from: on github the range filter reads each question issue's close date instead of a Resolved: line, and the open / blocked / out-of-scope sections come from the frontier query rather than the checklist — see github-issues.md.

When it fires

The argument (or message) asks for a brief, summary, recap, or minutes for an idea, with an optional range:

/plan2code-0-pathfinder write a brief for today for specs/<idea>/pathfinder
/plan2code-0-pathfinder brief since 2026-08-15 for specs/<idea>/pathfinder
/plan2code-0-pathfinder full brief for specs/<idea>/pathfinder

Range grammar is deliberately loose: today (the default when unstated) · this week · since <date> · an explicit <date>..<date> · full (everything since the map was created). Get today's date from the shell — never guess it.

No map.md for the idea? There is nothing to brief — say so and route to charting. **Status:** Cleared? A brief is still legitimate: cover the full history and point at the PLAN-DRAFT in ## Next step.

Procedure

1. Resolve the idea exactly as Auto-Discovery does (shell only — specs/ is gitignored, Glob silently fails).
2. Reconcile first, in full (Work Step 2): files win over markers, stale claims reset to open, absent Resolved: dates backfilled from Claimed:. Save the repaired map. A brief must never disagree with the map it summarizes — this is why BRIEF mode reconciles rather than reporting drift.
3. Filter: resolved questions whose Resolved: date falls in the range. Out-of-scope rulings are NOT date-filtered — they are standing scope boundaries and appear in every brief.
4. Write specs/<idea>/pathfinder/briefs/brief-<YYYYMMDD>.md (create briefs/ if absent). The filename carries today's date regardless of range — the **Covers:** line disambiguates. Same-day re-runs overwrite: a brief is a report, not a record; the question files remain the record.
5. Report in chat: the file path, the range, one line on any reconcile repairs. Then the Trail Footer, Form A (the session is over; the command routes by map status as usual).

The template

Substitute real content; keep the section order. <in range> reads naturally per range: "Decided today", "Decided this week", "Decided so far" (full).

# Audit log export - decisions brief

**Covers:** 2026-09-02 · **Map:** 6 of 9 decisions made

## Where this is headed

<The destination, verbatim from the map.>

## Decided today

- **Export format** - CSV with a UTF-8 BOM plus a SHA-256 manifest file.
  Rejected: JSONL (recipients open these in Excel); XLSX (harder to verify byte-for-byte).
  *Recorded as hard to reverse.*
- **Export authorization** - new tenant-scoped compliance role; self-events included but flagged.
  Rejected: reusing the admin role (no tenant scoping today).

## Ruled out

- **SIEM push connector** - continuous streaming is a separate effort with its own owner.

## Open - ready to decide next

- **Delivery channel** - can now be decided; the row-count ceiling it was waiting on landed today.
- **Testing posture** - needs Product and Engineering together.

## Open - waiting on something first

- **Redaction rules** - waiting on Legal's answer about exporting raw payloads.

## Still taking shape

- How far back an export may reach - depends on a retention answer nobody has yet.

## How solid is this?

Solid overall, but risk handling is borderline - one limit has no decided behavior past it yet.

## Next step

Run: `/plan2code-0-pathfinder specs/audit-log-export/pathfinder`

---
*Full reasoning behind every decision: `specs/audit-log-export/pathfinder/questions/`*

How each section is built:

Section	Source	Rendering rule
Heading + **Covers:**	Idea name in words; the range; <resolved>/<total> using the trail's counting rule (out-of-scope rows excluded from the total)
Where this is headed	## Destination, verbatim	Never paraphrase it
Decided <in range>	Resolved files with Resolved: in range	Question name bold, gist as the first line, rejected alternatives compressed to ONE line each with the why in parentheses. Locked: yes renders as Recorded as hard to reverse. — never the word "locked"
Ruled out	## Out of scope, all of it	One line each: name + why
Open - ready to decide next	The frontier (open, unclaimed, unblocked)	Flag anything a resolution in range just unblocked: "can now be decided; X landed "
Open - waiting on something first	[!] blocked rows	Name the blocker in plain words ("waiting on the export format decision"), never Blocked by: 02
Still taking shape	## Not yet specified	Lightly rephrase each bullet into one plain sentence
How solid is this?	The map's **Confidence:** line	ONLY via trail.md's plain-English mapping (solid / solid-but-borderline / not yet). Omit the section if the map has no confidence line
Next step	Map status	Working/Charting → the pathed resume command; Cleared → point at the PLAN-DRAFT and /plan2code-1-plan

Nothing decided in the range? Keep the file honest: "No decisions were recorded in this period." under Decided, and render the open sections as usual — a meeting that only surfaced questions still gets minutes.

Rules

• Zero pathfinder machinery in the file. No NN numbers, no markers, no Type:/State: tokens, no fog/frontier/grill vocabulary, no Locked:. Questions are referred to by name only, no links. The audience may never open a terminal.
• Scraper safety, same as the PLAN-DRAFT: no %, no raw NN/25 scores, and no bare Requirements / Feasibility / Integration / Risk followed by a number anywhere in the file. The plain-English confidence line is the only rendering permitted.
• Standing specs/ rules apply: no loop tokens, no - [ ] checkboxes, no METRICS_JSON.
• Rejections are one line each. The brief summarizes; the question file argues. The closing pointer line covers readers who want the full reasoning.
• BRIEF mode does not count as question work. One-question-per-session accounting is untouched; no claim is ever taken.
• Do not edit an old brief to "update" it. Yesterday's brief reflects yesterday's map — write today's instead. Same-day overwrite only.