Long Task Continuation

Long Task Continuation

Overview

Keep long work checkpointed, resumable, drift-aware, and evidence-gated. This protocol does not execute plans, dispatch subagents, run tests, or grant completion authority.

Authority Boundary

The Method Pack owns continuation discipline only. It does not own the parent plan, host retry/watchdog behavior, authoritative GateDecision, evidence sufficiency, requirement acceptance, or completion.

When To Use

Use this skill when the work has meaningful phases, may be compacted/resumed or handed off, uses subagents, or explicitly needs continuity and drift control. Architecture, contract, shared-workflow, and verification-gate changes also benefit from it. Do not force it onto a short answer or one-command check.

Choose exactly one state carrier:

• use a durable work/ record for medium+ work that actually crosses sessions, needs handoff, or requires resumable state;
• otherwise keep one inline checkpoint.

Multi-step, todo-driven, possible-compaction, and subagent use do not force durable records by themselves. Do not create both carriers or a record per slice.

Required Artifacts

A durable task has one process trail under docs/aegis/work/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>/. It keeps logical intent/baseline state, the latest todo/checkpoint/resume state, terminal evidence/drift state, and a completion reflection when warranted. These are TaskIntentDraft, BaselineReadSetHint, BaselineUsageDraft, ImpactStatementDraft, TodoCheckpointDraft, ResumeStateHint, DriftCheckDraft, and EvidenceBundleDraft views—not authoritative runtime records or separate plan owners.

Read only the lifecycle-matched section of durable-work-guidance.md:

• ## Required Artifact Layout and ## Create A Durable Work Record for a new durable work record;
• ## Update A Slice when an existing helper-backed record needs sidecar updates;
• ## Retry Convergence Detail for retry/attempt bookkeeping;
• ## Pause, Handoff, And Completion Bundle when preparing a pause, handoff, or completion bundle; and
• ## Expanded State Fields only when natural checkpoint prose is ambiguous.

The reference owns artifact layout and <aegis-workspace-helper> command detail; this file owns carrier selection, resume order, drift decisions, and stop conditions.

An Execution Readiness View may be kept in the intent or active checkpoint for medium/high, handoff-prone, long-running, subagent-driven, architecture, contract, compatibility, or retirement-sensitive work. It renders existing intent, scope, baseline, owner, test, review, and drift constraints; it is not a new JSON artifact or completion authority.

Planless Slice Lane:

• When an existing parent plan/spec owns a bounded task, reuse it and the current checkpoint. For a no-parent direct bounded request with no new durable or unclear verification boundary, use an inline checkpoint.
• State one compact Slice Card: Goal, Parent plan/spec (or none — direct bounded request), Files, Boundary, Verification, and Stop.
• The slice goal closes only that slice. Final completion returns to the parent or direct bounded request through verification-before-completion.
• Do not create a plan/spec merely to give a micro-slice a parent, and do not create per-slice plans/specs or work records.
• Escalate when a new owner, contract, schema, public API, architecture, migration, persistence, security/permission, distribution/release surface, unclear verification boundary, or mismatch with parent scope or acceptance appears.

When durable architecture decisions are in scope, these work records are the preferred ADR Auto Backfill source. Preserve decision signals, source refs, alternatives, compatibility, retirement, drift, and baseline-sync questions.

Start Protocol

Before execution:

1. Capture requested outcome, scope, non-goals, risks, parent plan/goal, success evidence, and stop states (done | blocked | needs-verification | scope-exceeded).
2. Identify required baseline refs and record acknowledged, cited, and missing refs. Missing authority pauses in needs-baseline-readback.
3. Choose inline or durable state once, then record the todo map, active slice, completed slices/evidence, blockers, next step, and current branch/HEAD.
4. When an Execution Readiness View exists, retain its intent lock, scope fence, baseline lock, compatibility/retirement boundary, tests, reviews, evidence, and rewind rules.
5. For a new helper-backed record, use durable-work-guidance.md to create and structurally check it before implementation.

Retry Convergence Protocol

A failed verification is another attempt in the current slice, not a new slice. Keep failed-attempt telemetry out of terminal evidence and normal commits. Only evidence-finalized, blocked, or abandoned is terminal. When retry state reaches process-artifact-pressure, stop auto-retry and route to systematic-debugging or verification-before-completion. Load the durable reference only when the attempt/evidence commands or sidecar rules are needed.