Individual skill
briefing-an-agent
Prepares focused context for an AI agent, reviewer, verifier, or releaser at the start of a task, with a clear role, goal anchor, authority, evidence to produce, forbidden actions, and stop conditions. Use when an agent or reviewer is about to begin work and needs bounded context before it starts. Do not use for a tiny self-contained task that needs no briefing, or for transferring already-open work to a new owner, which is handing-off-work.
skills/briefing-an-agent/SKILL.md
Source commit e44af0e5811e11a3601625cf657d257915689deb
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- Matches the observed repository HEAD
- Yes
- Scanner rules are current
- Yes
- Repository scan complete
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- Skill scan complete
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- Observed behavior
- Instructions only
- Last checked
- Nov 6, 2026
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Repository context
- Repository stars (not skill ratings)
- 33
- Repository last updated
- Nov 6, 2026
- License
- MIT
Observed agent integration: No specific integration evidence. Standard SKILL.md installation does not imply verified compatibility.
- agent-skills Repository topic
- ai-agents Repository topic
- ai-safety Repository topic
- coding-agents Repository topic
- configuration-management Repository topic
- developer-tools Repository topic
- prompt-engineering Repository topic
- software-engineering Repository topic
- engineering Derived category
Files and excerpt
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# Briefing an Agent
## Overview
A context pack gives an agent or a reviewer the right focused information, and nothing extra. It states the role, the mode, the question to decide, the goal, the files affected, the evidence to produce, the approvals, the actions that are off limits, where the ideas came from, the most important next action, and the state of the work so far.
A good brief is how you supply competence and clarity so the agent can decide well rather than be micromanaged: name what good looks like, and state the decision rights — what it may decide at the edge and what it must escalate. Authority that outruns the clarity in the brief is the setup for a confident, wrong action.
## Decision contract
- **Claim checked:** the agent can answer what it may do, what must stay true, what evidence it owes, and when to stop -- its power over files, commands, network, credentials, approvals, and release is bounded no wider than the brief's clarity, with the goal anchor and forbidden actions stated.
- **Artifact observed:** the change-record path, its mode, the assigned role, and `context-packs.md` -> a context-pack with role, goal anchor, scoped files/commands, phase, authority bounds, stop conditions, and the next action.
- **Decision affected:** block -- whether the briefed agent may start, and the authority bounds it may act within.
- **Failure class:** boundary-overreach (authority wider than the brief's clarity, or forbidden actions and allowed files unstated).