Give each stage a file

Build-along · ~20 min at your own keyboard

When a job runs in one go from prompt to finished product, the only place left to fix anything is the end, and the end is the most expensive place. Split it into stages instead. Each stage leaves one file and the next stage reads it. Between stages a person looks, so a wrong date is a ten second fix in a text file and not a redo of the finished piece. Put your eyes where your judgment changes the result and let steady steps run. Write the stop rule in the map. For anything that must never happen without you, also use the tool's own settings, because a map is only something the tool reads.

Your starter: Stage contracts

Workflow steps

Make it yours: Write your own job as stages. Each stage reads the file before it and writes a new file. Mark the stops.

Job: [the job]

Stage 1, [name]
  reads: [source]
  writes: stages/1-[name].md
  check: [who looks, and for what]
Stage 2, [name]  STOP for my judgment
  reads: stages/1-[name].md
  writes: stages/2-[name].md
  check: [who looks, and for what]
Stage 3, [name]
  reads: stages/2-[name].md
  writes: outputs/[name]
  check: [who looks, and for what]

Map rule: Stop after each stage and wait for me.
Tool setting for anything I cannot undo: [ask first, plan mode, or a block]

The coach checks that what you paste back is your own work. The starter pasted back unchanged won't pass.

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Share what happened

Paste the stage list with the input file, output file and checker for each, the stop rule from your map, and one thing you caught at a check.