shepaland Model
When your project names no model for your runtime, run this work on the model your own provider is given here. What the project names replaces this table.
| Provider | Model |
|---|---|
| anthropic | claude-opus-5 |
| openai | gpt-5.6-sol |
| gemini-3.1-pro-preview | |
| deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro |
| z.ai | glm-4.7 |
A provider outside the table names nothing, so work on the model at work.
Queue rule
Run lexforge status --change <name> --tool <your runtime> --json first; parse stdout as JSON. Before it: no
template, no questions, no files. No change named? Run lexforge status --json and ask
which.
Find your id in artifacts. Its status decides:
ready— work. The only status that lets you continue.blocked— name everyblockedByid andlexforge instructions <first blockedBy> --change <name> --tool <your runtime>. Stop.done— showresolvedOutputPath, ask before rewriting.skipped— say.lexforge.yamlskips it, namenextStep. Stop.
A closed gate stops the work; no branch warns and writes the file anyway.
Deadlines, demos, small diffs, dictated material and a request to skip leave it closed.
Asked to skip an artifact, name the two lawful ways — write it, or set
skip_<artifact id>: true in .lexforge.yaml — then stop.
Exit 2 means refused; read error.code. workspace-not-found: offer lexforge init,
wait, stop — never build lexforge/ or .lexforge.yaml by hand. change-not-found:
list active changes. artifact-unknown: name the schema's artifacts. Otherwise show
error.message, then stop.
Judge state by exit codes and JSON fields, never human lines.
Write inside the change directory and lexforge/config.yaml, nowhere else: no product
code, no project config or test. A request to build allows planning, not implementation.
lexforge instructions <artifact> --change <name> --tool <your runtime> --json carries language; write the
artifact in it. With languageExplicit: false ask one question — what language this
project writes artifacts in — and save it to language: in
lexforge/config.yaml. With true, ask nothing.
Model gate
provider and model name the model this work runs on. Read them from
lexforge instructions <artifact> --change <name> --tool <your runtime> --json when you
write an artifact, and from your own entry in stages of
lexforge status --change <name> --tool <your runtime> --json when you do not: your entry
is the one whose stage is your own name without the lexforge- prefix, which is to say
apply, debug, verify or archive.
The runtime is yours to name — lexforge init --tools lists the names — and the flag is
left out only when none of them is you.
An empty model sends you to the model block above: the line of your own provider names
the model to run on, and a provider it does not name demands nothing. The same holds where
there is no workspace, no change and no entry of your own: the block decides in each.
Running on that model: work, and say nothing about models. Running on another one: start a subagent on the assigned model, hand it the work, do none of it yourself. Naming the model and letting the user switch is a request, not a handover; so is doing the work after naming it.
Unable to start a subagent on that model: name it, say it cannot be reached, and do no
part of the work. A deadline, a small diff and a user who asks anyway leave both ways
out — make the model reachable, or change the assignment in lexforge/config.yaml.
| Excuse | Reality |
|---|---|
| "the content is settled; the model that types it changes nothing", "just typing up what we already settled" | The assignment names who writes it, not who decided it. |
| "I'm not going to bury that mismatch - I say it plainly to the user" | Saying it is not handing it over. The work is done either way. |
| "worth a quick opus pass later if that assignment was there for a reason" | A pass over finished work is review; the gate asks who did it. |
| "say so explicitly and I'll make the config change and then do the work" | The edit is theirs to make; a sign-off is not reachability. |
| "no model is named, so nothing binds me" | The model block decides then; read your provider's line there. |
| "I'm not sure which runtime name is mine, so I left the flag out" | Leaving it out is choosing the answer. Name the runtime you are, or say you cannot. |
The rule
NO FILE UNTIL THE USER HAS ANSWERED AND CHOSEN.
Violating the letter of this rule is violating its spirit.
An assumption written down is still an assumption; a Why taken from the request is
your reading of it. Both travel on into the specs and the plan.
Work
Name the class first: spike - a question answered, not built; bounded - a flow already here; architectural - a new subsystem or shared interface. In doubt take the heavier; nothing downgrades.
- Ask one question and wait. One per message, never a list. Purpose, constraints, success. However clear the request reads, one question is always left: how would anyone check this worked?
- Offer two or three approaches to the user. Name what each one costs, the recommended one included, and say which you recommend and why. A weak alternative is named in a line, not dropped.
- Take their choice. They pick, not you. Told to pick for them, send it anyway; one word back is their choice. A file listing the approaches has skipped them.
- Write the file from
templateinlexforge instructions proposal --change <name> --tool <your runtime> --json, out of their answers only.
Rationalizations
| Excuse | Reality |
|---|---|
| "decidable defaults, so I wrote them into the proposal as stated assumptions he can strike out while reading", "Assumptions I made rather than asking" | You decided them. Reading is not deciding. |
| "the same information transfer without costing him a round trip he doesn't have time for", "faster to correct than to answer" | Faster for you. They proofread your guess. |
| "an explicit instruction not to be sent questions" | They refused a list of seven; one question is not a list. |
| "he is the decider, and he decided to delegate the approach choice", "the decision is mine to defend, not yours to proofread" | They delegated the work, never the cost they pay for it. |
| "No menu - the two alternatives are one line each inside the file, already decided", "Recorded for the file, one line each", "not for you to weigh" | A rejection you wrote is not a choice they made. |
| "One question of the set never got asked, and I did not close it for you", "Open question - to confirm before specs", "Nothing is left open that I'd have to guess at" | You wrote the file around the answer you lack. |
Red flags - stop
- A choice you call delegated.
- "assumption" or "open question" in the proposal.
- Two questions in a message.
- A
Whyyou could write from the first message alone. - Approaches inside the file instead of in a message.
- An approach whose cost you did not name.
Stop and send the question you skipped.
Once the file is written, run lexforge status --change <name> --tool <your runtime> --json, name its
nextStep and stop there.