A useful card gives the operator enough context to choose without replaying the whole coding session. It names the situation, offers concrete options, puts a consequence beside each and makes the coding agent's recommendation visible.
The archive card does that in four parts: the situation, the options with a consequence beside each, the recommendation, and a route back to fuller context. Its job is not to summarize the entire task-tracker project. Its job is to make one reversible-versus-permanent choice answerable.
1. Situation
The situation says what happened and why operator intent is needed: completed projects need an archive action, but the product has not decided whether users must be able to restore them. That is specific enough to distinguish the card from a database-migration or interface-style question.
A normal issue or chat message can carry the same explanation. The extra value of the card is that the explanation stays bound to the available choices and later answer rather than becoming one message in a longer conversation.
2. Options and consequences
The card offers concrete choices instead of an unbounded “what should I do?” prompt.
| Option | Consequence shown before the choice |
|---|---|
| Reversible archive | Users can restore a project; the product retains archived data |
| Permanent deletion | Data is removed; the same restoration path is unavailable |
The consequence belongs beside its option. If the operator must open the project and reconstruct the trade-off before answering, the card has not carried enough of the decision.
3. Recommendation
The coding agent states which option it prefers and why. For this card, it might recommend reversible archive because the feature is called archive and an undo path reduces the cost of a mistaken tap. The recommendation is a proposal, not a hidden default or an automatic choice.
The operator may know something outside the agent's project context—such as a retention requirement— that changes the answer. Keeping the recommendation visible makes disagreement legible.
4. Route to fuller context
The card points back to the originating archive work. That link preserves provenance: the operator can inspect more detail without stuffing a transcript into the card. The structured choice remains small; the underlying work remains reachable.
When the card is not good enough
Structure does not guarantee quality. The situation may be vague, an important option may be missing, or a consequence may be understated. ROOK does not silently ask another model to rewrite the card. When the supplied context is insufficient, the honest action is to withhold the choice until the underlying question is repaired.
Once a card is answerable, another issue appears: does this decision stop its originating thread? The next page states only the lifecycle behavior approved for public documentation.
Next
Continue to Card kinds.