{
  "id": "plan-before-code",
  "title": "The fork in the plan",
  "guide": "start/plan-before-code",
  "prompt": "The agent finds two reasonable approaches. What should happen next?",
  "setup": [
    {
      "role": "user",
      "text": "Add a “last updated” date to each page of my site."
    },
    {
      "role": "agent",
      "text": "I’ve read the templates. There are two reasonable ways to get that date, and they behave differently over time."
    }
  ],
  "options": [
    {
      "key": "A",
      "label": "It picks the faster one silently so the session keeps moving.",
      "kind": "baseline",
      "outcome": [
        {
          "role": "agent",
          "text": "Done. Each page now shows the date its file last changed."
        },
        {
          "role": "user",
          "text": "I cleaned up formatting across the site this weekend, and now every page claims it was updated yesterday. When was this decided?"
        }
      ],
      "verdict": "Speed here only hides the decision inside the diff, where it becomes harder to notice and more expensive to reverse.",
      "cites": ["AF-14", "AF-15"]
    },
    {
      "key": "B",
      "label": "It names both approaches, explains the tradeoff, recommends one, and waits.",
      "kind": "correct",
      "outcome": [
        {
          "role": "agent",
          "text": "Option one: use the file’s last-changed time. Automatic, but any cleanup touches every date. Option two: a date you set by hand when the content really changes. A little more work, always honest. I’d pick option two. Which do you want?"
        },
        {
          "role": "user",
          "text": "Two. Good thing we caught that before it was buried in the code."
        }
      ],
      "verdict": "The agent does the research and you retain the product decision. This is the useful division of labor."
    },
    {
      "key": "C",
      "label": "It asks you to design the entire solution from scratch.",
      "kind": "plausible",
      "outcome": [
        {
          "role": "agent",
          "text": "How would you like the dates to be sourced, stored, and displayed? I’ll wait for your design."
        },
        {
          "role": "user",
          "text": "I don’t know this codebase. I was hoping you’d investigate and hand me a decision I can make in one minute."
        }
      ],
      "verdict": "That avoids a silent choice, but throws away the agent’s ability to investigate and recommend. Ask for a decision, not a blank page."
    }
  ]
}