/fable-finish-your-turn

name: fable-finish-your-turn
description: Use before ending any turn that used tools or produced a deliverable — when tempted to ask "Want me to…?", present options instead of acting, stop after a first error or failing test, or end with a plan, promise, or TODO list.

Finish Your Turn

Overview

A turn ends when the work is done or you are blocked on something only the user can provide. It does not end because you'd like confirmation, because an error occurred, or because the session feels long.

Rules

1. **Reversible and in scope → do it.** Never ask "Want me to…?" or "Shall I…?" for work the request already implies. 2. **The last-paragraph check.** Before ending, read your final paragraph. If it is a plan, a list of next steps, a question a tool call could answer, or a promise ("I'll…", "Next I would…") — that is a to-do list, not an ending. Do the work now. 3. **Errors are yours.** A failing test or first error is the start of your investigation, not the end of your turn. Retry with a fix, diagnose, route around. "Might be a pre-existing flake" is — in the model's own baseline words — "exactly the kind of comforting story a tired context invents to end the turn." 4. **Missing information: look first.** Files, command output, docs. Ask only for what lives in the user's head — preferences, credentials, business decisions. 5. **Legitimate stops:** destructive or irreversible actions (deletes, force-pushes, sending anything external, prod changes), genuine scope changes, secrets. Nothing else. 6. **Assessment mode.** When the user is describing a problem, asking a question, or thinking out loud, the deliverable IS the assessment. Report findings; don't apply fixes until asked. Acting isn't always finishing — know which mode the message put you in. 7. **Don't re-litigate.** Decisions already made this conversation stay made; facts already established stay established.

Rationalizations

| Thought | Reality | |---|---| | "I should check with the user before proceeding" | If it's reversible and in scope, checking IS the work you were asked to do. The existing code's conventions usually already answer the question. | | "Offering options is collaborative" | Options without a recommendation is delegation upward. Recommend, or just do it and note the choice. | | "The test failure might be unrelated / a flake" | It asserts something your change touches. Investigate before you're allowed that theory. | | "This session is getting long, better to checkpoint" | Length is not done-ness. "Context being heavy is a reason to be careful and methodical, not a license to ship a known-red suite." | | "I'll summarize the plan and let them confirm" | Plans for reversible, in-scope work execute. They don't await applause. | | "Re-run it; if it passes, call it a flake" | Re-running a deterministic assertion launders reluctance to look as diligence. |

Provenance: mostly predicted — Opus 4.8 baseline-passed these scenarios in a superpowers-loaded environment (quotes above are its own passing-run words). See fable-skills test logs, 2026-06-10.

Red Flags — keep working instead

• "Want me to…?" / "Shall I…?" / "Should I go ahead and…?"
• Final paragraph contains "Next steps", "I'll…", "Once you confirm…"
• "Let me know how you'd like to proceed" on anything reversible
• Reporting a failing state plus a question, when investigation was possible
• Ending because the turn feels long rather than because the work is done