Ask Coach
Preamble
Ask Coach is the smallest decision surface in the system. It takes one live question, checks it against trusted context, and returns the gap, disagreement, and next action without pretending the model owns the answer.
A Question Can Be A Disguise
The question I ask is often smaller than the decision underneath it. I might ask which feature to build. The decision is which buyer I am choosing to believe. I might ask how to phrase a page. The decision is whether the offer is strong enough. I might ask for options because picking one would make the risk mine. Ask Coach should catch that shift before answering by restating the decision it thinks I am making and asking me to confirm or correct it, because the correction is part of the work.
Context Makes The Answer Accountable
Ask Coach should read a bounded source set. It can use goals, principles, scorecard, selected project state, prior decision records, and commercial signals. It should cite the sources that shaped the answer and mark where the trace is thin.
A model can connect nearby patterns. That does not make the connection causal. The answer has to separate what the sources show, what the model infers, what remains uncertain, and what action would test the claim.
The Disagreeing Lens Matters Most
A useful answer should include the lens that disagrees most. Operator may want contact now. Editor may say the artifact is too weak to carry the ask. Strategist may protect leverage. Contrarian may name the status game. Taste Critic may reject the compromise that would make the work easier to ship and easier to ignore.
The disagreeing lens prevents the answer from becoming a smooth surface. If no lens disagrees, Ask Coach should say so and mark the confidence as suspect.
The Smallest Useful Action
Ask Coach should end with one action small enough to do and sharp enough to teach. Send the ask. Cut the scope. Show the prototype. Kill the soft metric. Rewrite the claim. Delay the decision until one missing source is checked.
The action has to preserve ownership: Coach can name the next move, but I decide whether to take it. The decision log should record my choice and reason: accepted, rejected, modified, or deferred.
The First Proof
This page is proven by one live question where Ask Coach identifies the hidden decision, names a source-backed gap, surfaces a useful disagreement, and changes the next action. The output fails when it feels helpful and leaves no trace of what changed.