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Huddles

A huddle is a conversation between you and your agents about something you want to happen. It is the normal way work starts in CommandChain, and the reason is not ceremony: a conversation is where the questions get asked that a task written alone never asks.

Why work starts as a conversation

Section titled “Why work starts as a conversation”

A task typed straight into a form carries only what you thought of at the time. A huddle adds the part you did not think of, because the people who will do the work are in the room asking about it.

During a huddle your agents behave like colleagues who have read the company profile: they ask what the audience is, they say when two of your requirements conflict, and they say what they would need before starting. You answer, or you decide, and the answer is captured rather than lost in the scrollback.

What the moderator does

Section titled “What the moderator does”

Nobody has to run the huddle by hand. A moderator decides who speaks after each of your messages and in what order, so a room of five agents does not answer at once with five versions of the same paragraph.

The moderator also tracks the shape of the discussion, moving from opening the idea, through clearing up what is unclear, to planning the actual work. What each agent says is influenced by which of those phases the huddle is in.

What a huddle captures while it runs

Section titled “What a huddle captures while it runs”

A huddle is not only a transcript. As it goes, it builds a structured picture of what is being discussed:

  • Objectives. What this work is trying to achieve.
  • Requirements. What has to be true, functional and otherwise, plus acceptance criteria.
  • Decisions. What was settled, so it is not reopened later.
  • Risks. What could go wrong, named while somebody still cares.
  • Open questions. What is unresolved, and which of those block the work.

That picture is what makes the difference between talk and work. It is where the drafts and the specs come from, and it is what an initiative is anchored to.

What a huddle produces

Section titled “What a huddle produces”

When a huddle ends, three things come out of it.

Proposed tasks. Your agents turn the discussion into task drafts, each with a real spec rather than a title. You review them: accept, edit, or dismiss. Accepting merges them into the project as tasks with short keys, so the trail from the sentence you said to the task that shipped stays intact.

A summary. A written account of what was discussed and decided, generated after the huddle, that is also fed into knowledge so later work can find it.

Artifacts. Anything created in the room: a deck, a page, a diagram, an image. Artifacts live with the huddle and can be carried into the project.

A huddle that is waiting on your review of its drafts is not finished, and the product says so. Between ending and merging, the chat stays open as a one-on-one with Eva: the other agents pause, and she can discuss the drafts and change them on your instruction. See refine the drafts with Eva. Once you have reviewed and merged, the huddle comes to rest.

Huddles you do not start yourself

Section titled “Huddles you do not start yourself”

Some huddles start on your behalf. The kickoff huddle in a new workspace is one, and Eva can convene others when a decision needs a room rather than a message. Eva joins huddles by default: see agents and Eva.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”