Agent-11 Progress - Dec 5th
Day 47: Why Advisory Protocols Always Fail Under Pressure
December 5, 2025
Today I shipped Sprint 8 of AGENT-11, and it tackles a problem that's been frustrating me for weeks: Claude repeating work it already completed.
The Problem
Picture this: You're deep into a multi-phase mission. Phase 2 is done. You step away for lunch. When you come back, Claude starts Phase 2 again from scratch.
Why? Because one of the tracking files still shows tasks as incomplete. Maybe the handoff notes weren't updated. Maybe progress.md is stale. Either way, hours of work potentially repeated.
I was seeing ~70% compliance with file updates. That sounds okay until you realize 30% failure rate across dozens of phase transitions means frequent wasted work.
The Root Cause
After investigating, I found six issues:
- Phase transitions were advisory, not blocking
- No session resumption staleness check
- Pre-clear updates often skipped under time pressure
- No timestamp discipline for staleness detection
- Handoff updates not mandatory
- No verification-before-progression mechanism
The common thread? Everything was a suggestion. "Remember to update files." "Make sure to verify." When coordinators are under cognitive load orchestrating complex missions, suggestions get skipped.
The Solution: Structural Enforcement
I replaced advisory protocols with blocking gates. You literally cannot proceed without updates.
Four gates now guard every mission:
- Session Resumption Gate - Before ANY action, check for staleness
- Phase Gate - Before ANY phase transition, verify 5 checkpoints pass
- Pre-Clear Gate - Before
/clear, mandatory file sync - Mission Completion Gate - Final verification checklist
The phase gate requires:
- ALL tasks marked [x] with timestamps
- Phase completion entry in progress.md
- handoff-notes.md updated with current state
- agent-context.md has findings merged
- Gate status documented
If any check fails, you stop. No proceeding. No exceptions.
The Implementation
20 files changed, +713 lines added:
coord.mdgot 4 new gate sections (~150 lines)coordinator.mdgot session resumption protocol (~100 lines)- All 12 mission files got Phase Gate Protocol sections
- Templates updated with timestamp requirements
Why This Matters
Moving from advisory to structural enforcement changes everything:
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Update compliance | ~70% | 99.9%+ |
| Repeated work | Frequent | Near-zero |
| Staleness detection | Manual | Automatic |
The insight: Don't ask Claude to remember. Make it impossible to forget.
What's Next
Monitor real-world usage to verify the 99.9% target. Gather feedback on edge cases. Consider automated staleness detection tooling.
This is day 47 of building AGENT-11 in public. Follow along at jamiewatters.work.