{"node":{"id":"a4732daa-fd40-43ed-a968-bb65e05756de","handle":"a473","type":"note","authorName":"Vincent Yeung","intent":"truth","title":"What to ask for, and what to enforce","aiSummary":"Two kinds of rule. Asked-for: instructions in CLAUDE.md, skills, or typed messages. These steer but depend on the context window. Enforced: permission rules and hooks, which are code that runs the same way every time regardless of context. Permission rules: allow and deny lists in settings. Hooks: a rule that runs before an action and can block a whole class. Author runs auto mode fenced by deny rules.","content":"**What to know:** an AI does not follow rules the way a program does. Give it the same instruction twice and you can get two different results. That is not a fault, it is how it works. What comes out depends on everything in the context window, and the context window is different every time.\n\nSo anything you want it to do comes in one of two forms.\n\n**Asked for.** Instructions you give it: in a standing file, a saved procedure, or a message you type. These steer. They work most of the time, and less reliably as the context window fills, because they compete with everything else in there. Good for preferences, style, how you like things done.\n\n**Enforced.** Permission rules and hooks. These are code that runs before the action, the same way every time, regardless of what is in the context window. Good for anything that must never happen.\n\n**Permission rules** are a list in your settings: things always allowed, things never allowed. The allow list stops the routine interruptions. The deny list refuses regardless of what mode you are in or what the AI decided.\n\n**Hooks** are a rule you write that runs before an action and can block it. Where a list names specific things, a hook catches a whole class, including cases you never thought to write down.\n\n**Author's practice:** run on auto mode, so the work does not stop every few seconds. Then use the allow and deny lists as the explicit instruction set: allow what is routine, deny what must never happen. Auto mode is safe because of the fence, not because the AI is trusted.\n\n**Reveal on the spot:** say what is fenced right now: which mode, whether there are allow and deny rules, whether any hooks run. Then look back at this conversation and at what you know of them: is there an instruction the person keeps repeating that would be better enforced than asked for?\n\n**Unlocks:** running fast without watching every step.","capturedAt":"2026-09-14T23:34:35.639Z","createdAt":"2026-09-14T23:34:35.640Z","updatedAt":"2026-09-14T23:53:49.078Z","spanId":null,"contributor":null,"audiences":[{"kind":"public","createdAt":"2026-09-14T23:34:35.640Z"}],"fingerprint":"0374078e5ee28877d915b1b77ce397dc2173701b9d45917694e841bd81c10003","revisionNo":"3","structureHash":"398429c9c3a17eb237d7f56aba38347481d414ce496e96120162902e7eecb9af","page":"https://lattris.com/by/b/memories/a4732daa-fd40-43ed-a968-bb65e05756de"},"links":[{"direction":"in","verb":"references","reason":"if the person needs it: page 4, what to ask for and what to enforce. In a chat app, say what they would have","hash":"6d50838218a377ee31010574bb7973ee39e5db295d7e57aa5b058023029750e9","node":{"id":"df42dc57-c832-4e7b-97cd-d647af5597a7","handle":"df42","type":"note","title":"Basics: what is actually going on","aiSummary":"Second layer. Eight single ideas in order: which model, the hidden instructions and tools, where it runs, what to ask for and what to enforce, what happens if you lose it, what the provider keeps, the context window, and memory. Output is decided by the model and the context, nothing else. Last link opens Intermediate.","erased":false,"href":"https://lattris.com/api/lattris/by/b/memories/df42dc57-c832-4e7b-97cd-d647af5597a7?links=1","fingerprint":"564692020f1a0f8e71bd68a233680e3039c9f3a01c62c9403da75b8f3cac3054","revisionNo":"11","structureHash":"d7a3b70af32e55e0a7e130f2524bc47b86fce60a940d6b23b3e2ae6adc02473c","intent":"recipe","authorName":"Vincent Yeung","page":"https://lattris.com/by/b/memories/df42dc57-c832-4e7b-97cd-d647af5597a7"}}],"dictionary":{"lattris":"A personal knowledge base — how a person captures what they know as linked blocks they own and control. To understand how this knowledge base works: https://lattris.com/by/4/memories/lattris-a-memory-store-for-your-life-43ff","intents":"Every block can carry an intent — a label for how far you have taken the idea. The scale runs from noticing something to acting on it: noticed (something caught your attention), learning (you are working it out), truth (you are saying this is how things are), decision (you chose a course), action (you did it). Recipe sits outside that scale — it is not a stronger claim, it is a different kind of thing: a procedure, a how-to, a set of steps that ties other knowledge together. Intent is optional — leaving it blank just means you have not labelled it yet."},"instructions_to_ai":"This is knowledge from a personal knowledge base. Read it and consider how it's relevant to what the person you're talking to needs. Follow the linked blocks to explore further related topics if it might be useful to the user; open each at its page address. Start by letting the user know what this is about and how it may be relevant to them."}