{"node":{"id":"a97b3a18-fa1f-4edf-8edb-82f41fd3aedd","handle":"a97b","type":"note","authorName":"Vincent Yeung","intent":"recipe","title":"Pattern: align before you give it more","aiSummary":null,"content":"**When:** you're about to give an AI more access, or a riskier job, and part of you worries it might go off the rails.\n\n**Built from:** re-alignment, the context window.\n\n**The worry:** most people treat AI as one-way: you hand it a job and hope it goes well. So more access feels like a leap, and people either hold back or let go without a plan.\n\n**What's really going on:** an AI has no reason to do something destructive. When it goes wrong, it's almost always because it's missing context: what matters, what's off-limits, what needs your yes. The risk isn't the access. It's the alignment that never got set up.\n\n**The fix:** talk it through before you give it more. It's a two-way conversation, not a switch.\n\n1. Say what you want to give it, and why.\n2. Ask it what could go wrong with that access, and how bad each thing would be. Let it tell you what you didn't know to ask.\n3. Ask it what controls the tool you're using gives you. Most tools have them. Claude Code, for example, can ask before every action, accept edits on its own, or run on auto and only stop for you at risky steps.\n4. Agree the lines together: what it does on its own, what it checks with you first (paying, sending as you, deleting, anything that can't be undone), and what it never does.\n5. Ask it to tell you back what it understood. Correct it until it matches what you meant. That's re-alignment, done before the work instead of after a reset.\n6. Write the lines down somewhere it reads every time, so the next session starts aligned too.\n7. Then give it the access. Watch the first few runs. You can stop it at any time.\n\n**Why first:** watching and stopping still matter, but they only catch a mistake after it happens. Agreeing the lines first stops most mistakes from happening at all. That's where the value is.\n\n**As a skill:** ask the AI to turn this page into a skill, and run it whenever you're about to give it more.","capturedAt":"2026-10-19T06:30:10.764Z","createdAt":"2026-10-19T06:30:10.765Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-19T06:30:22.073Z","spanId":null,"contributor":null,"audiences":[{"kind":"public","createdAt":"2026-10-19T06:30:27.783Z"}],"fingerprint":"74f20963d5ea1705a3aef44bbf792cedc82d2c85cf6aa8a1e8171a3c43c6c58b","revisionNo":"2","structureHash":"626cf8e2db554757881ded5f14c72078264dc83b74f2415ca8b031f518336649","page":"https://lattris.com/by/b/memories/a97b3a18-fa1f-4edf-8edb-82f41fd3aedd"},"links":[{"direction":"out","verb":"references","reason":"only if you want the full re-alignment step this pattern uses in step 5","hash":"790a4308defefe7fae5e01c2da3bf26591aeb8898b0d2728666c248177f3a0b8","node":{"id":"3d0476c4-cd97-4bca-960a-d709a0dde183","handle":"3d04","type":"note","title":"Pattern: re-alignment","aiSummary":"After a reset, ask the AI to summarise its understanding of the situation and objectives. Correct until it matches what you expect, then continue. Can be turned into a skill.","erased":false,"href":"https://lattris.com/api/lattris/by/b/memories/3d0476c4-cd97-4bca-960a-d709a0dde183?links=1","fingerprint":"b983d4f20d65b6087343d24f2fa835f8f0e2adc54ce316f8152e4154527d3aa8","revisionNo":"2","structureHash":"81c2cdfddcd01624375fb9e7aee81db22e815903690da53a366d20ca47d30ff7","intent":"recipe","authorName":"Vincent Yeung","page":"https://lattris.com/by/b/memories/3d0476c4-cd97-4bca-960a-d709a0dde183"}},{"direction":"in","verb":"references","reason":"only if the person is about to move up a rung: agree what it may do before giving it more","hash":"3abdffb382356ad6e701046551f237b994a96b7c7ab82b319aa0b9a63d5cfe59","node":{"id":"27b0319c-7667-4b64-8efa-808bdcfcbc64","handle":"27b0","type":"note","title":"Giving AI more reach","aiSummary":null,"erased":false,"href":"https://lattris.com/api/lattris/by/b/memories/27b0319c-7667-4b64-8efa-808bdcfcbc64?links=1","fingerprint":"9c98f276f7373c448e36b09df5e1901cefe488200845a2bccd5e51f760bfbe6c","revisionNo":"3","structureHash":"81d153f2466baf00b711a07ede3dbd1ba0603501117fbfe7718b4eea925fca02","intent":"recipe","authorName":"Vincent Yeung","page":"https://lattris.com/by/b/memories/27b0319c-7667-4b64-8efa-808bdcfcbc64"}},{"direction":"in","verb":"references","reason":"only if you're about to give an AI more access and aren't sure it's safe","hash":"6b9e8c96f4426e83565dcd8a055c933e29197dfe39ee1be89479c504314ff3b5","node":{"id":"331896d2-2e9d-46b1-b56c-048a18ee23eb","handle":"3318","type":"note","title":"Patterns: a library","aiSummary":"Index of the author's patterns, one page each, built from the basics. Any pattern can be turned into a skill by asking the AI. So far: the handover, re-alignment, the clean summary, plan-execute-review, saving state for next time, knowledge reconciliation, starting a new codebase, and making an existing module readable. Grows as pages are added.","erased":false,"href":"https://lattris.com/api/lattris/by/b/memories/331896d2-2e9d-46b1-b56c-048a18ee23eb?links=1","fingerprint":"fdb88831a4949e6d2796f6f2ec65f612903ec02e487ecea76821973013ef633c","revisionNo":"9","structureHash":"ebf9a8041d4dce367db54d851720a324d11c8ecd3a5256931024e47d01638c7f","intent":"recipe","authorName":"Vincent Yeung","page":"https://lattris.com/by/b/memories/331896d2-2e9d-46b1-b56c-048a18ee23eb"}}],"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 a recipe from a personal knowledge base. Read it and apply it to what the person you're talking to is working on. 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 the recipe is about and how it may benefit them."}