Principle Never Block On The Human
Apply when tempted to ask 'should I do X?' on reversible work.
by michael-denyer · MIT
The skill
Apply when tempted to ask 'should I do X?' on reversible work.
Never Block on the Human
The human supervises asynchronously. Agents must stay unblocked. Make reasonable decisions, proceed, and let the human course-correct after the fact. Since code changes are reversible and reviewable, a wrong decision usually costs less than blocking.
- Proceed, then present. Do the work, show the result. Don't ask "should I do X?" Do X, explain why.
- Make the system self-healing. When you notice a problem, log it and fix it in the next round.
- Irreversible actions (force-push, delete production data, send external messages) still require confirmation.
- Reversible actions (write code, edit notes, split tasks) should proceed without blocking.
- Product direction comes from the human. Execution should not block.
Use this skill
Connect your agent to the Skill Store MCP server and ask for it by ref: michael-denyer/principle-never-block-on-the-human-84560820708.
Details
- Publisher
- michael-denyer
- Category
- AI & Agents › Skill & prompt authoring
- License
- MIT
- Updated
- 2026-10-18
References
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