Inspiral Fieldwork / Method · method
What Must Survive Between AI-Assisted Tasks
A lightweight handoff for recovering the evidence, decisions, current state, limitations and authority a later AI-assisted task needs to reuse work safely.
When a task resumes
A useful output can end one task. It does not tell a later task what remains usable.
The work may have changed since the earlier output: a source can be rechecked, a decision revised, implementation advanced, a claim narrowed, or an uncertainty left open. The practical question is not only What was said? It is What may still be used for this task, and on what basis?
The five handoff questions
Before continuing work that may affect a claim, decision or current state, use this lightweight handoff. The questions identify the context relevant to the task; they do not require every task to carry every record.
| Ask | Recover | If it is unclear |
|---|---|---|
| What exactly are we continuing? | The current task, intended decision or bounded claim. | Restate or narrow the task before reusing prior work. |
| What supports it? | The relevant source and evidence path. | Recheck the source, investigate further or reduce the claim. |
| Why does this direction still apply? | The decision, rationale and known alternatives. | Confirm that the decision still applies, or reopen it; do not treat history as authority. |
| What is current, superseded or unresolved? | Current state, changed conditions and visible limitations. | Pause, mark the uncertainty or ask for a current-state check. |
| Who can authorise reuse or change? | The accountable human role and the decision it can make. | Escalate; do not convert an unapproved inference into an operating conclusion. |
Choose the next action
The handoff does not produce one automatic outcome. It makes the appropriate next action visible.
Reuse
Support remains applicable, current state is known and authority is clear.
Narrow or investigate
Evidence is weak or the proposed claim exceeds what its support can carry.
Hold
Current state or an important limitation is still unresolved.
Escalate
The required authority is absent; do not convert inference into a conclusion.
This is deliberately small. It turns continuity from a vague instruction to “preserve context” into a concrete check before later work proceeds.
A bounded fieldwork application
The earlier fieldwork note describes a proposed downstream communication item that initially looked structurally valid. Review found that its wording depended on meaning beyond the available upstream semantic material.
The handoff made the responsible response clearer: the claim could not be reused as written; its support and boundary needed review. Progression stopped while the wording and upstream boundary were reconsidered.
The example does not prove that the method will resolve every gap. It shows the kind of decision a handoff is meant to make visible: reuse, narrow, investigate, hold or escalate.
When this method is insufficient
A handoff is not a substitute for evidence, current-state checks or human judgement. It cannot establish an unsupported relationship, answer an unresolved question or authorise a consequential decision.
Where the material is incomplete, conflicting or too sensitive for inference, the useful result may be a visible insufficiency and a request for further work—not a completed answer.