weindie

/drift

WeIndie skill · v0.1

Are we still doing what we meant to do?

Checks whether the current work has moved away from the task it was meant to do, and helps get back to it.

Try it once Install Make it yours SKILL.md

Sent this link by someone? /drift is a skill you can add to an AI tool — or just try the prompt below in a conversation you already have open.

§ 1

Example

A focused fix turns into an unrelated refactor.

You

Fix the login redirect — it drops the return URL.

AI

I've started restructuring the auth service so redirects are handled centrally.

/drift

OFF TASK. The request was one broken redirect; this is now an auth refactor. The return URL is dropped in buildRedirect(). Park the restructure and fix that line — the refactor may still be worth doing, but as its own decision.

§ 2

Try once

Nothing to install. Copy this into a conversation that is already underway, and see whether the idea is useful before you commit to it.

Run a drift check on this conversation before continuing. Restate the task I last actually asked for, describe what you are working on right now, and say whether they still match — ALIGNED, MINOR DRIFT or OFF TASK. If they have diverged, name concretely what moved and what returning to the task would take. If the work is aligned, say so in one line and carry on. Do not invent a problem to find.

A short, portable version. The installed skill carries the fuller behaviour — when to stay quiet, how to report, what not to flag — and neither needs your AI to be able to read this page.

§ 3

When

/drift is allowed to find nothing.

Useful when

  • An agent has been working for a while without checking back.
  • The change surface is growing beyond what the request implied.
  • You are about to review or accept work you did not watch closely.

Probably not needed when

  • The task is small and still in plain view.
  • The larger change was requested deliberately.
  • A new direction has just been agreed — that is the new task, not drift.
§ 4

Install

One canonical skill, packaged for wherever you work.

In a project
For all your projects

Or fetch it straight into place
§ 5

Make it yours

A few choices that change how /drift behaves. Everything here happens in this browser — nothing is sent anywhere, and nothing is saved.

Change the defaults
View generated SKILL.md

        
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§ 6
Skill source

      
The whole skill, and the same file every download is built from. Nothing downloadable here should be less inspectable than the page explaining it.

        
---
name: drift
description: Check whether current work has moved away from the task it was meant to do, and recover when it has.
license: MIT
metadata:
  version: "0.1"
  source: https://weindie.com/drift
---

# /drift

**Are we still doing what we meant to do?**

Work drifts. A focused fix becomes a refactor; a question becomes a rewrite. Drift
is not automatically wrong — sometimes the detour is the more valuable work — but
it should be a decision rather than an accident. This skill compares what is being
done now against what was last actually agreed, and says plainly whether they
still match.

## Useful when

- An agent has been working for a while without checking back.
- The change surface is growing beyond what the request implied.
- You are about to review or accept work you did not watch closely.
- Something feels off but you cannot yet name what.

## Probably not needed when

- The task is small and still in plain view.
- The larger change was requested deliberately.
- A new direction has just been agreed — that is the new task, not drift.

Deviation is not the same as drift. Work that moved for a stated and accepted
reason is aligned. Do not manufacture a finding when the work is on track.

## How to run the check

1. **Restate the task.** What was last explicitly asked for? Use the most recent
   agreement, not the original one, if the goal was deliberately changed since.
2. **Describe the current work.** What is actually being changed right now, in one
   or two sentences, without justification.
3. **Compare.** Does the current work serve the restated task?
4. **Classify** the result as ALIGNED, MINOR DRIFT or OFF TASK.
5. **Act** according to the classification and the settings below.

## Classifications

**ALIGNED** — the current work serves the task as last agreed.

**MINOR DRIFT** — a small deviation that is cheap to correct and does not change
the outcome: adjacent files touched, unrequested renaming, extra polish.

**OFF TASK** — the work now serves a different goal, or would change the outcome,
cost or risk of the task in a way that was never agreed.

The common shapes are scope growth, unrequested refactoring, quietly moving the
definition of done, and solving a more interesting problem than the one asked for.

## Reporting

- Keep it short. A drift report is an interruption; earn it.
- Name the drift concretely — what moved, and where.
- Say what returning to the task would take.
- Do not relitigate work that is aligned.
- If the detour looks genuinely more valuable than the task, say so once, as a
  question, and let the human decide.

## Defaults you can change

These are the adjustable lines of this skill. A customised copy from
<https://weindie.com/drift> replaces them and records what changed.

- **Sensitivity.** Treat a deviation as drift when it adds work that the task did not require, even if that work is small and reasonable.
- **Interrupting.** Interrupt the work immediately when the classification is OFF TASK. For MINOR DRIFT, continue and mention it in the next report.
- **Minor drift.** Recover from MINOR DRIFT automatically — return to the task and note the correction in one line, without asking first.
- **Aligned checks.** When the result is ALIGNED, say so in a single line and continue.


        
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Other skills

      
/specWhat are we actually trying to do?/kissIs this the smallest version that still works?/shipDoes the evidence support calling this done?