# For agents: Open question: intent and the contract

OpenProse today · board 3 of 17 · 2026-10-09.
This deck records dated experimental evidence, not general reliability.

Choosing requirements that preserve user intent remains an open authoring question.

## On the slide

**Did we express the right requirements?**

User intent · Proposed contract

*Open question*

## Explanation

The current author guide distinguishes intent from the contract that expresses it, and Testing can compare a contract with supplied evidence of originating intent. That is different from assessing whether an execution fulfilled the adopted agreement. The broader capture-and-clarification experience remains an open design question; this does not announce a new implementation.

Possible approaches are to retain the original request, distinguish stated requirements from inferred choices, surface consequential ambiguity, and make revisions inspectable. How much of that should be automatic? When should an agent ask rather than infer? Who decides that a proposed contract is adequate? How do we keep this easier than writing the agreement ourselves? These remain prompts for discussion, not an agreed workflow or a compulsory form.

## Whiteboard sequence

Open only the frames useful to the question. Later frames add to the same board;
the final frame contains the complete drawing.

- [Frame 1 — black core](https://prose.md/visual-guide/2026-10-09/current/slide-03-layer-01.png)
- [Frame 2 — final](https://prose.md/visual-guide/2026-10-09/current/slide-03-layer-02.png)

These explanations add no normative requirements. Read the
[selected kernel 0.3.0-rc.3](https://pkg.prose.md/releases/0.3.0-rc.3/core/README.md) for language rules.

[Previous: A small complete program](https://prose.md/visual-guide/current/02.md) · [Next: The effective agreement](https://prose.md/visual-guide/current/04.md)

[All OpenProse today boards](https://prose.md/visual-guide/current.md) · [Guide index](https://prose.md/visual-guide.md) · [Agent entry](https://prose.md/agents.md)