# Decisions — Recommendations for the Deferred nagent-Rebuild

**Track:** `fable_review_20260617`
**For:** The user-deferred Manual Slop agent-directive overhaul (per user 2026-06-17: "I'm deferring that till probably next week or two").

> **What this is.** Concrete recommendations to apply when the user overhauls Manual Slop's agent directives. Each entry: rationale, source evidence (cluster file:line), suggested Manual Slop destination, priority. Adopted recommendations become new content in `AGENTS.md`, `conductor/*.md`, `conductor/code_styleguides/*.md`, `.opencode/agents/*.md`, or `docs/*.md` as appropriate.

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## Entry 1: Adopt Fable's "Search-Default for Current-State" rule

**Source evidence:** `research/cluster_7_epistemic_discipline.md` §"What Fable says" (Fable System Prompt.md:158-164).

**Rationale:** Fable's rule that the model MUST use web search for "current role / position / status" queries (e.g., "Who is the current California Secretary of State?") is a genuinely-useful epistemic discipline. Manual Slop's current directives don't have an explicit analog; the project's RAG discipline (`conductor/code_styleguides/rag_integration_discipline.md`) is opt-in, not default-on.

**Suggested Manual Slop destination:** A new section in `conductor/code_styleguides/rag_integration_discipline.md` (or a new styleguide) titled "Search-Default for Current-State Queries."

**Priority:** Medium (the convention should be added; the user's deferred rebuild is the appropriate time).

**Verdict category:** Useful.

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## Entry 2: Explicitly reject Fable's "Mental-Health Watchdog" framing

**Source evidence:** `research/cluster_3_user_wellbeing_watchdog.md` §"Verdict" (Fable System Prompt.md:92-124).

**Rationale:** Fable's directive that the model "avoid psychoanalyzing or speculating on the motivations" of the user + "share its concerns with the person openly" + "suggest they speak with a professional" is anti-user watch-dogging. The model is text generation; it is not a clinician. Manual Slop's existing 4 memory dimensions + the data-oriented error handling convention are the data-grounded contrast: the model does not have an opinion on the user's mental state; it has a conversation log.

**Suggested Manual Slop destination:** A new anti-pattern entry in `AGENTS.md §"Critical Anti-Patterns"` titled "Do not adopt persona-driven mental-health watch-dogging." Cite Fable as the explicit rejection (per cluster 3).

**Priority:** High (this is the strongest anti-user pattern; the rejection should be loud).

**Verdict category:** Anti-User.

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## Entry 3: Treat Fable's product-branding sections as noise

**Source evidence:** `research/cluster_1_product_branding.md` §"Verdict" (Fable System Prompt.md:1-31).

**Rationale:** Fable's "Claude Fable 5" + "Mythos" + "Anthropic.com/news/claude-fable-5-mythos-5" content is brand-specific noise. It applies only to Anthropic's commercial deployment and has no analog in Manual Slop's open-source-or-per-developer model. The "Knowledge cutoff" + "Web search" + "Today is Tuesday, June 09, 2026" content is similarly deployment-specific.

**Suggested Manual Slop destination:** No destination. The Fable branding content is explicitly out of scope for the rebuild.

**Priority:** N/A (no action needed).

**Verdict category:** Persona.

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## Entry 4-20: *[FILL IN: ~16 more recommendations. See spec.md §6.3 and the per-cluster "Synthesis notes for the Tier 1 writer" sections.]*