Using dont as an LLM agent

Core pattern: conclude before asserting

Every time you are about to write something as established fact — in a reply, in a command, in a plan — and you haven’t verified it yet, use dont conclude first.

Then verify it. Then dont flag with the evidence.

This is the only discipline that matters. Everything else follows.

Trigger conditions

Use dont conclude when you find yourself producing text like:

• “The store.rs file handles connection pooling”
• “This function is called only from the test harness”
• “The API rate limit is 500 requests per minute”
• “I believe the bug is in the flush path, not the connection path”

Each of these is an unverified claim. Record it before you act on it.

Do not use dont for

• Things you already verified before stating them (just state them)
• Universal facts not specific to this codebase (“Rust is memory-safe”)
• Housekeeping claims that will never be doubted (“the commit message is in conventional commits format”)

The overhead is worth it when being wrong would send you down a wrong path. Apply it selectively.

Session start

Always run dont prime before beginning investigation work:

dont prime

• If it exits 0: no open doubted claims. Proceed.
• If it exits 1: there are doubted claims from a previous session. Resolve them before introducing new claims.

This is your orientation step. It is not just a CI gate.

Full pattern for investigating a bug

# 1. Orient
dont prime

# 2. State what you believe (before you verify)
dont conclude "The write loss is caused by lazy flush in CozoDb"
# → claim-abc

# 3. Add competing explanations (before you go looking for evidence)
dont hypothesis add claim-abc --text "Connection pool exhaustion drops writes silently"
dont hypothesis add claim-abc --text "OS buffer not flushed on SIGTERM"

# 4. Find evidence — file + line span
dont flag claim-abc --file src/store.rs --lines 47-62

# 5. Assess hypotheses as evidence comes in (IDX is 0-based integer)
dont hypothesis assess claim-abc 0 --refuting src/pool.rs --lines 88-103
dont hypothesis assess claim-abc 1 --supporting src/shutdown.rs --lines 12-18

# 6. Check status
dont show claim-abc

What counts as evidence

Prefer repository-relative locators:

--file src/store.rs --lines 47-62       # file + line span
--file justfile --lines 12-13           # any text file in the repo
--file docs/spec.md --anchor "Flush"    # anchor within a file

External URLs are accepted when the evidence lives outside the repo:

--evidence https://docs.example.com/api#rate-limits

Quick reference

dont prime                              # orient: any doubted claims?
dont conclude "..."                     # register an unverified claim
dont ground "..." --file F --lines N-M # register and verify in one step
dont flag <id> --file F --lines N-M    # attach evidence to existing claim
dont hypothesis add <id> --text "..."  # add a competing explanation
dont hypothesis assess <id> <idx> --refuting <path> [--lines N-M]  # idx is 0-based integer
dont show <id>                         # check current status
dont trust <id> --reason "..."         # mark as doubted (blocks prime)
dont ignore <id> --reason "..."        # set aside a claim (scope change, no longer relevant)
dont lock <id>                         # freeze a mature verified claim
dont list                              # all claims and their statuses
dont trace <id>                        # explain why a claim is blocked