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Five questions before you turn a task into a routine

Automating a weak workflow just runs the bug on a schedule.

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What hurt

Michael (@Michael_Fenech_) asks Grok Bot five questions before promoting any task to a routine, to catch weak workflows before they run automatically. If answers are unclear, he keeps running manually until the process is reliable. Complements win-twice-before-routine with an explicit checklist.

What to install or create

Ask: (1) Did this run cleanly end to end? (2) Is the trigger clear enough? (3) Does one agent own the whole job? (4) Where is human approval still required? (5) What should happen when there's nothing to report? No clear answers → don't automate yet.

Bots

  • No new bot. Follow the first-run steps.

Plugins

  • None on day one. Follow the first-run steps.

Routines

  • None on the first run. Watch one manual pass first.

The prompt

Author-quoted five questions

Michael posted these five questions in the cited tweet. Copied as published.

Last line is our approval fence: Never send, post, spend, or buy without my explicit yes.

1. Did this task run cleanly from start to finish?
2. Is the trigger clear enough that the agent knows exactly when to act?
3. Does one agent clearly own the whole job?
4. Are there any points where human approval is still required?
5. What should happen when there's nothing to report?

Never send, post, spend, or buy without my explicit yes.

First run

  1. 1Read https://x.com/Michael_Fenech_/status/2097738554956763452.
  2. 2Before creating a routine, paste the author's five questions to your bot.
  3. 3If any answer is fuzzy, keep running the task manually.
  4. 4Only schedule once the process is proven and nothing-to-report is defined.

Approval fence

None beyond your usual send/spend fences once the routine exists.

What to tweak

Steal the five-question gate. A routine should automate a proven process — not the problems inside it.

Source

Michael | AI + Agents @Michael_Fenech_ · Original post

Not affiliated with xAI. We did not write this prompt. Third-party template terms still apply.

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