Intent controls a local choice only when it distinguishes its live alternatives
Type: kb/types/note.md · Tags: foundations, methodology, planning
A stated intent can control a local choice only if, directly or through an intermediate intent or constraint, it changes which live alternatives are admissible, preferred, worth further search, or sufficient to stop.
When removing or replacing the intent would leave the local alternatives and their ordering unchanged, the intent did not control that choice. It may still explain the wider project or govern another decision.
A distant intent can acquire local force through a bridge that derives a more specific purpose, priority, role, or constraint. The bridge matters because a high-level purpose compatible with every live local option cannot select among them by itself.
Scope
- Intent need not exclude an option to discriminate; changing its priority or stopping condition is enough.
- Discrimination is necessary, not sufficient. The executor may still misunderstand or ignore the intent.
Relevant Notes:
- Intent-framed delegation is a control regime; prompt length does not establish it — grounds: locates intent inside a broader allocation of information, authority, and evidence
- Lightweight search control allocates further search without licensing adoption — extends: local intent can rank branches without authorizing their final adoption
- An author should fix what the executor can't determine, not what it will — extends: applies the discrimination test to whether a choice can safely remain with execution or must be fixed upstream
- A capable agent needs methodology selection, not just relevant knowledge — extends: gives mutually incompatible methodologies as a concrete set of live alternatives that intent and constraints can make governing
- A specific intent may out-yield local rationales, but contingent facts stay separate — extends: develops the specificity boundary by conjecturing that one purpose can constrain many local judgments while facts it does not entail remain separate
- A failure explanation becomes search control only when it changes a later branch decision — contrasts: applies the same null-effect test to a retained explanation and later search branches rather than intent and local means