Customizing Behavior

The Agent's working habits are yours to shape. How often it updates the open entry, how it writes descriptions, what it does with tasks — tell it what you want, and it keeps your preferences in a file its host reads at the start of every session. AbleTime's rules always apply, but your preferences will shape the result.

How it works

Every orientation call returns AbleTime's recording rules along with a set of starting defaults. The Agent copies those defaults into a file of its own — the same kind of standing-instructions file its host already reads when a session starts. When you ask for something different, it writes your version into that file, and from then on your version is the one it follows.

The starting defaults

Until you change them, the Agent works from these:

• Keep the open entry current — update its minutes about every ten tool calls, or at any natural pause. The description is only rewritten when what happened has genuinely changed — and always as one whole account, never an appended line.

• Write descriptions in your words — plain language, one or two sentences, the way you'd describe your own day. No tool names or session jargon; the task carries the specifics.

• Treat tasks as records — describe a task when it's created, and rewrite the description as a closing summary when the work is done. New tasks go to todo unless you ask for backlog.

• Name tasks by reference — the Agent mentions tasks by reference and title, not by bare ids.

• Record quietly — bookkeeping calls happen in the background, without announcements or interruptions.

• Ask instead of guessing — when the Agent is missing a detail it needs, it asks once and waits.

Updates replace, never append

When the Agent updates an entry, the minutes and description it sends each replace the stored value outright — the total time so far, and a complete account of the work so far.

Times are your local clock

Entry times are plain local wall-clock time, written YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:00 with no time zone and no conversion.

For habits while the Agent is running, see Tips.

Endpoint shapes, status codes, and request fields are in the API Reference.