Session Contract Template

One page, written before the work starts, naming the mission, the boundaries, and the evidence that decides whether the work is complete. Paste it as your first message in a fresh session.

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Mission

One sentence. If it takes more than one, it is more than one session.

Out of scope

Name what you do not want touched. This is the half people skip, and it is the half that stops scope creep.

Boundaries

This work needs Claude to

Is everything under version control?

Does anything here deploy, send, or reach a machine that is not mine?

Files this work may touch

Definition of done

The evidence, not the feeling. What has to be true, and how I will check it from outside Claude.

What I will not take Claude's word for

Claude reporting that it pushed the code, or finished the task, or that the tests are green, is Claude grading its own homework. A model that is drifting reports success just as confidently as one that is right.

• I will look at the real saved history myself
• I will run the thing myself
• I will let the test or the compiler be the judge

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This resource is part of

Claude Code Without Coding: AI That Does Real Work for You

by Arun Nagarathanam

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