/qu — quick update
The user has been away; they want the state in five seconds. The failure mode is a block of prose. Caveman register (fragments OK, no filler, no hedging), three headers, done.
Before writing (≤1 min, no audit)
Refresh from ground truth, not memory: nvidia-smi, pgrep/ps, the run's
state.txt/log tail, output files. If a real number takes >1 min to pull, write
"not pulled yet" — never estimate as fact. Heavy digging → subagent, you format.
Format — exactly this, nothing before or after
RUNNING
- <job/run, plain name> — <state>, <progress> — ETA <HH:MMZ or "unknown">
- (nothing) / DEAD: <what>, <cause> — <salvaged / relaunched?>
RESULTS
- <headline number first, exact, with the baseline it beats/misses>
- <link or path to the file> ← only if a file exists
- (none yet — <why, 5 words>)
NEED YOU
- <the one decision/blocker + who owns it> / (nothing)
Hard rules
- ≤ 10 lines total. One line per item. No paragraphs. No preamble, no sign-off, no "summary" sentence, no headers beyond the three.
- Every section present, even if the content is "(nothing)". Empty ≠ omitted.
- Dead/failed jobs go in RUNNING as
DEAD:— first bullet of that section. Never buried, never softened. - Numbers exact, in %, with the comparison inline ("12.6% mSUN vs 12.56 stock").
- ETAs absolute clock + Z. Never "soon"/"in a bit".
- Plain names: a run codename gets a 2–4 word gloss in parentheses on first use
("
zeroinit_final(epoch-656 chain)"). No session shorthand, no phase labels. - NEED YOU holds at most the top 1–2 items. If the user needs to choose, state the default you'll take if they say nothing.
- Argument narrows scope: "qu grid" → grid only, same format.
- If they ask a follow-up, answer that one thing in ≤3 lines — do not re-emit the block.
Example
RUNNING
- coord_1p2_lat_1p5_iso (isotropic-noise diffusion) — epoch 412/1000, loss 5.31 — ETA 08-16 03:40Z
- DEAD: eval on node A — OOM at relax stage 04:12Z — relaunched batch 8, ETA 06:30Z
RESULTS
- epoch-656 chain: mSUN 13.1% (327/2500) vs 12.56% stock baseline — raw, pre-relax
- reports/2026-08-15_zeroinit_e656.md
NEED YOU
- Relax numbers land ~06:30Z; if <12.56% I stop the chain unless you say otherwise.