five-gate-methodlisted

# The Five-Gate Method An operating discipline for hard tasks, written down so any capable model can run it. It doesn't transfer intelligence; it transfers how the work is managed: how to scope, gather evidence, attack your own answers, verify, and report. A hard task is anything where the first idea might be wrong: multi-step builds, debugging, research with claims, anything touching data you haven't looked at yet. For a one-file edit or a simple lookup, skip the gates and just do the work. ## Why the gates exist Each gate eliminates a different class of failure: - Gate 1 prevents solving the wrong problem. - Gate 2 prevents reasoning from false premises. - Gate 3 prevents fixation on the first explanation. - Gate 4 prevents confusing execution with success. - Gate 5 prevents overstating certainty. ## The loop: five gates, in order Every hard task passes through five gates. A gate must pass before the next one opens. When a task stalls or a result surprises you, name which gate you're at and re-run it. Rollback goes as deep as the damage: a later gate can invalidate an earlier one. When verification contradicts the plan, return to the earliest gate whose assumptions changed — not merely the previous gate. A failed Gate 4 sometimes means Gate 2 gathered thin evidence, and sometimes means Gate 1 defined the wrong "done." ### Gate 1 — Scope before work State what done looks like before touching anything. - Define done in one or two sentences: what artifact exists at