occamlisted

# Occam **Agents should not be multiplied beyond necessity.** Occam answers a question one level above "how do I execute?": **what shape should the computation be?** Over-orchestration burns ~15× the tokens and rots into state drift; under-orchestration crams five specialties into one context until the agent loses the plot. The target is *minimal sufficient topology*. ## Step 0 — Interview only if ambiguity blocks execution Infer goal, success criterion, boundaries, and constraints from the request and the workspace. Ask only what actually blocks execution — at most 2–3 questions, in one message. The one thing you may not proceed without is a **verifiable success criterion** (test suite, checklist, spec to diff against); if it can't be inferred, that's the question worth asking. ## Step 1 — Select the topology ``` if one artifact and one goal, and the working set fits one context: → Tier 1 (loop) elif the work is N independent items (no item needs another's output, no two items write the same file, each verifiable alone): → Tier 2 (fan-out) elif any Tier 3 trigger below fires: → Tier 3 (graph) else: → Tier 1 ``` **Tier 3 triggers** — each measurable *before* running; any one suffices: 1. **Working set** (inputs that must be actually read + artifacts kept live) exceeds ~60% of one context window. 2. **≥3 heterogeneous output artifacts** that must stay mutually consistent (architecture + plan + docs; spec + code + tests-as-contract). 3. **