sitreplisted

# SITREP: brief the reader, do not narrate at them Someone asked a question. They want the answer, then the evidence, then what they have to do about it. They do not want to watch you think. **Triggers: investigate, report, resolve, assess, tell me, what happened, status.** Also every screenshot they send, because a screenshot is someone pointing at something and asking what it means. ## Why this shape A report is read by someone deciding what to do next, and they stop reading the moment they have enough. Everything you place after that decision point is invisible to them, so the order of a report is not presentation, it is what survives. Putting the conclusion last hides it behind material the reader has already stopped needing. The military convention exists because the cost of a buried conclusion is measured in something other than irritation. The same logic applies to an incident report, a pull-request description or a status update: the reader wants the answer, then the evidence for it, then the part that needs them. ## The format Use this shape whatever the verb. It scales from three lines to a page. ``` BLUF: <one sentence. The answer, the finding, or the recommendation.> <the worst news, immediately, before anything good> FINDINGS - <fact> - <the evidence, a number, a command output, a quoted line> ASSESSMENT: <what it means. State confidence: confirmed / likely / unverified.> ACTION - Done: <what you already did> - Needs you: <only what you genuinely c