Live
Your first job: have it read and explain
The first job doesn't change anything. We ask the agent to read the folder and tell us what's in it. It's the safest way to start, and it teaches you something important: what the agent says gets checked.
1. Switch to Plan mode
Press Tab until the bottom says Plan. In this mode the agent can read, but it doesn't change files. For a read-only job, that's exactly what we want.
2. Ask it to explain the folder
Copy this message:
Read the files in this folder and explain to me in a few lines what's in each one and what the folder seems to be for.
Watch how it works: you'll see it open the files one by one before answering. That's the agent loop: it thinks, uses a tool (reading), looks at the result, repeats.
It should tell you something like this: that there's a log of September expenses in expenses.csv, some notes with a budget goal in notes.md, and an OpenCode configuration file.
3. Ask it a question with a checkable answer
According to @expenses.csv, how much did I spend in total in September and which category did I spend the most on?
Now comes the important part. Don't believe it yet. Check at least one number yourself. These are the real values:
| Category | Total |
|---|---|
| food | 192.65 |
| home | 77.10 |
| fun | 63.00 |
| transport | 52.40 |
| Total | 385.15 |
Does it match? If the agent gave you a different number for food or transport, you've already found the odd thing in the file.
4. The odd thing in the file
Look closely at the category column. There are rows with food and one with Food; rows with transport and one with Transport. To a person, it's the same category. To a program that compares text literally, they're different.
Depending on how it added things up, the agent may have:
- Noticed and merged them (good).
- Split them into two categories, or left a row out (bad, and without telling you).
If it didn't mention it, ask:
Is there anything inconsistent in the category column? Does it affect the totals you gave me?
The lesson from this job
An agent can read fast and answer with a lot of confidence, and still get a detail wrong. It's not bad faith or a rare error: it's normal. That's why today's rule is:
The agent proposes. You check at least one thing before believing it.
You don't need to check everything. One fact you can verify quickly is enough: a total, a file name, a specific line.
Summary
- In Plan mode the agent reads but doesn't change anything: ideal for getting started.
- You asked it to explain the folder and to calculate totals.
- You checked a number yourself and found the capitalization inconsistency.