hyperfocus-formatter

A passive output transform. After the LLM has decided what to say, this skill reshapes how to say it based on how long the current session has been open. Short sessions get a light Answer-First touch. Longer sessions get an aggressive Answer-First structure with a hard chunk limit. Sessions past the user's own pre-configured break threshold get one verbatim line of their own prior intent prepended — never a lecture, never a block.

TODO: phase-2 mcp-guardrail integration — once mcp-guardrail.check_hyperfocus lands, fold its signal into the threshold tier alongside request_break_if_needed.

When to activate

• Every response. This skill runs passively on every LLM turn. It is a transform, not a generator.
• Opt-out via profile. If preferences.output_format == "conventional", skip this skill entirely and emit the response unchanged.
• Design-critique phrase triggers. When the user's prompt contains any of the design-critique phrases listed in frontmatter (e.g. "give me crit on this design", "Figma review please", "walk through the prototype"), force Tier B shaping for this turn regardless of session length. The verdict line must precede the reasoning — critique that buries the call is unusable on a deadline.
• No other phrase triggers. Outside the design-critique set, there is no user-facing command. The user opts in once via profile and the transform stays on.

Operating instructions

1. Read preferences.output_format from the user profile.

• If "conventional": skip this skill. Emit the response as-is. Stop.
• If "answer_first" (default) or "bullet_first": continue.

1. Call get_time_context(). Parse current_session_length (ISO 8601 duration) into minutes.
2. Read chronometric.hyperfocus_break_minutes from profile. Default to 90 if absent.
3. Read preferences.max_chunk_size from profile. Default to 5 if absent. Clamp to range [1, 7].
4. Design-critique override. If the user's prompt matches any of the design-critique phrase triggers in frontmatter (case-insensitive, substring match), skip the session-length tier selection in step 6 and apply Tier B directly. The verdict (the answer line) must be the design call — ship/don't-ship/iterate/blocker — not a preamble. Reasoning bullets follow.
5. Otherwise, pick the tier based on current_session_length:

• Tier A — under 30 minutes. Apply light Answer-First: one summary sentence (≤ 80 characters) as the first line. Blank line. Then the full original response unchanged.
• Tier B — 30 minutes up to `hyperfocus_break_minutes`. Apply aggressive Answer-First: first line is the answer (≤ 80 characters). Next N lines are supporting bullets where N == max_chunk_size. Anything that would not fit goes into a single <details><summary>More detail</summary>…</details> block. Never exceed the chunk limit in the visible (non-collapsed) section.
• Tier C — at or above `hyperfocus_break_minutes`. Call request_break_if_needed(threshold_minutes = hyperfocus_break_minutes). If it returns null, fall back to Tier B. If it returns an object, prepend exactly ONE line to the Tier-B output that quotes prior_intent verbatim and names the suggested_action. Format: Session length: <M> minutes. You set the threshold at <T>. Your stated intent: "<prior_intent>". Suggested next action: <suggested_action>. Then a blank line, then the Tier-B response. Do not block. Do not repeat the line on subsequent responses unless the session length crosses another full threshold multiple.

1. Emit the transformed response.

Outputs

• Tier A. One-sentence answer, blank line, original response.
• Tier B. Answer line, blank line, up to max_chunk_size bullets, optional collapsed details block.
• Tier C. One data line (session length, threshold, quoted prior intent, suggested action), blank line, Tier-B-shaped response.

The visible word count above any collapsed block must not exceed roughly 120 words in Tier B/C. If the underlying response is genuinely longer, the surplus belongs in the details block, not in the visible chunk.

Do not

• Do not editorialise time. Never write "you've been at this a while", "wow, long session", "time flies". State the data plainly: Session length: 102 minutes. You set the threshold at 90.
• Do not use the word "hyperfocus" in user-facing output. It is a clinical term. The skill name uses it for developer-facing reasons only.
• Do not block, refuse, or withhold the user's response. The transform reshapes — it never gates.
• Do not use second-person directives: no "you should", no "you need to", no "you've been". State data; the user reads it.
• Do not paraphrase prior_intent. Quote it verbatim, inside double-quotes.
• Do not exceed preferences.max_chunk_size bullets in the visible section.
• Do not repeat the threshold line on every subsequent response — only when a new threshold multiple is crossed.
• Do not invent a suggested_action value. Use the exact string returned by request_break_if_needed. If the enum value is unfamiliar, render it literally (e.g. switch_context).

What this skill is not

• Not a productivity coach.
• Not a wellness nudge.
• Not a moral judgement on session length.
• Not a clinical intervention. The skill emits structured data the user has pre-consented to see; nothing more.

Examples

See tests/:

• 01-short-session-no-change.md — Tier A: light Answer-First on a 12-minute session.
• 02-long-session-answer-first.md — Tier B: aggressive Answer-First on a 75-minute session.
• 03-past-threshold-soft-nudge.md — Tier C: one verbatim-intent line on a 102-minute session past the 90-minute threshold.
• 04-design-critique.md — Tier B forced by a design-critique phrase trigger on an 8-minute session; verdict line precedes the reasoning bullets.