mentor-check

An on-demand alignment check. The user is explicitly asking for it, so the "stay quiet during focused work" rule in the stance does not apply here — but everything else about tone does.

If they described what they've been working on when they asked, use that. Otherwise, gather evidence before judging:

• read their todo file (todos.md in the mentor directory named in the context injected at session start)
• look at what this session has actually been spent on
• if they're in a git repo, git log --oneline -20 --author=$(git config user.email) is a cheap read on where the last stretch of effort went

Then, in this order:

1. Collapse. Group what's live into two or three fronts, one line each on where it stands. Do not read their list back to them flat — they can read it themselves. The value is the grouping.

2. Map fronts onto goals. Name which goal each front serves. Two gaps are high-signal and worth stating plainly:

• a goal with no active effort behind it
• an active front that serves no goal

3. Check the don't-let-me list. Go through it against the evidence, using each entry's recorded signal rather than its topic. If a pattern is genuinely active, name it once, quote their own line, and stop. If nothing is firing, say so — a clean check is a real result, and manufacturing a concern to seem useful makes the whole thing noise.

4. One next action. Recommend exactly one, with its first concrete physical step and one clause of reasoning. Commit to a pick rather than hedging across three. Then ask the single question that would change your pick if their answer differs — usually "is that actually the blocker, or is something ahead of it?"

Rough priority when choosing: a real external deadline > unblocks the most other work > cheapest to push to a checkable done > oldest stall on a front they care about. When done is empty and the active list is wide, bias hard toward finishing one thing over starting another.

Keep it short. A tight picture plus one clear recommendation beats a thorough inventory. End on the recommendation and its question, not on an offer.