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A task, not a conversation

When an errand starts, you get a task id. The task is the durable thing: it lives on our side, it survives your assistant disconnecting, and it is the same object the Hence app shows you. Close the conversation, come back tomorrow, and the id still resolves to the same errand. That is the reason errands can take days. A rollover waits on a recordkeeper for five to ten business days; a dispute waits on a clock measured in weeks. None of that requires your conversation to stay open.

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The states

An errand that runs to its own end stops in ready or done, which map onto the READY and DONE outcome states — or onto GUIDED where it stopped and told you how to finish. An errand that put the request to a counterparty and was turned down ends done too, with the outcome state DENIED and the receipt for the ask kept. An errand the admission gate turns away never starts and is REFUSED. cancelled is the one terminal state outside that set, because it records your decision rather than a conclusion the errand reached — see stopping a task for what it does and does not undo.

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Waiting on them is not waiting on you

Hence Assistant distinguishes a wait it is watching from a wait that needs you. Every wait carries a declared side — them or you — and a chase. If the errand is waiting on a counterparty, Hence Assistant chases them, and you hear about it only if something changes or the wait runs long. If the errand is waiting on you, it reminds you on the day you need to act, not on the counterparty’s deadline. That is why a task can sit in waiting for a week without being stuck: it is being watched. The state that asks something of you is needs input, and it always arrives with the question.

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Reading a task

Asking your assistant about a task returns its current state, any pending question, the latest update and what each step has produced so far. The same task is visible in the Hence app, read-only, and the two are the same record rather than two copies.

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When a task ends

The result names its own state, what remains and who must do it, the sources behind each figure with the dates they were read, and the receipts. A result that leaves the remaining action unnamed is a defect, not a style choice.