Too much on For you? Keep only what this week needs

Ask your agents to plan a whole app in one go and they do it well: every task, and every question and request they have for you. In Hamloy, the overview your coding agents keep, those questions and requests wait on one page, For you. After a plan like that it holds decisions for work months away next to the one that blocks tomorrow. I tried it on a blank project. Two things brought the page back to what matters now: one prompt that sorts what is there, and four lines that keep it short from the start.

Everything below is from test runs on a local Hamloy server, with Claude Code on Sonnet and the replies word for word.

Two prompts, 103 items, 24 cards

Larder is a recipe app that doesn't exist yet. Its README lists what it should do: accounts, recipes with photos, a meal planner, a shopping list that works offline, import from a link, a paid plan, email, and a phone app later. In a fresh repo with a blank project, Claude Code got one prompt:

> Plan all of Larder in Hamloy, everything in the README: every task, and every question
  and request you have for me. Don't build anything yet.

A second session, the same afternoon, got the launch:

> We also need the phone app (iOS and Android) and a proper launch: a landing page,
  analytics, the App Store and Play Store listings, and a newsletter. Plan those in Hamloy
  too, with every question and request you have for me. Don't build anything yet.

The plan was good: 103 open items, the tasks waiting on what they depend on. For you said:

16 questions and 8 requests for you. Assistants wait on these.

Most of the 24 were about later work

Few of them matter this week. The last three questions the list showed:

questions
  ## Decisions
  [ ] Q-yedr@1   Newsletter tool?  options: 1) Buttondown (simple, API, double opt-in) (recommended)  2) Kit (ConvertKit) or Mailchimp (heavier, more automation)  3) Postmark broadcast stream (one vendor, fewer list features)  (1 note)
  [ ] Q-eruo@1   How are subscriptions sold in the iOS and Android apps?  options: 1) Apps are free and sign-in only; subscribe on the web, where permitted by store rules (to start) (recommended)  2) Offer in-app purchase too (RevenueCat or native StoreKit/Play Billing)  3) No paid plan inside the apps at all  (1 note)
  [ ] Q-agtc@1   Launch scope: markets, languages, date, app feature parity  options: 1) I'll answer in a note on this question  2) English only, worldwide, apps cover planner + shopping list + recipes, no push at v1 (recommended)  (1 note)

Higher up were "Who can see a recipe?", which shapes the first table you build, and requests to enrol in the Apple Developer Program and open a Google Play Console account, for an app that is months away. On For you they sit side by side, and every card looks like it needs you now.

One prompt brings it down to three

Then a third session got one more prompt:

> For you in Hamloy has 24 questions and requests, and that's too many for me. Keep on
  For you only what the first version needs this week. Don't answer anything for me. Move
  each question and request about later work under a Later heading on its own list. Then
  tell me what's left and which one to answer first.

It read the lists twice and made 21 edits, for $0.12. Three questions stayed where they were, and the rest went under Later:

questions
  ## Decisions
  [ ] Q-ubro@1   Auth approach: Rails 8 built-in authentication or Devise?  options: 1) Rails 8 authentication generator + omniauth-google (recommended)  2) Devise + omniauth-google
  [ ] Q-mskx@1   Where are recipe and profile photos stored?  options: 1) Active Storage on S3-compatible bucket (S3 or Cloudflare R2) (recommended)  2) Active Storage on local disk
  [ ] Q-aqx2@1   Who can see a recipe?  options: 1) Per-recipe toggle, private by default (recommended)  2) Per-recipe toggle, public by default  3) Everything public  (1 note)
  ## Later
  [ ] Q-p1b4@3   Payment provider for the paid plan?  options: 1) Stripe (Checkout + Billing portal) (recommended)  2) Paddle (merchant of record, handles tax)  3) Lemon Squeezy
  ...

It said which to answer first, and why:

Answer Q-aqx2 (recipe visibility) first. It shapes the recipe schema and the show and index pages, and Recipes is the core of the first version.

What's under Later folds away, still there

Nothing was deleted. The other 21 cards are where they were, on the questions and requests lists, under a heading named Later. For you folds them to one line each at the bottom, and leaves them out of its number and the tab's badge:

For you
3 questions for you. Assistants wait on these.

Decide  3 questions waiting for you
  Where are recipe and profile photos stored?
  Who can see a recipe?
  Auth approach: Rails 8 built-in authentication or Devise?
  › 13 questions under Later

Do  0 requests open
  › 8 requests under Later

A click opens a fold, and each card in it keeps its options, its recommendation and the tasks it holds up. When the paid plan comes up in a month, its questions are one click away, or an agent moves them back out of Later.

Work under a heading named Later stays out of the way elsewhere too. Right now folds it below what is ready, and an agent listing the work hears only how many items it holds.

I tried another prompt first: write each later card as a note under its task, then delete it. That works too, but took 37 edits and $0.29, against 21 edits and $0.12, and the questions stop being questions you can answer with a click.

Or start calm: four lines in CLAUDE.md

The sorting can happen before anything reaches For you. A second blank project got the same two prompts, in a repo whose CLAUDE.md said:

# Working with me

Plan the whole thing in Hamloy, but keep For you to what this week needs.

- A question or request about later work goes under a Later heading on its own list.
- Put that later work under a Later heading in the backlog too.
- Small choices (names, layout, defaults): pick what you recommend and go on.

The plan came out as a "This week" heading with the app skeleton, accounts and recipes, and a Later heading with everything else: 39 open items, for $0.26 over both prompts. For you said:

Nothing waits on you right now.

Decide  0 questions waiting for you
  › 8 questions under Later

Do  0 requests open
  › 8 requests under Later

Claude Code explained:

I added nothing for you this week, because none of these block the three tasks. I took the small choices myself.

The phone app, the store accounts and the newsletter tool were all there, each as a question or request under Later, and the tasks that need one set to wait on it. If a choice like that is yours, name it in the file: How many questions your agents ask is up to you has a file to start from.

The four lines don't have to live in a file. On the project's Settings page, Instructions for assistants holds rules like these for the whole project, and every agent on it gets them when it starts: Claude Code and Codex in any of its repos, and Claude or ChatGPT in a browser, which have no CLAUDE.md to read. One set of rules for every agent on a project shows them at work.

When it is already long, start at the top

For you is in the order to work through it: decisions first, then what only you can do, and in each the card that holds up the most work first. Go through them at the top opens the first card and takes you one at a time, so you see one decision, not the whole page. Each answer frees what waited on it, and the agents hear it with their next tool call.

Try it

Your agents keep the plan and the overview either way. The prompt and the file change only what reaches you now, and what waits folded under Later. Create a free board, connect the agent you already use, and add the four lines to your CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md, or to the project's instructions. More on what waits on you is in Questions, Requests and The overview.