First governed task

Goal

Trigger Tenon from normal conversation, identify the new Change, and inspect its real Workflow and evidence without accidentally reviving old work.

Prerequisites

• completed installation
• trusted hooks for Codex
• a new host session
• a Git project you are prepared to modify

Steps

1. Ask for a concrete task

Use normal conversation, for example:

Add keyboard navigation to the project switcher and test it.

Do not start by manually choosing an old Change unless you intend to resume it. The router suppresses pure discussion, sends only tightly bounded low-risk edits to simple, and otherwise creates a new Change with the selected Track/Workflow.

2. Identify the Change

tenon list --json
tenon status --json

Use the returned Change name for subsequent commands:

tenon status <change-name> --json

3. Inspect evidence

For a governed Workflow:

tenon document status <change-name>
tenon check <change-name>

tenon check is a guard report. It does not advance the state.

4. Open the workbench

tenon dashboard --open

Progress and Todo use the effective steps of this Change. Default shows seven phases; simple shows its own four nodes including the escalation terminal; free and custom retain the selected Workflow.

5. Resume only when explicit

In conversation, say:

Resume change <change-name> and continue its current phase.

Or activate it for the current session:

tenon session activate <change-name>

Continuous delegated interaction can be recorded explicitly:

tenon session activate <change-name> --continuous --host-session <host-session-id>

This does not waive Skills, documents, review receipts, guards, publication authority, security, cost, or external-side-effect boundaries.

Expected result

• discussion created no Change, or
• a new simple/default/custom Change exists for the current request;
• the status, Todo, and Dashboard agree on its Workflow and phase;
• an unrelated prior Change remains untouched.

Verification

tenon status <change-name> --json
tenon document status <change-name> --json

For simple, document status may correctly report that no default document contract applies.

Common failures

An old Change appears

Confirm whether the prompt explicitly named/resumed it. Do not repair state until you have run tenon list --json and tenon status <name> --json.

Nothing was created

The request may be pure discussion, a slash command, or a system message. If it was implementation work, run tenon doctor, confirm hook trust, and open a new host session.

The task is waiting

Waiting can mean a review request, user interaction, queued AFK work, or a guard failure. Follow the read-only diagnostics in troubleshooting.

Next action

Read routing and workflows or continue through the default workflow.