Reminders, when-then, and promises

The difference is what makes it fire and what happens when it fires.

A reminder fires at a clock time and sends a nudge. A commitment, or promise, fires when an event or schedule happens and can perform a richer action.

A tracked topic watches for evidence and does not act. An Agent Run does bounded multi-step work now. A memory follow-up resurfaces context later.

Homie chooses the right kind of promise by looking at what should trigger it and what should happen next.

- Clock time: reminder

- If/when event plus action: commitment

- Passive watch for evidence: tracked topic

- Bounded multi-step work: Agent Run

- Contextual monthly/yearly nudge: memory follow-up

- Fixed recurring household work: scheduled routine

Homie should not fake one surface with another when the requested behavior is different.

- A passive watch should not call or message someone.

- A one-shot time nudge should not become a commitment.

- A rich scheduled action should not be stored as a phone-only recurring reminder.

Commitments need supported trigger/action pairs. Risky actions such as calls, messages, and risky agent runs request approval at setup.

Member-owned commitments and reminders should attribute actions to the right member. Household actions should be visible as household actions.

Name the trigger and the action separately. A good automation request says when something should happen and what Homie should do next.

- Say 'remind me at...' for simple time nudges.

- Say 'when X happens, do Y' for commitments.

- Say 'keep an eye on...' for passive tracking.

Most Homie issues come from setup, identity, or approval state. Work through these checks before assuming Homie ignored the request.

- Check whether the request is a reminder, commitment, tracked topic, routine, or Agent Run.

- Look for an approval card if the action sends, calls, books, shares, or affects the household.

- Remember that recurring household work runs from the trusted home setup, not from a separate background helper.

Good to know: If Homie picks the wrong promise type, the system can steer it back to the safer matching surface.

- Say 'remind me at...' for simple time nudges.

- Say 'when X happens, do Y' for commitments.

- Say 'keep an eye on...' for passive tracking.

- Remind me tomorrow at 9 to call the dentist.

- When it rains tomorrow, add a heads-up.

- Keep an eye on mail from the school.