Tripwire Catalog — Worksheet
What this is. A personal reference you will build in this lesson and keep for the rest of the course. For each of the eight tripwires from Lesson 3.4, you will write the name, a one-sentence definition in your own words, a concrete example, and the counter-move you will use when you see it.
By the time Module 8 (Agent Orchestration) asks you to build multi-agent systems, you will have added three to five more tripwires from your own experience. That is the point — this is a living document.
Save your completed version as tripwire-catalog-v1.md in your course notes folder.
How to use this worksheet
For each of the eight tripwires below:
- Write the tripwire name and a one-sentence definition in your own words. Do not copy from the lesson — rewording forces you to actually understand it.
- Provide a specific example. First choice: from your own experience (a time you or someone you watched hit this). Second choice: from the lesson.
- Write the counter-move in one sentence — what you will do next time you see the cue.
At the end, for at least three tripwires, add a short note: have you personally seen this one? Describe the specific moment.
The eight tripwires
Have I seen this personally? Yes Not yet
Have I seen this personally? Yes Not yet
Have I seen this personally? Yes Not yet
Have I seen this personally? Yes Not yet
Have I seen this personally? Yes Not yet
Have I seen this personally? Yes Not yet
Have I seen this personally? Yes Not yet
Have I seen this personally? Yes Not yet
Reframe habits (referenced from counter-moves above)
When you hit a tripwire, one of these three reframes is usually the right move:
- Make the goal legible. Rewrite “clean this up” into a sentence you can verify. “Extract the three duplicate date-parsing blocks into one helper function.” That is legible; “cleaner” is not.
- Prefer additions to rewrites. Instead of “rewrite this module with better error handling,” ask for “wrap the three IO calls with explicit error messages, keep everything else unchanged.”
- Build the verify signal you wish existed. If the work is risky because tests don’t cover the goal, write a failing test first. Ask the agent to write a test that only passes if the bug is fixed; run it, watch it fail; then ask for the fix. Now the work is bounded and verifiable.
Most tripwire counter-moves are one of these three. When you can name which reframe you used, you are paying attention to the right level.
Predict-the-zone exercise
For each task, predict: strong zone, tripwire zone, or tripwire-but-worth-trying-with-reframing. Write a one-sentence defense.
Answer key (work through it yourself first)
Task 1 — Python port
Strong zone, with a mild tripwire flavor for any deprecations that depend on third-party package versions (tripwire 1). Overall: go.
Task 2 — Rust crate
Strong zone (exploring an unfamiliar codebase). Verify the agent’s claims against the actual code.
Task 3 — auth function
Tripwire 3 (illegible goal) + tripwire 6 (security-sensitive). Reframe: “implement rate-limiting on login — 5 failed attempts in 60 seconds triggers a 10-minute block” is legible; then still treat the output as first-draft needing a second human pass.
Task 4 — progress bar
Strong zone. Bounded, well-specified, has a visible signal (the progress bar moves or it doesn’t).
Task 5 — Flask refactor
Tripwire 3 + tripwire 5 (rewrite). Reframe: pick one specific improvement (“replace the global state with a proper config object”), scope it, and do it as an addition where possible. Do not accept “refactor to best practices” as-is.
Task 6 — unit tests for pure functions
Strong zone. Writing unit tests for pure functions is as bounded as coding gets.
Task 7 — DB choice
Tripwire 3. The first half of the ask (“decide which DB”) is a design question that requires context the agent does not have. Reframe: you decide, and then ask the agent to implement the schema for the database you picked.
Task 8 — React rerenders
Tripwire 4 unless you have already read the component carefully. If the codebase is unfamiliar, read first, then direct. If familiar, this is a strong-zone debugging task.
The takeaway
Good directors don’t match the zone to the task — they adjust the task to fit the strong zone. That’s what the reframe habits are for. The tripwire catalog is how you stop falling into the same traps twice.
Revisit this document at the end of Modules 4, 6, and 8. Add rows for tripwires you meet that don’t fit one of these eight. You should end the course with 12–15 named tripwires of your own.