Read respectively in agent handoffs

A handoff describes two drafts as brief and detailed, respectively. You remember both properties, yet give detailed to the first draft when thinking about it later. The words survived your reading; their attachments changed.

Respectively asks you to carry order from one named series into another. Reading the sentence involves more than remembering which properties appeared. You also need to retain which member receives each property.

Jane Doe appears alongside Alex Doe in wholly invented passages. Treat every sentence as text to consider on the page. No action described in a passage is being taken here.

Find both series before attaching a property

Consider the invented handoff sentence, "Jane Doe's draft and Alex Doe's draft are brief and detailed, respectively."

One series names Jane Doe's draft, then Alex Doe's draft. The other gives brief, then detailed. Read from the beginning of each series: Jane Doe's draft is brief. Alex Doe's draft is detailed.

The second thought does not acquire brief merely because that word appeared closer to Alex Doe's name. Respectively connects corresponding positions across the two series. In this sentence, brief belongs with the draft named first.

Even when the handoff has a .md filename, its sentences require that reading. Knowing the file's kind tells you nothing about which draft is detailed.

Keep the received order when it feels unfamiliar

Change the example to this invented sentence: "Alex Doe's draft and Jane Doe's draft are brief and detailed, respectively."

The properties appear in the same order as before. The drafts do not. Here, Alex Doe's draft is brief, while Jane Doe's draft is detailed. Carrying the earlier attachments into this sentence would give each draft the other draft's property.

Return to the names as they occur in the sentence you are reading. Resist putting Jane Doe first merely because the earlier example began with that name. Likewise, a preferred order of drafts in your mind cannot replace the order stated on the page.

Read the expanded thoughts back against the received wording. Alex Doe occupies the first position among the drafts; brief occupies the first position among the properties. Jane Doe and detailed occupy the second positions. Both attachments depend on this sentence's arrangement.

Expand a longer series without dropping its middle

Extend the example with an invented sentence about three parts: "The opening, middle passage and ending are brief, detailed and unchanged, respectively."

Hold all three members in their stated order. The opening is brief. The middle passage is detailed. The ending is unchanged. Keeping only the beginning and end would leave detailed without the middle passage it describes.

These properties concern different aspects of the text. Brief describes length, detailed describes how much is said about a subject, and unchanged describes whether the text differs from its earlier form. That variety does not rearrange their attachments. Read the positions before deciding what each property tells you about its member.

Such short examples remain ordinary sentences here. The separate article about Markdown fences describes that display choice. An enclosure would leave the correspondence between these words for you to read.

Keep an extra term unpaired

Read this invented sentence without filling anything in: "The opening, middle passage and ending are brief and detailed, respectively."

There are three named parts but only two stated properties. A tempting reading gives brief to the opening, detailed to the middle passage, and then silently gives detailed to the ending as well. That last attachment has no third property to accompany it.

Keep the opening with brief and the middle passage with detailed as the positional reading so far. Leave the ending unpaired. Its corresponding property is absent from the sentence. You have established a limit of the wording, without deciding anything about the ending's unstated characteristics.

A missing member can leave more unsettled. Suppose the handoff says, "Jane Doe's draft is brief and detailed, respectively." Only one draft is named. You cannot establish which second draft, if any, belongs with detailed. Do not invent Alex Doe's draft from the earlier examples. Where the sentence cannot support a unique pairing, let the attachment remain open.

Carry the pairs into your understanding

Return to the sentence about Jane Doe's and Alex Doe's drafts. A private mental restatement can keep each draft beside its property: Jane Doe's draft is brief; Alex Doe's draft is detailed. The handoff itself stays as received.

Revisit both series before relying on your interpretation. Retain every named member in its original position, including a middle member that is easy to pass over. Keep an unpaired term visible in your understanding instead of smoothing it into a complete thought.

If the handoff names separate files, use those existing names while reading the pairs. Giving Markdown files names addresses the naming choice. A familiar name still receives the property attached to its position in the particular sentence before you.

Stop where the stated correspondence stops. Respectively can connect the terms present on the page; it cannot supply an absent member or an unstated property.

Where Sashmark fits

Desktop reading and text editing for agent-written Markdown are planned for Sashmark v1, still in development. Its planned design excludes AI altogether. The words' interpretation remains yours.