Which Promises Are Still Open?
An email that says “sent” is not always proof of delivery. Here's how Team0 handles a promise it has captured as open work.
You promised to send a customer a revised proposal. On Thursday you write, “Sent it.” Then you realize you forgot the attachment. On Monday you send the actual file.
When should the reminder disappear? Not on Thursday. But it shouldn't still be there on Tuesday, either.
This is where a list of extracted tasks falls short. It can create a reminder from the customer's request, another from your reply, and perhaps a third from the missing attachment. It may close them all when it sees the word “sent.” Or it may keep them all open forever.
For a promise Team0 has captured, we want one answer to a more ordinary question: do you still owe this person the document?
One promise over time
When does the reminder go away?
Request received
Not yet a promise
A customer asks for a revised proposal.
Owner accepts
Open work
Team0 records what you agreed to send, to whom and by when.
Draft sent
Still open
A message says “sent,” but the required attachment is missing.
Correct delivery
Settled
The right artifact reaches the right recipient.
Once the right file is delivered, the promise stays in the history but stops appearing as unfinished work.
The original promise stays in the history. After the right document is delivered, it should stop showing up as unfinished work.
What counts as done?
First, the customer asking for a proposal is not the same as you agreeing to send one. Once you accept, the promise can be open work. Thursday's email doesn't settle it because the file is missing. Monday's email may settle it if the right document actually reached the right person.
That sounds obvious when a human reads the thread. Software has to make the distinction on purpose. A meeting about the proposal is not proof that you sent it. A file sent to someone else is not proof either. When the evidence is missing, the system shouldn't make up a happy ending.
We run a narrow, read-only check against Team0's production open-work view: work marked as settled should not reappear as something still owed. This checks what happens to obligations the system has already captured. It is not a claim that every promise in every account has been found.
Keep the history, lose the nagging
You may still want to find the original request, your reply, the email without the attachment and the one that finally delivered it. None of that should be deleted. But after delivery, the proposal should stop appearing as unfinished work.
That is the difference between finding an old message and knowing what to do with it now. The main article shows how this fits into Living Understanding.
If an agent tells you a promise is closed, ask it to show you the message that made it open and the later evidence that closed it. “I saw the word sent” isn't enough.
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