A ranked list without a reason is still a list. You will not trust it when the day gets tight.
WAH never highlights orange without three lines under Why this?: the chain it unlocks, the window it fits, and who owns the unblock. If we cannot say why, we should not highlight.
The three lines
Every Do this next card carries the same structure. Example: Review customer interview notes — 35 min · Highest leverage → Why this?: Fits your available window · Unblocks the product brief · No dependency is waiting on you.
Miss one, and the move changes. No dependency waiting on you is not the same as no dependency. Fits your window is not a guess — it is 35 min inside a 90-minute block. Highest leverage is not P1 — it is how much downstream work this unlocks.
How to read it like a graph check
Treat Why this? as a graph debugger. Chain view on the last Ask intent shows it plainly: Interview notes → Product brief → Launch decision → Friday deadline. If the brief is stale, the chain is stale. Change the node, not the sort.
In the workspace, the same data backs capture → rankNext(). capture.ts does not categorize your dump; it extracts control, motion, and the one complete action. Why this? is the user-facing trace of that ranking.
Rule we ship with
Orange = the decision. Not decoration, not every border. If the reason is generic, we do not go orange. That restraint is the feature — it keeps trust when you have to press Start with twenty minutes until the next call.
Ask WAH five different questions and watch Why this? change shape. That movement is the product. The task title alone was never the point.
See Why this change →