Keep Rejected Options in Your Agent Decision Log

An activity log tells us what an agent did. A decision log should also tell us what it considered and rejected. Without rejected options, a later reviewer sees a clean path that never existed: model B was selected, the task restarted, the result succeeded. Missing are the reasons model A was unsuitable, why staying put was worse, and what new evidence would change the choice. That information matters for trust and recovery. It lets people challenge a decision without reconstructing the entire session. Execution history is necessary, but different The MonkeyCode model-switch record at commit c58bcd4 stores the task and user, from/to model IDs, request ID, whether to load the session, success, message, session ID, and timestamps. The switch use case creates that switch record, restarts the task with the target configuration, and records the result. That is valuable execution history. It answers “what switch was requested and what happened?” The expanded rejected-options structure below is my design proposal , not a claim about MonkeyCode's current schema or interface. Add the decision before the outcome A reusable record can separate choice from execution: { "decision_id" : "task-42-model-switch-7" , "context" : "The task needs the required tool-call contract." , "chosen" : { "option" : "model-b" , "reason" : "Passed the declared capability contract" , "evidence" : [ "evaluation/capability-model-b.json" ] }, "rejected" : [ { "option" : "model-a" , "reason" : "Required tool-call case failed" , "evidence" : [ "evaluation/capability-model-a.json" ], "revisit_when" : "Adapter version changes" } ], "execution" : { "request_id" : "req-switch-7" , "result" : "success" , "session_id" : "session-9" } } The key field is revisit_when . “Rejected” should not mean universally bad. It should mean unsuitable under a specific context and evidence set. Design the interface for progressive disclosure Do not paste this JSON into the main task timeline. Use three layers: Timeline: Switch