Outline first, then one unit per turn

What the move is

Split the job before the output limit splits it for you, at a boundary you chose rather than mid-sentence.

Why it works

Maximum output length is a separate, much smaller ceiling than the context window. Any single request that has to emit a whole file or chapter is the shape most likely to hit it.

Step by step

1. Ask for the structure only: sections, files, or steps, with one line each.
2. Fix the structure before any of it is written.
3. Request one unit per turn, naming it by its place in the outline.
4. Ask for a one-line handover at the end of each unit so the next one starts in the right place.
5. For code, have it write files rather than print them.

Paste this

Do not write any of it yet. Give me the outline as a numbered list of units, one line each, with a rough size for each. When I approve it, we will do one unit per message.

Make it yours

Where a tool can write files, the outline becomes a checklist the agent works through unattended, and the conversation becomes a log rather than the artefact.

Variations

• Ask for the hardest unit first, to find out early whether the plan holds.
• Ask for two units per turn once you know the size of one.

Works with

• Hand off a task and walk away from the machine
• Work through an entire repository, not a pasted file