One list, no doubles
Lesson 4 of 6 · The Master List
1 · Learn the move · Recursive + iteration
Merging two lists by hand is how items disappear, and the disappearance surfaces six weeks later as a date nobody remembers agreeing to. Run it in three passes, each checking the one before. Pass one matches and merges nothing. Pass two merges the confirmed matches, keeping the earlier date added and the later due date, and logs every merge. Pass three does arithmetic: rows in, merges, expected out, actual out, and names anything that will not reconcile. If the numbers do not close, the merge ate something.
Three passes, each checks the last. Pass 1: match my new captures against the standing list, exact and near, merging nothing. Pass 2: merge the confirmed matches, keep the earlier date added and the later due date, log every merge. Pass 3: audit, rows in versus merges versus rows out, and name anything that does not reconcile. Show the arithmetic. [standing list + new rows]
2 · Your turn. You write the prompt
Monday morning: fourteen new rows from Friday's leadership meeting plus your standing list of sixty-two. Last quarter a merge quietly swallowed a vendor's insurance certificate row, and you learned about it when their coverage lapsed. Write a prompt whose third pass proves nothing got eaten.
Remember: the AI sees only your prompt, not this page. If the situation isn't in your prompt, it doesn't exist.
Optional. These shape the output when you run your prompt below, not your score.