The usefulness matrix Remind me what's going on? — Retrieval, 5/5. Great for getting back into the working mood after time off — summarize commits, chats, stories, specs over a short window. Remind me, what was X? / cold start — Retrieval, 4.5/5. Use it if you're bad at terms, or when you don't know where to even start googling. Enrichment — Mixed (retrieval-leaning), 4/5. Make it critical — have it flag prior implementations the next agent/human should care about. Spec — Mixed (generative-leaning), 4/5. Think about who reads the artifacts; keep implemented specs around for context; categorize what needs an elaborate spec vs. what to just build. Brainstorming — Generative, 4/5. Pick your battles. Brainstorm about things you know; avoid the things you don't. Rubberducking — Generative, 2/5. Walk the problem yourself. Don't dump everything into the AI — you'll lose the signal and lose track of which thoughts were yours.