Leave a trail

Claim: a job leaves what was asked, what was found, what was produced and where it lives, so that a second person can resume it.

Grade: convention, untested. The guides agree with each other; no study tests that a set of files lets a second person resume.
Evidence: review, strand F; baseline, the trail; Noble 2009; Wilson 2017, practices 3a, 4a and 5f; Sandve 2013, rule 1.
Check: project-shape (errors): the trail part has the rows Asked, Found, Produced and Where it lives, and the project root links every part. Whether a stranger can resume is judgment.
Reader styles: none.

What it asks

Keep one folder per project, with an overview file at its root that lists the parts.
Fill a table with four rows: what was asked, what was found, what was produced, where each lives.
Date the log, so the order of the work can be read back.

Two guides for computational work prescribe the same things: an overview file, a folder per project and a dated log (Noble 2009; Wilson 2017).
A third makes its first rule to keep track, for every result, of how it was produced (Sandve 2013).

The guides are practice; none measures resumption.
The four rows are the maintainer's current answer to the review's question on the trail, not a tested minimum.