Chain Anatomy — Cheat Sheet

Every workflow that touches AI is a chain. Every chain is a sequence of legs. Every leg has the same three parts. Name them and you can debug any workflow without rewriting prompts.

The Three Parts of Every Leg

┌──────────┐       ┌──────────┐       ┌──────────┐
│  SENDER  │ ────▶ │ PAYLOAD  │ ────▶ │ RECEIVER │
└──────────┘       └──────────┘       └──────────┘

Part	What it is	Examples
Sender	Whoever (or whatever) is putting the message INTO the leg.	You · A client · A CRM trigger · An automation · An agent · A model
Payload	The thing being moved across the leg.	A voice memo · A prompt · A JSON blob · A buyer text · A summary · A draft email
Receiver	Whoever (or whatever) is on the OTHER end.	A human · An AI · Another agent · A CRM field · A phone screen

Test for whether you've named a leg correctly: if you can describe sender, payload, and receiver in one sentence each, you've got it. If any one is fuzzy, that's where the leg breaks.

OODA Runs on Every Leg

The same four-step loop runs on every sender and every receiver:

Observe — what's coming in?
Orient — what does it mean? (this is the step everyone skips)
Decide — what should I send next?
Act — actually send it.

When a chain breaks, one of the four steps got skipped on one of the legs. Almost always Orient. The three specs (Diamond, AI Spec, Handoff Contract) are designed to make sure the receiver of every leg has what it needs to orient correctly.

Two Real Chains, Mapped End-to-End

Chain A — Voice Memo to Buyer Text (3 legs)

LEG 1                    LEG 2                    LEG 3
You                      Phone                    Claude
 │                        │                        │
 │  voice (audio)         │  transcript (text)     │  draft text
 ▼                        ▼                        ▼
Phone (transcription)    Claude                   Buyer's phone

Sender:   You             Phone                    Claude
Payload:  Voice           Transcript               Draft text
Receiver: Phone           Claude                   Buyer
Spec:     (implicit human)  AI Spec                Diamond

Three legs, three different sender-receiver pairs, three different payloads. The break point most agents hit is Leg 2 (no AI Spec on the prompt) which makes Leg 3 land cold to the buyer.

Chain B — CRM Lead Drop to Send (5 legs, 2 of them AI↔AI)

LEG 1            LEG 2              LEG 3              LEG 4         LEG 5
CRM trigger      Classifier         Claude             You           Phone
 │                │                  │                  │             │
 │  lead JSON     │  classified JSON │  draft email     │  approved    │  email
 ▼                ▼                  ▼                  ▼             ▼
Classifier       Claude              You                Phone         Lead's inbox
agent            (drafter)

Sender:   CRM       Classifier      Claude           You          Phone
Payload:  Lead JSON Lead+intent     Draft email      Approved txt Email
Receiver: Classifier Claude         You              Phone        Lead
Spec:     Handoff   Handoff         AI Spec          (implicit)   Diamond
          Contract  Contract        (talking-FOR
                                     YOUR voice)

Five legs. Two are AI↔AI (Legs 1-2 and 2-3 partially) and need Handoff Contracts. One is human↔AI (Leg 3) and needs the AI Spec. One is human↔human (Leg 5) and needs the Communication Diamond. Skip any one of those specs and the chain breaks silently.

The Role Flip (Every Leg, Both Sides)

Every leg has both a sending side and a receiving side. The job is different on each side. Most chain breaks happen because someone collapsed the two roles into "I'm just communicating."

Role	The Job	What it looks like
Sending	Be UNDERSTOOD	Strip ambiguity · Pre-answer the obvious follow-up · Match receiver vocabulary · State what "done" looks like · Name what NOT to do
Receiving	UNDERSTAND	Read the whole thing once · Restate the ask in your own words · Surface what's missing · Confirm before executing · One clarifying question, not zero

Tell: if the receiver had to guess, the sender didn't finish the job. If the sender's intent was clear and the receiver still got it wrong, the receiver didn't finish the job. Either way, the leg has a role-flip leak.

Quick-Match: Which Spec Goes on Which Leg?

┌─────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────┐
│ LEG TYPE                │ SPEC                               │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Human → Human           │ Communication Diamond              │
│  (you ↔ client/team)    │  WHAT, HOW, WHEN, MOTIVATION       │
│                         │  BLOCKERS, OWNERSHIP               │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Human → AI              │ AI Spec                            │
│  (you ↔ Claude/ChatGPT) │  ANTI-PATTERNS, AUDIENCE           │
│                         │  (talking-to + talking-for),       │
│                         │  OUTCOME, INTERVIEW-FEEDBACK LOOP  │
├─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────┤
│ AI → AI                 │ Handoff Contract                   │
│  (no human in middle)   │  INPUT SHAPE, OUTPUT SHAPE,        │
│                         │  DONE DEFINITION                   │
└─────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────────────┘

Class: Innovation Lab · The Communication Loop That Doesn't Break Companion files: three-spec-worksheet.md, failure-modes-quickref.md