Interview Me

Use this before /spec-driven-development, /spec, or /plan when the requested outcome is not clear enough to implement without guessing.

When To Use

Use when the ask is missing one or more of:

• Who the user/operator is
• Why this matters now
• What success looks like
• The binding constraint or tradeoff
• Explicit out-of-scope boundaries

Skip for mechanical edits, obvious bug fixes, pure information requests, or when the user explicitly asks for speed over clarification.

Process

1. State A Hypothesis

Write one sentence plus a confidence number.

text
HYPOTHESIS: You want workspace switching to preserve task context because agents lose momentum when users navigate between workspaces.
CONFIDENCE: 45% - missing: who feels the pain, what "preserve" means, and what counts as done.

2. Ask Focused Questions

Format every question with a guess.

text
Q: Is this primarily for human users switching between workspaces, or for office agents operating across workspaces?
GUESS: Human users, because the pain sounds navigation-related rather than automation-related.

If the active harness provides a native user-question UI that supports multiple questions in one turn, ask 2-4 focused questions together. Keep each question short, include your guess in the prompt or options, and make the options concrete enough that the user can answer quickly.

If no multi-question tool is available, ask one question at a time in chat. Do not send a long questionnaire.

3. Probe Convention-Sounding Answers

If the user says "modern", "scalable", "best practice", "dashboard", "robust", or "clean architecture" without concrete outcomes, ask:

text
If you did not have to justify this as best practice, what would you actually want?

4. Restate Intent

When confidence is high, restate in this shape:

text
Here's what I think you want:
- Outcome:
- User:
- Why now:
- Success:
- Constraint:
- Out of scope:

Yes / no / refine?

Do not proceed to /spec, /plan, or implementation until the user explicitly confirms or corrects the restate.

Output

The deliverable is a confirmed statement of intent. If the user wants it persisted, save it only after confirmation, usually in a feature spec via /spec; avoid creating standalone intent docs unless explicitly requested.

Red Flags

• Long open-ended questionnaires with no guesses
• A question with no guess attached
• Accepting "whatever you think" as confirmation
• Starting a spec or plan before the user confirms the restate
• No explicit out-of-scope line