Interview Framework

Interview Framework

Treat every normal-mode interview governed by this framework as a grill. Run the approval-gated interview for start, triage, research, requirements, design, and tasks. Treat this skill and its references as the single source of truth for interview behavior. Phase commands supply exploration territory and artifact context; they do not redefine the algorithm.

Quick mode bypasses interview questions only. It still requires current discovery, contract loading, bypass receipts, delegation checks, and artifact-agent load parity.

Entry Contract

Before each new or resumed interview:

1. Complete the applicable skill discovery pass from ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/normal-mode-gates.md.
2. Reload this entire SKILL.md, references/algorithm.md, references/domain-modeling.md, every selected skill body, and every selected skill resource required for the current work. Load references/examples.md only when an example is needed.
3. Record the load manifest with phase_gate.py record-skill-load.
4. Begin or resume the interview with the matching phase, interview ID, discovery revision, and context digest.

Block when this skill or the core algorithm reference cannot be loaded. Warn and continue when a domain skill fails to load. Put unresolved material conflicts in the first critical frontier.

Critical Decision Test

Grill only a decision that meets both conditions:

• The answer cannot be established by inspecting the project, prior artifacts, configuration, or selected skill contracts.
• Different answers would materially change scope, observable behavior, architecture, risk acceptance, delivery sequencing, or the acceptance standard.

Inspect facts with read-only tools or an Explore agent. Exclude setup choices, administrative preferences, status questions, facts the repository can answer, and low-impact polish. Treat a prescribed task action in a loaded domain skill as reference material during preload; do not execute it until the phase has approval and delegation begins.

Before building the tree, read the goal, state, .progress.md, prior phase artifacts, the configured .index/index.md, and the applicable CONTEXT.md reached through CONTEXT-MAP.md when present. Open only relevant indexed entries. Inspect code, configuration, tests, and existing specs for every discoverable fact. Run independent read-only lookups in parallel; a pending fact blocks only the nodes that depend on it.

• Fact: discoverable from project evidence. Resolve it through inspection; never ask the user.
• Decision: a consequential preference, priority, boundary, or tradeoff only the user can settle. Put it on the design tree.

Build the Design Tree and Traverse the Layered Frontier

Build a design tree from the phase territory. Each node contains a stable decision ID, dependencies, known evidence, viable options, recommendation, tradeoffs, and material consequences. Track nodes as open, investigating, resolved, or explicitly out of scope. The frontier contains every open critical decision whose prerequisites are resolved.

Ask the whole currently unblocked critical frontier. Use as many AskUserQuestion calls as needed, with at most four questions per call. Batch independent decisions together.

Before every AskUserQuestion call, call open-frontier for every decision ID in that batch.

After each response:

1. Call deterministic classify-reply on the whole reply before applying any part of it.
2. Persist every answered decision immediately with record-answer.
3. Preserve unanswered pending decisions when the response is partial.
4. Recompute the frontier from new answers and inspected facts.
5. Ask the next unblocked frontier until no critical node remains open.

Ask the whole current frontier in one round. Number each question (Q1, Q2, and so on). Use AskUserQuestion for the round when the tool is available. If AskUserQuestion is unavailable, render the same numbered round in the response and wait for the answers.

Turn an Other response into a specific dependent question in the next frontier. Never use a generic follow-up. Add branches exposed by concrete answers or contradictions, and remove branches that evidence resolves.

Each question must:

• Give 2-4 viable options.
• Put the recommended option first and label it (Recommended) unless the options are symmetric.
• State the recommendation rationale and the material tradeoff in the question or option description.
• Avoid straw-man alternatives and unnecessary flexibility.

Give a recommended answer with a short rationale. Provide 2-4 meaningful options. Require that the design-tree frontier is empty before final confirmation. Continue only when the user confirms the resulting shared understanding through the explicit approval choice.

See references/algorithm.md for the complete state machine.