interview-me

Interview Me

Turn a raw request into a spec-ready decision record that to-prd can turn into a PRD without reopening requirements. A material decision is spec-ready only when it is confirmed or out of scope. An explicit default is allowed only for a nonmaterial uncertainty.

Boundary

Receive a feature request, an earlier exploration, and repository facts. Produce .ai-workflow/work/<feature-slug>/decision-record.md with status draft while the interview is open and ready-for-prd when the frontier is empty.

Read shared/references/workflow-stage-routing.md before the interview. It names the few broad lenses that can change an early question. Use one relevant broad lens at a time when it changes a decision. Run another only when the first result exposes a necessary later decision. Use security-gate for an exposed security surface. Use to-prototype only when running code is the smallest reversible move that can settle a decision.

Do not call design-gate, test-lens, a practice skill, a panel, a runner, or models-consensus. If the user explicitly wants additional opinions, direct them to invoke models-consensus; its own workflow presents the proposed seats for user approval before it runs.

This step ends at the decision record. to-prd writes the draft PRD. Do not plan files, create tasks, or implement code.

Work

1. Ground the interview in the relevant code, tests, domain glossary, and earlier architecture decisions. Existing decisions are already decided. Bring repository facts to the user instead of asking questions that exploration can answer. The user's time is the bottleneck.

1. Build the design tree. The frontier contains only user decisions whose prerequisites are settled. Cover actors and access, user outcomes and failure cases, data and integrations, explicit scope limits, rollout or rollback, and broad design choices that change the product shape. Security questions count as frontier questions.

1. Ask one round of independent questions.

1. Ask exactly five when five independent frontier decisions exist and the current conversation can receive five questions in one response.
2. When an interactive question tool has a lower limit but plain text is available, ask five in one numbered plain text batch. Otherwise ask fewer only when fewer independent decisions exist or the surface cannot receive more.
3. Never ask more than five. Never send a second question request in the same turn to compensate for a tool limit.
4. Give each question its repository basis and one recommended answer. A dependent question waits for the next round.

1. Record on settle. Write each answer, nonmaterial default, or descoped item into the decision record as it settles. Never use a default to bypass a material decision. When a term becomes canonical, update the glossary entry. For an architectural decision, apply all three or no ADR: it must be hard to reverse, surprising without context, and a real tradeoff. Write a qualifying ADR from references/adr-template.md when it settles.

1. Recompute the frontier after every user reply. If only a runnable experiment can settle a decision and that answer changes the PRD, use to-prototype, record its answer, and continue with independent questions in a later round. Do not prototype a fact the repository already answers.

1. Finish when the frontier is empty. A branch may end in a confirmed decision, a nonmaterial assumption with a default, or an explicit out of scope statement.

Decision record

Write a short kebab case feature slug, reusing an existing one when present. Start with # Decision Record: <feature name> and **Status:** draft; change the status to ready-for-prd when the interview finishes. The decision record contains:

1. Goal and user outcomes.
2. Settled choices and their repository basis.
3. Important failure cases and constraints.
4. Security decisions from security-gate, or No exposed security surface.
5. Nonmaterial assumptions with defaults and explicit out of scope items.
6. Glossary entries and ADRs written, with their paths.
7. Any prototype answer that shaped a decision.

Acceptance contract

The decision record exists at the stated path. Every open branch has a decision, nonmaterial default, or scope boundary. No question round exceeded five questions. The next step is to-prd.

The design-tree rounds and the three-test ADR bar are adapted from [mattpocock/skills](https://github.com/mattpocock/skills) (`grilling`, `domain-modeling`; MIT). See NOTICE.