deep-interview

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• SKILL.md

SKILL.md (first lines)

<Purpose>
Deep Interview is an intent-first Socratic clarification loop before planning or implementation. It turns vague ideas into execution-ready specifications by asking targeted questions about why the user wants a change, how far it should go, what should stay out of scope, and what OMX may decide without confirmation.
</Purpose>

<Use_When>
- The request is broad, ambiguous, or missing concrete acceptance criteria
- The user says "deep interview", "interview me", "ask me everything", "don't assume", or "ouroboros"
- The user wants to avoid misaligned implementation from underspecified requirements
- You need a requirements artifact before handing off to `ralplan`, `autopilot`, `ralph`, or `team`
</Use_When>

<Do_Not_Use_When>
- The request already has concrete file/symbol targets and clear acceptance criteria
- The user explicitly asks to skip planning/interview and execute immediately
- The user asks for lightweight brainstorming only (use `plan` instead)
- A complete PRD/plan already exists and execution should start
</Do_Not_Use_When>

<Why_This_Exists>
Execution quality is usually bottlenecked by intent clarity, not just missing implementation detail. A single expansion pass often misses why the user wants a change, where the scope should stop, which tradeoffs are unacceptable, and which decisions still require user approval. This workflow applies Socratic pressure + quantitative ambiguity scoring so orchestration modes begin with an explicit, testable, intent-aligned spec.
</Why_This_Exists>

<Depth_Profiles>
- **Quick (`--quick`)**: fast pre-PRD pass; target threshold `<= 0.30`; max rounds 5
- **Standard (`--standard`, default)**: full requirement interview; target threshold `<= 0.20`; max rounds 12
- **Deep (`--deep`)**: high-rigor exploration; target threshold `<= 0.15`; max rounds 20
- **Autoresearch (`--autoresearch`)**: same interview rigor as Standard, but specialized for `omx autoresearch` launch readiness and `.omx/specs/` mission/sandbox artifact handoff

If no flag is provided, use **Standard**.

<Mode_Flags>
- **`--autoresearch`**: switch the interview into autoresearch-intake mode for `omx autoresearch` handoff. In this mode, the interview should converge on a launch-ready research mission, write canonical artifacts under `.omx/specs/`, and preserve the explicit `refine further` vs `launch` boundary for downstream CLI intake.
</Mode_Flags>
</Depth_Profiles>

<Execution_Policy>
- Ask ONE question per round (never batch)
- Ask about intent and boundaries before implementation detail
- Target the weakest clarity dimension each round after applying the stage-priority rules below
- Treat every answer as a claim to pressure-test before moving on: the next question should usually demand evidence or examples, expose a hidden assumption, force a tradeoff or boundary, or reframe root cause vs symptom
- Do not rotate to a new clarity dimension just for coverage when the current answer is still vague; stay on the same thread until one layer deeper, one assumption clearer, or one boundary tighter
- Before crystallizing, complete at least one explicit pressure pass that revisits an earlier answer with a deeper, assumption-focused, or tradeoff-focused follow-up
- Gather codebase facts via `explore` before asking user about internals
- When session guidance enables `USE_OMX_EXPLORE_CMD`, prefer `omx explore` for simple read-only brownfield fact gathering; keep prompts narrow and concrete, and keep ambiguous or non-shell-only investigation on the richer normal path and fall back normally if `omx explore` is unavailable.
- Always run a preflight context intake before the first interview question
- Reduce user effort: ask only the highest-leverage unresolved question, and never ask the user for codebase facts that can be discovered directly
- For brownfield work, prefer evidence-backed confirmation questions such as "I found X in Y. Should this change follow that pattern?"
- In Codex CLI, prefer `request_user_input` when available; if unavailable, fall back to concise plain-text one-question turns
- Re-score ambiguity after each answer and show progress transparently
- Do not hand off to execution while ambiguity remains above threshold unless user explicitly opts to proceed with warning
- Do not crystallize or hand off while `Non-goals` or `Decision Boundaries` remain unresolved, even if the weighted ambiguity threshold is met
- Treat early exit as a safety valve, not the default success path
- Persist mode state for resume safety (`state_write` / `state_read`)
</Execution_Policy>

<Steps>

## Phase 0: Preflight Context Intake

1. Parse `{{ARGUMENTS}}` and derive a short task slug.
2. Attempt to load the latest relevant context snapshot from `.omx/context/{slug}-*.md`.
3. If no snapshot exists, create a minimum context snapshot with:
   - Task statement
   - Desired outcome
   - Stated solution (what the user asked for)
   - Probable intent hypothesis (why they likely want it)
   - Known facts/evidence
   - Constraints
   - Unknowns/open questions
   - Decision-boundary unknowns
   - Likely codebase touchpoints
4. Save snapshot to `.omx/context/{slug}-{timestamp}.md` (UTC `YYYYMMDDTHHMMSSZ`) and reference it in mode state.

## Phase 1: Initialize

1. Parse `{{ARGUMENTS}}` and depth profile (`--quick|--standard|--deep`).
2. Detect project context:
   - Run `explore` to classify **brownfield** (existing codebase target) vs **greenfield**.
   - For brownfield, collect relevant codebase context before questioning.
3. Initialize state via `state_write(mode="deep-interview")`:

```json
{
  "active": true,
  "current_phase": "deep-interview",
  "state": {
    "interview_id": "<uuid>",
    "profile": "quick|standard|deep",
    "type": "greenfield|brownfield",
    "initial_idea": "<user input>",
    "rounds": [],
    "current_ambiguity": 1.0,
    "threshold": 0.3,
    "max_rounds": 5,
    "challenge_modes_used": [],
    "codebase_context": null,
    "current_stage": "intent-first",
    "current_focus": "intent",
    "context_snapshot_path": ".omx/context/<slug>-<timestamp>.md"
  }
}
```

4. Announce kickoff with profile, threshold, and current ambiguity.

## Phase 2: Socratic Interview Loop

Repeat until ambiguity `<= threshold`, the pressure pass is complete, the readiness gates are explicit, the user exits with warning, or max rounds are reached.

### 2a) Generate next question
Use:
- Original idea
- Prior Q&A rounds
- Current dimension scores
- Brownfield context (if any)
- Activated challenge mode injection (Phase 3)

Target the lowest-scoring dimension, but respect stage priority:
- **Stage 1 — Intent-first:** Intent, Outcome, Scope, Non-goals, Decision Boundaries

From ErenYegar/oh-my-codex-app, MIT.