walkthrough · diff
git:20260920.81f1ca7 to git:20260927.6064cb5
41 added, 11 removed. Audit B to B.
---
- description: The shape of a walkthrough and of an elicitation interview — one item per message, what an item carries, how verdicts reach the write. Not a command; read by the hook's pointer whenever a walkthrough or an interview runs.
+ description: The shape of a walkthrough and of an elicitation interview — one item per message, what an item carries, the verdict words, how verdicts reach the write. Not a command; read by the hook's pointer whenever a walkthrough or an interview runs.
user-invocable: false
---
The working method named in CLAUDE.md (Working methods, Walkthrough;
its position POS.0850 in `projects/forge/10-intent.md`). It applies
whenever a list of items needs the principal's decision — critique
findings, challenges, differences between two requirement sets, open
threads, TBC items, proposals of a source — and to every elicitation
interview, whatever produced the list.
## One item per message
Claude puts one item in front of the principal and stops. The
principal gives his verdict. The next message opens with one line
acknowledging that verdict and then carries the next item, nothing
else. Never a verdict of Claude's own on the open item and the next
item in one message: a question from the principal keeps the item
open until he closes it. A check whether Claude has understood an
item fully is an item of its own. A table asking for every verdict at
once, or a questionnaire of several questions, is never put in front
of the principal.
## What an item carries
In this order, so that the principal can decide without asking for
an explanation:
1. what the item says and the situation or evidence behind it, in a
few sentences;
2. what would change and for whom;
3. the recommendation with its reason and, for "accept", the concrete
text the artefact would receive — never a description of the
edit.
A heading with a one-sentence reason is a label, not an item. Items
- are worked in order of weight. "Leave it open" is a legitimate
- verdict, not a failure; a declined recommendation is not re-argued
- without new facts.
+ are worked in order of weight. `park` is a legitimate verdict, not a
+ failure; a declined recommendation is not re-argued without new
+ facts.
+ ## The verdict
+
+ Every item of a walkthrough ends in one proposition, worded so that
+ `accept` has exactly one meaning: yes to what is in front of the
+ principal. The proposition states what changes, or that nothing
+ changes, and what is recorded; where it goes against the reviewer's
+ suggestion, it says so. The message closes with the line
+ `(a)ccept / (m)odify / (r)eject / (p)ark`. An open question is not a
+ proposition: it closes with the question alone. Where Claude can, he
+ turns a question into a proposition, but never by filling a gap with
+ an assumption.
+
+ - `accept`: agreed, the text goes in as shown.
+ - `modify`: a discussion opens on the item, and the solution found
+ is put forward to be accepted.
+ - `reject`: not agreed, nothing changes, the reason is recorded.
+ - `park`: not now. The item waits and comes back.
+ - `obsolete`: no longer relevant, with a note why.
+
+ The principal may answer the verdict line with a single letter, `a`,
+ `m`, `r` or `p`, when that letter is his whole message. After `m`
+ alone Claude asks what he wants changed. Claude's acknowledgement
+ names the verdict in full and says what it does. No other word of
+ the forge has a letter: `write`, `obsolete` and every command are
+ typed in full.
+
+ These are the verdict words of every walkthrough, whatever produced
+ the list; no command has words of its own.
+
## The elicitation interview
Runs the same way: one question per message, the answer acknowledged
before the next question is asked. When the principal sends a thought
in pieces (CLAUDE.md, Working methods, In pieces), no question until
his closing word.
## From verdicts to the write
Verdicts are carried in the conversation and written once at the
- round's end (CLAUDE.md, prime directive 9), on the principal's
- confirmation or at any moment on his order. The verdict vocabulary,
- and what each verdict writes, is the producing command's
- (`/critique`, `/challenge`, `/check`; for a source's proposals: a
- position with provenance for "accept", a REJ for "reject"). Before
- the write Claude reflects the whole round back. Until the write,
- everything agreed is nowhere yet and is said so.
+ round's end (CLAUDE.md, prime directive 9). On `write` Claude
+ reflects the whole round back and, on the principal's yes, writes
+ everything carried as one round. `write` is added to the verdict
+ line when the round looks finished. What each verdict writes is the
+ producing command's (`/critique`, `/challenge`, `/check`; for a
+ source's proposals: a position with provenance for `accept`, a REJ
+ for `reject`). Until the write, everything agreed is nowhere yet and
+ is said so (CLAUDE.md, prime directive 9).