intent · diff
git:20260817.0cc07d9 to git:20260817.f04083f
7 added, 34 removed. Audit A to A.
---
name: intent
description: Turn a rough ask into a clear work order. Use when the ask is rough, unspoken, or double-readable — before planning or building.
---
- ## Extract
-
- From the conversation/context/user:
-
- - The **ask** as given — the words on the table.
- - What **blocks** it — everything that would have to be invented to start the work now.
-
- ## Gate
-
- Proceed only when: starting the work now would mean inventing what the user means.
-
- Anything else, say which in one plain line — never work the ask over anyway:
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- - The ask is already one confirmed thing → proceed with the work.
- - The WHAT is confirmed and the open question is the technical path — architecture, technology, design → use **shape** skill.
-
- ## Route
-
- Before routing anything: retrieve what the record, the repo, or the world can answer. Only what the user alone holds routes to a skill.
+ Look up what the record, the repo, or the world can answer. Only what the user alone holds routes to a skill.
- Route each blocker by what it is, invoking the named skill with the Skill tool:
+ Route each thing still left to invent by what it is, invoking the named skill with the Skill tool:
- The words admit two readings that would build different things → use **clarify** skill.
- The user holds what they want but can't yet say it → use **elicit** skill.
- - The user is missing something already settled — what exists, what a thing means — and can't ask past it → use **explain** skill.
- - The ask arrives already committed — a locked proposal with undefended decisions inside → use **interrogate** skill.
-
- What each skill gives back re-enters the routing: a clarify pick can surface something the user can't express; an elicit record can leave words with two readings; an explain can let the user finally say the ask; an interrogate answer can amend the ask. Route again until nothing blocks the ask.
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- Where the input leaves it open, ask the negative once — what should this NOT do — before closing.
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- ## Output
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- The work order is the result: the ask restated in one line, confirmed by the user — plus what it must NOT do, where that surfaced. The routing ends only when starting the work would invent nothing.
+ - The user is missing something already settled and can't ask past it → use **explain** skill.
+ - The ask arrives committed, its decisions undefended → use **interrogate** skill.
- Then check what still stands open:
+ Route again until nothing is left to invent. Where the input leaves it open, ask the negative once — what should this NOT do.
- - Nothing — or one way to build it is already plain → proceed with the work.
- - The WHAT is confirmed but more than one way to build it remains → use **shape** skill.
+ State the work order: the ask, what it must NOT do where that surfaced, and what is still open. As short as it goes with nothing in the spec lost — plain words.
- The routing is spent once the user confirms the one-line ask — anything further runs under the branch picked here, never as another round of working the ask over.
+ The WHAT is confirmed and what's open is the technical path → use **shape** skill.