intent git:20260816.8c2b68dA

Immutable. This exact content is served forever at /api/v1/blob/56d09b7dd1fae847.

---
name: intent
description: Turn a rough ask into a clear work order
when_to_use: 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:

- 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.

Route each blocker 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.

Where the input leaves it open, ask the negative once — what should this NOT do — before closing.

## Output

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.

Then check what still stands open:

- 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.

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.