| name | jarvis-deep-interview |
| description | Convergent Socratic interview that turns vague requirements into a production-grade specification via 8-15 narrowing rounds with mathematical ambiguity gating. Inspired by Sorbh/interview-me, adds Contrarian/Simplifier Challenge Mode and JSONL decision log. Use when an idea exists but implementation decisions are still undefined. |
| license | MIT |
/deep-interview — Convergent Requirements Interview
Acts as a senior architect. 8-15 rounds of Socratic questions narrow a vague idea into a production-grade spec. Blocks contradictions, edge-case gaps, and security gaps before any code is written.
How it differs from /brainstorm
- /brainstorm (divergent): expand possibilities. 15-20 questions + UI mockup variants. Exits when ideation feels saturated.
- /deep-interview (convergent): spec gating. 8-15 narrowing rounds + decision log. Exits when ambiguity score ≤ threshold.
When to use which:
- Idea itself is undefined →
/brainstorm
- Idea exists, implementation decisions are undefined →
/deep-interview
Mechanism (4 stages)
1. Mathematical ambiguity gating
After each round, score across:
- Undefined behavior areas
- Contradiction risk (conflicting requirements)
- Uncovered edge cases
- Security gaps (secrets, PII, permissions)
- Unidentified irreversible decisions
Refuse autonomous implementation until score ≤ 0.2 (default threshold).
2. Socratic question patterns
Examples the agent will ask:
- "What happens when X scenario triggers Y?"
- "What evidence would prove this decision wrong (falsifiability condition)?"
- "What assumptions are you carrying that aren't yet stated?"
- "What technical debt will this create one year out?"
3. Contrarian / Simplifier Challenge Mode
For each major decision, automatically run two checks:
- Contrarian: deliberately raise the counter-hypothesis (debiasing — never confirm a single hypothesis without testing its opposite)
- Simplifier: check whether a much smaller version exists (Karpathy "Simplicity First" — 200 lines vs 50 lines)
4. Decision log auto-write
All decisions, rationale, falsifiability conditions, and challenge results are recorded in JSONL for later audit.
Iron rules integration
- No fix without root cause: 5-why on each decision
- Never lie about status: "don't know" is explicitly marked, not papered over
- User sovereignty: agent questions are strong signals, not commands — user's answer is final
Self-check (per round — BLOCKING)
- Did I compute the ambiguity score with concrete evidence?
- Did I avoid confirming a single hypothesis without contrarian check?
- Did I run the simplifier challenge?
- Did I write the decision and its rationale to the log?
All must pass to advance to the next round.
Limitations
- Too-divergent input → recommend
/brainstorm first
- Rounds > 15 → auto-pause with "convergence failed, recommend re-divergence"
- Ambiguity score is a heuristic, not a precise measurement — user judgment is final
Related skills
/brainstorm — divergent ideation (predecessor stage)/plan-review — rigorous spec review after this skill completes/verify — implementation verification after spec is built/office-hours — trade-off matrix when a single decision needs explicit user approval
Source attribution
Inspired by Sorbh/interview-me (github.com/Sorbh/interview-me). Convergent gating concept and Contrarian Mode adapted with permission from the open-source pattern.
