spectra-discover

name	spectra-discover
description	Open-ended requirements & stakeholder/goal elicitation BEFORE CLARIFY. Use when the GOAL itself is underspecified (IDEA/STRATEGIC intent) — distinct from CLARIFY, which disambiguates an already-known goal. Read-only, bounded; produces an elicitation summary, never a plan.
metadata	{"methodology":"SPECTRA"}

SPECTRA — DISCOVER Skill (pre-CLARIFY elicitation)

Use this skill when the request's objective itself is unknown or latent — not merely when the spec details are ambiguous. DISCOVER runs BEFORE CLARIFY and hands CLARIFY a structured elicitation summary.

When to run DISCOVER (vs CLARIFY)

	DISCOVER	CLARIFY
Precondition	Goal is unknown / latent	Goal is known; spec details ambiguous
Intent types	IDEA, STRATEGIC, any under-GOALED request	REQUEST, CHANGE, BUG_SPEC
Question style	Open-ended discovery of goals, stakeholders, success	≤3 plan-shape disambiguation questions
Output	Elicitation summary → handed to CLARIFY	WHO/WHAT/WHY/CONSTRAINTS parse → Scope

Boundary rule: DISCOVER = "what are we even trying to achieve, and for whom?" CLARIFY = "the goal is clear; which of these plan shapes do you want?" Do NOT run DISCOVER on a well-GOALED request — go straight to CLARIFY.

Why this exists: specification/system-design is the dominant multi-agent failure category (MAST — ~43.8% of failures), and multi-agent systems collapse toward ~30% accuracy when latent stakeholder knowledge is never actively elicited (HiddenBench). CLARIFY alone cannot close this — its ≤3 plan-shape contract assumes the goal is already known. See DESIGN-RATIONALE.md DR-10.

Elicitation protocol (bounded, read-only)

Surface, do not assume. For each axis, record what is known and emit a [GAP] marker for each unknown rather than inventing an answer:

1. Stakeholders — Who requests this? Who is affected? Who approves/reviews? Map the approval chain. [GAP] for each unidentified party.
2. Latent goals — What is the underlying outcome (not the surface ask)? What is the "job to be done"? Distinguish the stated request from the real goal.
3. Success metrics — How will we know it worked? Target metric + current baseline (e.g. "p95 < 200ms, currently 800ms"). [GAP] when no measurable criterion exists.
4. Hard constraints — Budget, deadline, tech-stack lock-in, compliance, platform.
5. Non-goals — What is explicitly OUT of scope? Surface these early to prevent scope creep downstream.

Bound (D5 — no unbounded interview loop)

DISCOVER is elicitation + synthesis, NOT an interactive multi-turn interview agent.

• Produce ONE elicitation summary in a single pass from available context + the host conversation. Do not loop.
• If coverage is low (e.g. ≥2 of the 5 axes are [GAP] with no resolution path), escalate to the human with the gap list — do not fabricate goals to proceed.
• DISCOVER NEVER produces a plan and NEVER writes code (D2). Its sole output is the elicitation summary handed to CLARIFY.

Output: elicitation summary

A compact structured block (lives under .spectra/ like all SPECTRA output):

## DISCOVER — Elicitation Summary
- Stakeholders: <list | [GAP]>
- Latent goal: <restated outcome | [GAP]>
- Success metrics: <metric + baseline | [GAP]>
- Hard constraints: <list>
- Non-goals: <list>
- Open gaps: [GAP] <each unknown>
- Coverage: <n/5 axes resolved>  → handing to CLARIFY | ESCALATE to human

Hard constraints (P0)

1. READ-ONLY. No code, no file edits, no mutations (D2).
2. Bounded — single-pass synthesis, [GAP]-and-escalate, never an interview loop (D5).
3. Emit [GAP] for every unknown; never assume latent intent (D7).
4. DISCOVER hands its summary to CLARIFY; it does not itself produce a plan.
5. Every output path lives under .spectra/ (see SPEC.md Output Discipline).

See SPEC.md "## DISCOVER (pre-CLARIFY, open-ended elicitation)" for the full methodology section.

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SPECTRA — DISCOVER sub-mode