scope

name	scope
description	Explore the scope of a vague idea BEFORE framing it into a spec (the idea→scope leg; the optional opening move ahead of /think). Survey the surfaces the idea touches — code, docs, skills, CI, sibling repos — and seed the coming Announcement Frame with boundary, non-goal, and assumption claims that cite what was actually explored (provenance, not generic disclaimers). Use when the user says "explore scope", "scope this idea", "what does this touch", "map the scope", "scope exploration", or when an idea touches an existing codebase and speccing it cold would mean guessing its boundaries. Hand off to the sibling /think skill to build the frame. Authored and maintained in agentculture/devague (origin = devague); guildmaster pulls this skill from here and broadcasts it to the AgentCulture mesh — it is NOT vendored from guildmaster like the inbound skills here.
type	command

scope — explore what an idea touches before you frame it

The skill is named scope; it is the opening leg of the devague method — run it before the sibling /think skill frames an idea into a spec. Where /think converges on what to build, /scope grounds where the idea lives: which surfaces it touches, which it must not, and what is genuinely unknown — so the frame starts from explored territory instead of guesses.

This comes from the sharper end-to-end method spec (devague#53): scope grounded up front means convergence measures real coverage instead of vibes. The exploration itself is agent-side work — the devague CLI stays deterministic and never explores anything (#20).

When to use — and when to skip

Use /scope when the idea touches an existing codebase or ecosystem: a feature in a real repo, a process change across skills, anything where boundaries are discoverable rather than invented.

Skip it freely for small ideas. Scope exploration is not a mandatory first stage — the move-driven adaptive arc stays intact, and an idea that fits in one announcement can go straight to /think. (This is a recorded non-goal of the method: no wizard.)

The method

1. Enumerate candidate surfaces. List what the idea might touch: source packages, CLI verbs, renderers, schemas, tests, docs, skills, CI workflows, sibling repos. git ls-files and the repo's CLAUDE.md are the usual map.
2. Explore each surface read-only. Read enough of each candidate to decide: touched, not touched, or unknown. Exploration never mutates anything — no edits, no state changes, no CLI moves yet.
3. Classify every finding. Each explored surface yields one of:
   • in scope — the idea changes it → becomes a requirement or assumption claim in the frame;
   • out of scope — the idea must not change it → becomes a boundary or non_goal claim;
   • genuinely unknown — can't tell without a decision → becomes a park (open vagueness) or a question (pending user decision).
4. Seed the frame with provenance. When /think starts, capture the findings as claims whose text cites the surface explored — "the CLI stays deterministic per issue 20; scope exploration is agent-side" beats "we won't overreach". Provenance, not generic disclaimers: a reviewer should be able to trace every boundary claim back to something you read.

How findings land (the shipped surface)

There is no devague scope CLI verb yet — findings land through the existing devague moves (this skill invokes the CLI directly and stays self-contained; if devague isn't on your PATH: uv tool install devague):

Finding	Move
in scope (the idea changes this)	capture --kind requirement / --kind assumption (with --origin llm if you proposed it)
out of scope (must not change)	capture --kind boundary / --kind non_goal
genuinely unknown, needs a user decision	question "<text>" (later question --resolve <qid> --decision "<text>")
genuinely unknown, not decidable now	park "<text>" --kind unknown_blocking|unknown_nonblocking

A deterministic devague scope move — recording explored surfaces and findings as first-class frame state with provenance links — is planned, not shipped: it is task t3 of the committed sharper-end-to-end-method plan (docs/plans/2026-07-01-devague-ships-a-sharper-end-to-end-method-a-guided.md, devague#53). Do not run devague scope until it exists; this skill documents the surface as built.

Hard rules (do not violate)

• Exploration is read-only. Surveying scope never edits files, never mutates frame state, never runs a mutating CLI move.
• Provenance in every seeded claim. A scope-derived claim cites what was explored. If you didn't read it, don't claim it.
• LLM proposals stay proposed. Findings you capture with --origin llm land proposed; the user confirms. Same anti-fabrication contract as /think.
• Don't become a wizard. Scope exploration is optional-by-size and adaptive. Never block a small idea on a survey it doesn't need.

Worked example

Scoping "devague exports should carry per-item instructions" against the devague repo itself:

# 1–2. enumerate + explore (read-only)
git ls-files devague/ | head -30       # the CLI package map
# read: devague/frame.py (claim model), devague/render/spec_md.py (renderer),
#       docs/spec-contract.md (schema contract), .claude/skills/think/SKILL.md

# 3–4. hand off to /think and seed with provenance
devague new "devague exports carry per-item instructions" --title "per-item instructions"
devague capture --origin llm --kind requirement "claims gain an optional instruction field — devague/frame.py claim model + docs/spec-contract.md schema both need a bump"
devague capture --origin llm --kind boundary "render/spec_md.py renders instructions verbatim; absent instructions render nothing — the renderer never fabricates filler"
devague capture --origin llm --kind non_goal "no LLM calls land inside the CLI (issue 20) — instruction text is authored by the operator/user, never generated in-CLI"
devague question "do instructions attach to frame claims, plan tasks, or both?"

Every claim above names the file or issue that was actually read — that is the provenance bar.

After scoping — hand off to /think

Scope exploration produces no artifact of its own (until the planned CLI move lands, the findings are the seeded claims). When the survey is done, start the frame with /think and capture the findings as the frame's opening claims. The user confirms LLM-proposed ones there, as always.

Provenance

This is a first-party skill — its origin is agentculture/devague, the fourth in the outbound family after /think, /spec-to-plan, and /assign-to-workforce, covering the pre-frame exploration leg. guildmaster pulls it from here and broadcasts it to the AgentCulture mesh. The cite, don't import policy still holds: downstream repos copy it, they don't symlink or depend on it. See docs/skill-sources.md.