flow-next-interview

name	flow-next-interview
description	In-depth Q&A to refine a spec, task, or spec file before building. Use when asked to flesh out, refine, or interrogate requirements.
user-invocable	false

Flow interview

Conduct an extremely thorough interview about a task/spec and write refined details back.

.flow/ is the only task tracker. A run that recorded task state in a markdown TODO, a plan file, TodoWrite, or any other tracker has broken this — all task state is read and written via flowctl.

Chart boundary (fn-135)

Existing-spec clarification stays primary. Interview refines a valid spec with unresolved judgment questions. Do not reopen discovery as /flow-next:chart unless the answers reveal that the effort itself is not yet specifiable - only then route backward to chart. Clear work that never needed a chart stays out of chart. Unsure of the hop: /flow-next:guide.

Preamble

CRITICAL: flowctl is BUNDLED — NOT installed globally. which flowctl will fail (expected). Define once; subsequent blocks use $FLOWCTL:

FLOWCTL="${CODEX_HOME:-$HOME/.codex}/scripts/flowctl"
[ -x "$FLOWCTL" ] || FLOWCTL="<plugin-root>/scripts/flowctl"   # <plugin-root> = the directory two levels above this skill's SKILL.md file (the harness gave you that file's absolute path when the skill loaded); substitute it literally
[ -x "$FLOWCTL" ] || FLOWCTL=".flow/bin/flowctl"

Role: technical interviewer, spec refiner Goal: extract complete implementation details through deep questioning (40+ questions typical)

Input

Full request: $ARGUMENTS

Accepts a Flow spec ID, a Flow task ID, a resolvable tracker handle, a file path, or nothing — recognition rules and the fetch command per type are in "Detect Input Type" below (single copy; the write-back command per type is in references/write-back.md).

Examples:

• /flow-next:interview fn-1-add-oauth
• /flow-next:interview fn-1-add-oauth.3
• /flow-next:interview fn-1 (legacy formats fn-1, fn-1-xxx still supported)
• /flow-next:interview docs/oauth-spec.md

If empty, ask: "What should I interview you about? Give me a Flow ID (e.g., fn-1-add-oauth) or file path (e.g., docs/spec.md)"

Setup

Parse --scope=business|technical|both (fn-44.1 plumbing)

Token-safe parsing for --scope / --biz / --tech lives in flowctl scope resolve — never re-implement inline. The subcommand strips scope tokens, preserves every other token in order (Flow IDs, paths, --docs, --strategy, ...), and emits the resolved scope plus a defaulted flag. The resolver's fallback when no scope flag is passed is technical (1.0.2 backward-compat) — but the skill does NOT silently run it: when defaulted == true, ask the user which pass to run after Detect Input Type (see "Scope selection when no flag passed" below). technical applies only when that question cannot be asked.

# Run BEFORE the --docs / --strategy strip block. Conflict / invalid value
# → non-zero exit; SKILL propagates.
#
# `--raw "$ARGUMENTS"` tokenizes via shlex INSIDE flowctl — preserves quoted
# paths with spaces (e.g., `/flow-next:interview --biz "docs/my spec.md"`).
# Unquoted `$ARGUMENTS` would word-split into broken tokens.
RESOLVED_JSON=$("$FLOWCTL" scope resolve --json --raw "$ARGUMENTS")
SCOPE=$(printf '%s' "$RESOLVED_JSON" | jq -r '.scope')
# true when no scope flag was passed — gates the "Scope selection when no
# flag passed" question below (older flowctl without the field → false,
# preserving the silent technical default).
SCOPE_DEFAULTED=$(printf '%s' "$RESOLVED_JSON" | jq -r '.defaulted // false')
# `remaining_args` is a JSON array of strings. Re-join with single spaces
# for downstream consumption; downstream code MUST re-tokenize via the
# same safe path (shlex) if it might re-encounter quoted paths.
ARGUMENTS=$(printf '%s' "$RESOLVED_JSON" | jq -r '.remaining_args | join(" ")')

Scope parsing, write policy, and bank selection come from flowctl scope resolve / scope write-policy / scope bank. A skill that re-implements the tokenizer, the section-ownership rules, or the bank mapping inline has broken this — the two copies drift and the inline one wins silently.

Parse --docs / --no-docs / --strategy / --no-strategy flags

The four doc-aware override flags must be stripped from $ARGUMENTS before input-type detection so they don't get confused for a Flow ID or path. Two force variables carry the result — "" = autodetect, "on" = forced on, "off" = forced off:

RAW_ARGS="$ARGUMENTS"
DOC_AWARE_FORCE=""        # controls glossary + decisions
STRATEGY_AWARE_FORCE=""   # controls strategy independently

When the invocation carried ANY of --docs / --no-docs / --strategy / --no-strategy, STOP and read references/doc-aware.md § Flag parsing before proceeding — it holds the strip block (both pairs mutually exclusive, negation wins on conflict), the cascade rules, the flag matrix that is the contract for each combination, and the scope × doc/strategy interaction table. A bare invocation skips it: no flag token is present, so RAW_ARGS is $ARGUMENTS unchanged (whitespace-normalized) and both force variables stay empty (autodetect).

Doc-aware autodetect

Decide whether doc-aware mode activates. DOC_AWARE controls glossary + decisions; STRATEGY_AWARE controls the strategy-conflict behavior independently. Each has three paths (forced-on / forced-off / autodetect) per the flag matrix.

The default-autodetect rule is: doc-aware mode activates when any of three conditions has signal — glossary.total_terms > 0 (a) OR a decision entry exists (b) OR strategy.sections_filled >= 1 (c). The two flag pairs override (a)+(b) and (c) independently. Counting populated entries (rather than [[ -f <file> ]]) is deliberate — see references/doc-aware.md § Why counts, not file presence.

# DOC_AWARE: glossary + decisions. Probes and parses fail OPEN (|| DOC_AWARE=1).
DOC_AWARE=0
if [[ "$DOC_AWARE_FORCE" == "on" ]]; then
  DOC_AWARE=1
elif [[ "$DOC_AWARE_FORCE" == "off" ]]; then
  DOC_AWARE=0
else
  # NO pipelines in the probe — capture raw first, rc-checked; parse separately.
  GLOSSARY_RAW="$("$FLOWCTL" glossary list --json 2>/dev/null)" || DOC_AWARE=1
  DECISIONS_RAW="$("$FLOWCTL" memory list --track knowledge --category decisions --json 2>/dev/null)" || DOC_AWARE=1
  if [ "$DOC_AWARE" = "0" ]; then
    TERMS="$(printf '%s' "$GLOSSARY_RAW" | jq -r '.total_terms // 0' 2>/dev/null)" || DOC_AWARE=1
    DECS="$(printf '%s' "$DECISIONS_RAW" | jq -r '.entries | length // 0' 2>/dev/null)" || DOC_AWARE=1
  fi
  if [ "$DOC_AWARE" = "0" ] && { [ "${TERMS:-0}" -gt 0 ] || [ "${DECS:-0}" -gt 0 ]; }; then
    DOC_AWARE=1
  fi
fi

# STRATEGY_AWARE: strategy (independent of DOC_AWARE — autodetects on its own signal)
STRATEGY_AWARE=0
if [[ "$STRATEGY_AWARE_FORCE" == "on" ]]; then
  STRATEGY_AWARE=1
elif [[ "$STRATEGY_AWARE_FORCE" == "off" ]]; then
  STRATEGY_AWARE=0
else
  STRATEGY_RAW="$("$FLOWCTL" strategy status --json 2>/dev/null)" || STRATEGY_AWARE=1
  if [ "$STRATEGY_AWARE" = "0" ]; then
    STRAT_FILLED="$(printf '%s' "$STRATEGY_RAW" | jq -r '.sections_filled // 0' 2>/dev/null)" || STRATEGY_AWARE=1
  fi
  if [ "$STRATEGY_AWARE" = "0" ] && [ "${STRAT_FILLED:-0}" -ge 1 ]; then
    STRATEGY_AWARE=1
  fi
fi

if [ "$DOC_AWARE" = "1" ] || [ "$STRATEGY_AWARE" = "1" ]; then
  echo "DOC-AWARE GATE ACTIVE — STOP. Read references/doc-aware.md before drafting the first question."
fi

When the sentinel prints, STOP and read references/doc-aware.md before any further step, then apply its behaviors — Phase-zero glossary scan (a), fuzzy-term sharpening (b), code-versus-assertion contradiction (c), decision-record write (d), and code-vs-strategy contradiction (e). On the default no-docs path (DOC_AWARE=0 and STRATEGY_AWARE=0) the interview proceeds exactly as today — do not read the file.

Detect Input Type

Handle-recognition rule (R16): do NOT gate on a hard "must start with fn-" check. Before treating a single-token arg as a file path or freeform, route it through $FLOWCTL show <arg> --json — flowctl's widened resolver (fn-52.10) maps a tracker key (wor-17 / wor-17.M) to its linked spec/task, so a resolvable handle is the existing spec/task, never a new idea. Patterns 1-2 below are the common case; pattern 3 generalizes them to any resolvable handle.

1. Flow spec ID pattern: matches fn-\d+(-[a-z0-9-]+)? (e.g., fn-1-add-oauth, fn-12, fn-2-fix-login-bug)

   • Fetch: $FLOWCTL show <id> --json
   • Read spec: $FLOWCTL cat <id>

2. Flow task ID pattern: matches fn-\d+(-[a-z0-9-]+)?\.\d+ (e.g., fn-1-add-oauth.3, fn-12.5)

   • Fetch: $FLOWCTL show <id> --json
   • Read spec: $FLOWCTL cat <id>
   • Also get parent spec context: $FLOWCTL cat <spec-id>

3. Resolvable tracker handle: any single-token arg (not an .md path) that $FLOWCTL show <arg> --json resolves — e.g. a Linear key wor-17 (spec) or wor-17.3 (task). Use the canonical id from the JSON; a .-containing handle is a task (fetch parent spec too), otherwise a spec. Treat exactly like patterns 1-2; never re-create.

4. File path: a path-like token / .md extension that does NOT resolve via flowctl show

   • Read file contents
   • If file doesn't exist, ask user to provide valid path

Done when: the argument is classified as exactly one of the four patterns, every non-.md single-token arg was routed through $FLOWCTL show <arg> --json before that classification, and the target's content (spec body, task + parent spec, or file) is in hand for the scope recommendation below.

Scope selection when no flag passed

Fires ONLY when SCOPE_DEFAULTED=true (no --scope / --biz / --tech in the invocation). An explicit scope flag always wins and skips this section entirely.

Runs AFTER Detect Input Type — the spec/file content is in hand, so the recommendation is informed. Ask ONE plain-text numbered prompt (same blocking primitive as every interview question; the tool-unreachable fallback under "Question Format" applies):

• header: Interview scope
• body: Which interview pass should run? business = product framing (goal, users, boundaries, outcome AC — never decides architecture, stack, or APIs); technical = implementation details (architecture, API contracts, edge cases); both = business first, then technical. Recommended: <X> — <one-sentence rationale from the target's current state>. Confidence: [judgment-call].
• options (frozen): business, technical, both

Derive the recommendation from the target's current state:

• Biz sections empty AND tech sections empty (new idea, fresh spec, bare file) → recommend both — ground the product framing before any technical decision.
• Biz sections populated, tech sections empty or placeholder-only → recommend technical — the business layer exists; fill the technical layer.
• Tech sections populated, biz sections absent (1.0.2-shape solo spec) → recommend technical — refine in place.

Set SCOPE to the answer and proceed exactly as if the flag had been passed — write-policy, question bank, and pass behavior all follow the chosen scope. If the question genuinely cannot be asked (tool unreachable and no plain-text answer), fall back to technical and say so in the interview opener.

Why this exists: a PM invoking /flow-next:interview <spec-id> bare used to get a silent technical interrogation — stack/API questions they don't own, with skipped answers at risk of becoming rails-derived defaults. The scope question makes the business pass discoverable at the exact moment it matters.

Interview Process

CRITICAL REQUIREMENT: For every question, you MUST ask via the plain-text numbered prompt described below.

Ask the user via plain text. Render the options below as a numbered list 1. … N., followed by a final option N+1. Other — type your own answer. Print the question, then the numbered list, then stop and wait for the user's next message before continuing. Parse the reply as: a bare number 1–N+1 → that option; the literal text of an option label → that option; free text after Other → custom answer.

• ONLY ask via the plain-text numbered prompt
• Ask in rounds: each round carries the whole frontier (see Question Order below), split across plain-text numbered prompt calls of up to 4 questions each
• Expect 40+ questions total for complex specs

Question Format: Lead with Recommendation

Every plain-text numbered prompt body must include the agent's recommended option AND a confidence tier. Mirrors the canonical phrasing in flow-next-audit/SKILL.md:64 ("Lead with the recommended option and a one-sentence rationale").

Pattern:

• question.body: ". . Recommended: — . Confidence: [high | judgment-call | your-call]."
• question.options: neutral labels (no "(recommended)" markers — recommendation goes in the body; neutral options reduce anchoring)

Plain-language question contract (fn-90-adjacent field feedback, eval-validated)

Applies to EVERY question, both scopes. The interviewee must be able to read a question once and answer it confidently without asking what it means — field feedback showed jargon-dense questions disempower exactly the people the interview exists to hear (baseline legibility scored 4/10 for a second-language PM; this contract scores 7.5+ at ~30% fewer tokens).

• Open the body with ONE sentence of stakes: what this question decides, in the audience's words.
• Write for the audience in everyday words; prefer the common word over the term of art. A term of art you genuinely need gets a plain-word gloss in ≤1 clause at first use (e.g. "counter-metrics — things we'd hate to make worse").
• No unexplained acronyms or tool/repo shorthand. In business scope, no implementation vocabulary (no schemas, endpoints, config keys).
• Every option description states its consequence in plain words: "Choose this if…" / "This means…".
• Gloss referenced acceptance criteria. When a question cites a spec R-ID, attach a short plain-words gist at first mention — "R3 (the audit line's required fields)" — never a bare "R3" the interviewee must open the spec to decode. Gist, not quote: pasting full criterion text bloats the question body.

Required content and trim order (priorities — NOT a length cap; never trade required content for brevity):

• ALWAYS keep, in this order: the stakes sentence; the recommendation + its one-sentence rationale; the confidence tier; the gloss for any term of art used; each option's consequence.
• TRIM FIRST, until the question reads in one pass: repetition between body and options, secondary background, hedging, restated option lists.
• Target shape (calibration, not a ceiling): a body around 40-60 words with option descriptions around a dozen words each is what "done" usually looks like — reach it by trimming the trim-first list, never by dropping required content.

Confidence tiers (mandatory — pick one per question):

• [high] — strong codebase signal or convention match. Recommendation is load-bearing; user can usually accept.
• [judgment-call] — slight lean but reasonable people disagree. User's call carries weight.
• [your-call] — agent has no signal. "I genuinely don't know — your priority / domain knowledge / preference."

The [your-call] tier is mandatory when the agent has no basis for a recommendation. Skills that always recommend train users to defer (RLHF imitation of human bravado). Say so explicitly.

Examples (one per tier):

• [high]: "This decides where the new validation code lives so the next person can find it. Recommended: src/utils/validation.ts — three sibling validators already live there and the tests import from that module. Confidence: [high]." Options: src/utils/validation.ts, src/validators/, new module — each description says what choosing it means (e.g. "This means it sits beside the three existing validators").
• [judgment-call]: "This decides how long the rate-limiter remembers a result before re-checking (the cache TTL — time-to-live). Recommended: 60 seconds — short enough that stale answers stay rare, long enough to be worth caching. Confidence: [judgment-call]." Options: 30s, 60s, 300s, no cache — with plain consequences ("Choose this if freshness matters more than speed").
• [your-call]: "This decides what error callers see when the upstream service times out. Recommended: none — it depends on what your callers expect and I found no existing convention to copy. Confidence: [your-call]." Options: 502, 503, 504, 408.

Skipped Questions Are Not Answers

Leading with a recommendation never implies consent. Distinguish three answer shapes:

• Explicit answer (an option picked, or a typed answer) → use it.
• Explicit delegation ("you decide", "go with your recommendation") → adopt the recommendation and note it as user-delegated; that is a real decision with a named consenter.
• Skip / decline / no-signal (question dismissed, "skip", "I don't know", "not my call", "ask someone else") → the question is unresolved. A skipped question's recommendation never enters a spec section as decided content. A spec line that reads as settled while no answer, no explicit delegation, and no ## Open Questions entry stands behind it has broken this — silently filling skipped questions with assumptions is the exact failure this rule exists to prevent.

For every skipped question:

1. Park it under ## Open Questions with an owner hint and the agent's unconfirmed leaning: **<question>** — skipped during interview; leaning <X>, unconfirmed. *(owner: engineering | product)*
2. A skipped user-judgment question STAYS user-judgment-required — never demote it to codebase-/docs-answerable to backfill an answer (see the Pre-Question Taxonomy in questions-shared.md).
3. Keep a running skip count for the write-back checkpoint below and the Completion summary.

Write-back consent checkpoint — when the skip count is ≥1, ask ONE plain-text numbered prompt BEFORE writing the spec back:

• header: Skipped items
• body: <N> question(s) were skipped during this interview. Recommended: park-open — record them under ## Open Questions with my unconfirmed leanings; nothing skipped becomes a decision. Confidence: [high].
• options (frozen): park-open (default — Open Questions entries only), fill-assumptions (write the agent's recommendation into the relevant spec section, each marked inline *(assumed — unconfirmed)*, plus one Open Questions entry pointing at the markers for later ratification), re-ask (walk the skipped questions once more — answers and explicit delegations resolve normally; anything skipped again parks per park-open)

Question Order: Rounds over the Decision Tree

Map the interview as a design tree: every decision branches into the decisions that hang off it. The frontier is every question whose prerequisites are already settled — the questions you can ask NOW without guessing at answers you haven't heard yet. Work the tree in rounds: ask the whole frontier, wait for answers, recompute, repeat.

Concrete rules:

1. Each round asks the entire current frontier. A question whose answer depends on another question still open in this round belongs to a later round, not this one — never ask a question alongside its own prerequisite.
2. Split the frontier across plain-text numbered prompt calls of up to 4 questions each, grouped by topic (closest-related together), announced as one round ("Round N — part 1/2"). Never pad a call to reach 4; never hold a genuine frontier question back to a later round just to smooth pacing. A frontier slot is earned. Every genuinely open decision joins the round — NFR probes (failure modes, concurrency/races, scale, portability, testing) ALWAYS qualify, however thin the spec. Pure-cosmetic polish (message wording, label/flag spelling, visual formatting) does not get its own question: fold it into a related question's options, or carry it as a stated default the user can veto at write-back. Standalone checkpoint questions (scope selection, the code-mismatch question, the write-back consent checkpoint, the mark-ready offer) sit outside rounds — never labeled "Round N", never counted against round depth. Doc-aware meta-questions keep their own per-round budget (references/doc-aware.md): a meta-question deferred by that budget is pending for a later round, not dropped — the one sanctioned hold-back.
3. Recompute the frontier after each round. Answers reshape the tree — settled decisions unblock their dependents; adapt the next round to what you heard. Don't lock the whole tree before you start: deeper rounds are discovered from answers, not pre-scripted.
4. Surface abandoned branches. When an answer prunes a sub-tree, say so explicitly at the next round's opener: "Skipping persistence questions — you said no DB."
5. Cap branch depth at 4 rounds down any one branch. Research shows >4 prior turns rarely improves question quality — drop deeper threads, ask about something else. Heuristic; revisit if too restrictive in real use.
6. Finish the round before recomputing. If a later part of a round never got asked (tool error, interruption), ask the missed part first — never silently drop frontier questions and move on.

Example flow:

Round 1 (frontier: persistence?, auth model?, error surface?) — asked together in one call. A: "No persistence — ephemeral is fine. API-key auth. Errors: existing JSON convention." [agent prunes the {DB choice, schema design, migration plan} sub-tree] Round 2 opener: "Skipping DB questions — you said ephemeral." (frontier now: reload survival?, key-tier limits? — the questions those answers unblocked)

Done when: the frontier is empty — every decision the tree opened is answered, explicitly delegated, parked under ## Open Questions, or pruned with its abandoned branch named at a round opener — and every part of every round was actually asked (a part lost to a tool error is re-asked, never dropped).

Investigate Before Asking

Before every question, classify it via the questions-shared.md Pre-Question Taxonomy (hoisted out of the per-scope banks so both biz and tech reference the same classifier):

• Codebase-answerable ("what exists / how it's wired / what conventions live here") → use Read / Grep / Glob to answer; log to spec's ## Resolved via Codebase section with file:line evidence.
• Project-docs-answerable (business pass, R26) → resolve from the project docs; log to spec's ## Resolved via Project Docs section with path:line evidence. The read list and bounds live in references/pass-business.md.
• Glossary-lookup-answerable (DOC_AWARE=1 only) — terms with a canonical entry in the nearest-ancestor GLOSSARY.md → silently resolve from the entry; log to spec's ## Glossary Conflicts section only when the user's wording diverges from canonical AND the term is load-bearing (behavior (a) in references/doc-aware.md).
• Empirically-answerable — a fork the running code can settle (a behavior, a timing, an output) → run a throwaway probe (execute the command, read the output) instead of asking; log the observation like a codebase-answerable. The ask is the slow path: a question the user must relay back to the machine costs a round-trip the probe answers in seconds. Safety predicate: a probe runs automatically only when it is non-mutating (read-only observation) or fully disposable (a scratch copy, a throwaway environment). A fork whose answer requires a stateful or destructive command — a migration, a deployment, a write API, anything that touches live state — is not empirically answerable here; it goes to the plain-text numbered prompt path.
• User-judgment-required ("what should exist / what tradeoff to make / what priority") → ask via plain-text numbered prompt.

If you find yourself answering a "should" question via grep, that's the bug. Stop and ask the user.

Divergent independent answers mean the question was underspecified. When independent sources (scouts, docs, probes) return wildly divergent answers to the same question, do not average them and do not quietly pick a favorite — reframe the question more precisely and re-run it; divergence is a signal about the framing, not a vote to be tallied.

Async fact-scouts (optional, rounds mode): while the user answers the current round you MAY dispatch ONE read-only fact-scout subagent to resolve codebase lookups that gate NEXT-round questions. Before dispatching one, read references/fact-scouts.md — the brief contract, scout tier, digest discipline, and the never-block rule are binding. Not dispatching a scout needs no reading: investigate inline as usual.

Question banks

Question banks are scope-resolved via flowctl scope bank:

# Resolves to questions-business.md (biz), questions-technical.md (tech), or
# questions-technical.md (both — the technical bank is loaded for the tech
# phase; biz phase loads questions-business.md when it runs).
BANK_PATH=$("$FLOWCTL" scope bank "$SCOPE")

• SCOPE=technical (default) → load questions-technical.md.
• SCOPE=business → load questions-business.md. Covers problem framing, target user/persona, success metrics, MVP boundary, business constraints, what-NOT-to-build, prioritization rationale, business risks, UX expectations.
• SCOPE=both → load questions-business.md for phase 1 then questions-technical.md for phase 2.

Both banks share the Pre-Question Taxonomy and Interview Guidelines blocks, hoisted to questions-shared.md — single source of truth referenced by both banks. Read the shared file first so the classifier applies symmetrically across passes.

Scope-aware pass behavior

The interview runs in one of three scoped modes resolved by flowctl scope resolve (above). Each scope writes a different set of sections back to the spec and reads a different set as context. The structural canon for sections is plugins/flow-next/templates/spec.md (per R17 — never re-embed the section list inline; cross-link the template).

Pass routing — read ONLY the reference for the resolved scope:

• SCOPE == business → read references/pass-business.md.
• SCOPE == technical (default) → read references/pass-technical.md.
• SCOPE == both → read references/pass-business.md and run phase 1 (biz), then read references/pass-technical.md and run phase 2 (tech) in the same invocation. Each phase enforces its own merge contract.

Compute the write policy

Before writing anything back, build the current-sections-state JSON from the existing spec markdown (or an empty object for new specs) and call scope write-policy. It returns which sections the pass MAY write and which it MUST preserve byte-for-byte (per the fn-44 spec Edge Cases merge contract), plus how to handle the ## Decision Context substructure conditional. It enumerates canonical sections only - a section the project added via its own repo-root SPEC.md scaffold appears in neither list, and its absence is never permission to drop it; ownership comes from the section's own scope-owner marker (see the project-added-section rule in references/write-back.md).

# Build CURRENT_SECTIONS by inspecting the existing spec markdown:
#   decision_context_has_h3:    spec has `### Motivation` / `### Implementation Tradeoffs` under `## Decision Context`
#   biz_pass_ran:               spec has populated `## Goal & Context` body OR a `### Motivation` H3
#   tech_sections_have_content: per-tech-section {name: bool} for whether the body has content
#                               beyond the placeholder `*Pending technical-scope interview pass.*`
#
# For a brand-new spec (no markdown yet), CURRENT_SECTIONS='{}' is fine.
CURRENT_SECTIONS='{"decision_context_has_h3": <bool>, "biz_pass_ran": <bool>, "tech_sections_have_content": {"Architecture & Data Models": <bool>, "API Contracts": <bool>, "Edge Cases & Constraints": <bool>}}'

WRITE_POLICY=$(printf '%s' "$CURRENT_SECTIONS" | "$FLOWCTL" scope write-policy "$SCOPE" --current-sections-json -)

One policy call per pass — when SCOPE == both, compute the biz policy first, run the biz pass, then recompute the current-sections state from the post-biz-pass result and compute a fresh technical policy for phase 2 (the two-call sequence is spelled out in references/pass-business.md). A single pre-edit policy call for both cannot correctly decide tech-pass Decision Context shape (the biz pass may have promoted FLAT → substructured) or tech-pass placeholder replacement (biz pass may have written *Pending technical-scope interview pass.* under empty tech sections that the tech pass must now overwrite).

The policy JSON shape:

{
  "scope": "business|technical|both",
  "writable": ["<section names this scope may write>"],
  "preserved": ["<sections this scope MUST preserve byte-for-byte>"],
  "decision_context": {
    "shape": "flat|substructured",
    "writable_h3": ["<H3 names writable when substructured>"],
    "preserved_h3": ["<H3 names preserved byte-for-byte>"],
    "promote_flat_to_implementation_tradeoffs": <bool>
  },
  "placeholder_write": ["<tech sections under biz pass that should get the placeholder line>"]
}

Done when: one scope write-policy call has returned per pass (two for both, the second computed from the post-biz state), and every canonical section present in the target appears on exactly one of this pass's writable / preserved lists. A section on neither list is project-added — its owner is its own scope-owner marker, never the absence.

Auxiliary-sections rule (applies to every pass)

The auxiliary sections — Strategy Alignment / Strategy Conflicts / Glossary Conflicts / Conversation Evidence / Resolved via Codebase / Resolved via Project Docs / Parked unknowns — are preserved byte-for-byte across passes and scope changes: no pass deletes or rewrites an auxiliary section another pass wrote. Each pass only ADDS its own: the biz pass adds Resolved via Project Docs; the tech pass adds Resolved via Codebase.

Parked unknowns is the one auxiliary section a pass may take FROM, and only in the one way described in references/write-back.md § Parked unknowns: a bullet this pass resolved graduates into the canonical section that owns it and is deleted here. Every other bullet comes back byte-for-byte, and no pass rewrites, reorders, or rewords a bullet it did not resolve.

Declined-scope ledger (applies to every pass)

When the user declines a feature or scope as product judgment — we could build this, we are choosing not to — record it in .flow/memory/declined/<concept-slug>.md on the FIRST such refusal: title, the decision in one line, short reasoning, then ## Prior requests opened with today's date and the request that just came in. File already there → append the dated line to ## Prior requests and leave the decision untouched. Agent-written prose, like the rest of .flow/memory/ — no flowctl verb. The entry body follows the artifact prose contract in docs/prose.md; proceed without it when the doc is absent.

Never write one for scope declined because it already exists, is already planned, or lives in another spec. That is an answer, not a refusal, and filing it teaches the next planner that shipped capability is rejected scope. A skipped question is not a decline either — skips go to ## Open Questions per the skip contract.

Acceptance-criteria rule (applies to every pass)

## Acceptance Criteria R-IDs are append-only across passes per fn-29 rules — never renumber, never replace; take the next unused number. Source-tag each criterion this pass appends ([user] = the human answering in this pass, [paraphrase], [inferred], [strategy:<track>]); never tag or retag a criterion another pass wrote — see references/write-back.md § Source tags on acceptance criteria.

Spec-count check (split proposal)

Interviews grow specs — and an epic-shaped input sometimes turns out to be more than one spec. Before the write-back, when the refined criteria set crosses 8+ acceptance criteria (counting business and technical requirements only — standing G-IDs and process requirements like "tests green" never count), or an answer reveals a second independently shippable outcome (a stakeholder would accept it on its own; disjoint surfaces; a dependency seam where one cluster needs infrastructure another builds), propose a split. A large-but-cohesive set is one spec — say so and move on; never pad the count.

Present the concrete allocation as ordinary printed markdown (per-spec titles, allocated criteria, dependency edges), then one short plain-text numbered prompt: keep-single (default) / split-as-proposed / adjust. On split: create each sibling via spec create + spec set-plan (self-contained body; allocated criteria renumbered from R1 in the NEW spec), remove the moved criteria from the source spec's write-back, and record edges via spec add-dep. Renumbering guard: criteria a review cycle has already judged are never moved or renumbered — for those, keep them in place and record the proposal in ## Decision Context instead. Autonomous/receipt-driven runs never split — record the proposal in ## Decision Context as ### Split proposal (unactioned).

NOT in scope (defer to /flow-next:plan)

• Research scouts (codebase analysis)
• File/line references
• Task creation (interview refines requirements, plan creates tasks)
• Task sizing (S/M/L)
• Dependency ordering
• Phased implementation details
• Time estimates, deadlines, durations, sprint cadence, "ship before X" framing. Agents can't estimate their own work and shouldn't push the user into time-based prioritization debates. If the user volunteers a deadline in answer to another question, acknowledge it without cascading into MVP-Scope or What-NOT-to-Build re-asks driven by the time pressure.

Write Refined Spec — templates loaded at completion

At the Completion step, read references/write-back.md for the spec-write template matching the input type — NEW IDEA (text, no Flow ID), EXISTING SPEC (fn-N with tasks), Flow Task (fn-N.M), or File Path — plus the shared ## Resolved via Codebase / Project Docs, ## Glossary/Strategy Conflicts, and ## Open Questions section templates. Only the one matching branch runs; the file is loaded once, at write-time, not held through the Q&A.

Post-write-back options (tracker sync, mark ready)

Both are conditional. Probe once after the write-back; each sentinel names the section to read.

# Tracker sync (opt-in): projects the enrichment to the linked issue and reconciles
# two-way. Skip entirely for the file-input case — there is no flow spec yet.
TRACKER_GATE=0
LEAF_RAW="$("$FLOWCTL" config get tracker.perEvent.interview --json 2>/dev/null)" || TRACKER_GATE=1
ACTIVE_RAW="$("$FLOWCTL" sync active --json 2>/dev/null)" || TRACKER_GATE=1
if [ "$TRACKER_GATE" = "0" ]; then
  LEAF="$(printf '%s' "$LEAF_RAW" | jq -r '.value' 2>/dev/null)" || TRACKER_GATE=1
  ACTIVE="$(printf '%s' "$ACTIVE_RAW" | jq -r '.active' 2>/dev/null)" || TRACKER_GATE=1
fi
if [ "$TRACKER_GATE" = "0" ] && [ "${ACTIVE:-false}" = "true" ] \
   && [ -n "${LEAF:-}" ] && [ "${LEAF:-null}" != "null" ] && [ "${LEAF:-off}" != "off" ]; then
  TRACKER_GATE=1
fi
if [ "$TRACKER_GATE" = "1" ]; then
  echo "TRACKER-SYNC GATE ACTIVE — STOP. Read references/post-write-back.md#tracker-sync before continuing."
fi

# Mark-ready offer (flow spec inputs only — task ids and file paths carry no spec readiness).
READY_GATE=0
READY_STATE_RAW="$("$FLOWCTL" config get tracker.readyState --json 2>/dev/null)" || READY_GATE=1
SPECS_RAW="$("$FLOWCTL" specs --json 2>/dev/null)" || READY_GATE=1
if [ "$READY_GATE" = "0" ]; then
  READY_STATE="$(printf '%s' "$READY_STATE_RAW" | jq -r '.value // empty' 2>/dev/null)" || READY_GATE=1
  READY_ADOPTED="$(printf '%s' "$SPECS_RAW" | jq '[.specs[] | select(.ready == true)] | length' 2>/dev/null)" || READY_GATE=1
  if [ "$READY_GATE" = "0" ] && [ "${READY_ADOPTED:-0}" -ge 1 ] && [ -z "${READY_STATE:-}" ]; then
    READY_GATE=1
  fi
fi
if [ "$READY_GATE" = "1" ]; then
  echo "MARK-READY GATE ACTIVE — STOP. Read references/post-write-back.md#mark-ready-offer before continuing."
fi

When a sentinel prints, STOP and Read the named section of references/post-write-back.md before any further step. With no tracker configured and readiness unadopted, neither fires and the interview behaves exactly as today.

Interview never auto-resets ready on refinement. A run that leaves a previously-ready spec unready without the human unmarking it has broken this. The interview edits the spec in place — a previously-blessed spec stays ready unless the human unmarks it. Only capture --rewrite (a full re-authoring) resets readiness.

Completion

Show summary:

• Number of questions asked
• Skipped questions (ONLY when ≥1): count + disposition from the write-back checkpoint (parked under ## Open Questions / filled as *(assumed — unconfirmed)* / re-asked) — omit the line entirely when nothing was skipped
• Key decisions captured
• What was written (Flow ID updated / file rewritten)
• Tracker sync: when active and interview opted in, whether the spec body was pushed/pulled/reconciled to the linked issue (else a silent no-op)
• Readiness (ONLY when the mark-ready offer fired): marked ready vs kept draft — omit the line entirely otherwise (no readiness noise for non-adopters)
• Scope mode: which pass(es) ran — biz / tech / both — and which spec sections were written vs preserved byte-for-byte (cite the write-policy result). For --scope=business: project-docs resolutions captured under ## Resolved via Project Docs (R26).
• Doc-aware mode (when DOC_AWARE=1 was active): glossary terms added/updated via flowctl glossary add, decision entries written via flowctl memory add --track knowledge --category decisions, glossary conflicts captured under ## Glossary Conflicts
• Strategy-aware mode (when STRATEGY_AWARE=1 was active): strategy conflicts captured under ## Strategy Conflicts (read-only — interview never edits STRATEGY.md)

Done when: every line above is either printed or absent because its stated ONLY-when condition did not hold — the question count, the scope mode, and the written-vs-preserved section split are unconditional and always appear.

Suggest next step based on input type:

• New idea / spec without tasks → $flow-next-plan fn-N (or $flow-next-work fn-N --no-plan when the refined spec is near-zero-risk and fully known — the zero-task fork mints one implicit task and runs work directly)
• Spec with tasks → $flow-next-work fn-N (or more interview on specific tasks)
• Task → $flow-next-work fn-N.M
• File → $flow-next-plan <file>
• Any of the above → also offer a compact visual digest for reviewing the refined result at a glance — $flow-next-visual fn-N for a spec input, $flow-next-visual fn-N.M for a task input, $flow-next-visual <file-path> for the file input (an option the user picks, never run for them).

Host command form: print every copy-pasteable flow-next command here in the spelling this host invokes — the flat /flow-next-<name> form when the resolved plugin root carries .flow-next-opencode-manifest (an OpenCode install — the same signal setup's host detection uses); on any other or indeterminate host, exactly as spelled here.

Notes

• This process should feel thorough - user should feel they've thought through everything
• Quality over speed - don't rush to finish