| name | deep-interview |
| description | Socratic requirements gathering through structured questioning |
| trigger | $deep-interview |
| phases | ["starting","intent-first","deep-dive","synthesis","complete","cancelled"] |
Deep Interview Skill
Purpose
Conduct a Socratic interview to clarify user intent, boundaries, and non-goals before implementation.
Activation
Trigger: $deep-interview <topic>
Workflow
Phase 1: Intent Clarification (intent-first)
-
Understand the Goal
- What problem are you trying to solve?
- What does success look like?
- Who is the end user?
-
Define Scope
- What is explicitly in scope?
- What is explicitly out of scope?
- What are the constraints (time, tech, resources)?
-
Identify Constraints
- Technical limitations
- Business requirements
- Integration points
Phase 2: Deep Dive
Ask follow-up questions until you have:
- Clear problem statement
- Defined success criteria
- Known constraints
- Identified risks
Phase 3: Synthesis
Summarize findings in a context snapshot:
## Context Snapshot
**Task**: [Brief description]
**Goal**: [What success looks like]
**Scope**:
- In: [What's included]
- Out: [What's excluded]
**Constraints**: [Limitations]
**Risks**: [Potential issues]
**Next Steps**: [Recommended action]
Output
Save snapshot to: .omk/context/{slug}-{timestamp}.md
State Management
- On start: Create
deep-interview-state.json with phase "intent-first"
- On completion: Update state to phase "complete"
- On handoff: Transition to ralplan if user approves
Examples
Good Usage:
$deep-interview "I want to add user authentication"
→ Ask about auth methods (OAuth, password, SSO?)
→ Ask about user types
→ Ask about security requirements
→ Output context snapshot
Transition:
$deep-interview completed
$ralplan "implement the approved auth system"
→ Proceed to planning with clarified requirements
Stop Conditions
- User says "stop", "cancel", or "$cancel"
- Requirements are sufficiently clarified
- User explicitly asks to proceed to planning
Notes
- This is NOT implementation - only clarification
- Do not write code during deep-interview
- Focus on understanding, not solving
- The goal is a shared understanding, not a specification