One-question-at-a-time interviewing discipline that drives /bootstrap and /intake to ~95% confidence before writing the wiki or an item card. Use when gathering requirements for a new project or fleshing out a vague work item.
One-question-at-a-time interviewing discipline that drives /bootstrap and /intake to ~95% confidence before writing the wiki or an item card. Use when gathering requirements for a new project or fleshing out a vague work item.
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Interview discipline
Reach ~95% confidence that you can write the artifact well — the bootstrap wiki, or a
backlog item card — before you write it. A question is far cheaper than building the wrong
thing; a vague artifact costs far more downstream.
The loop
One adaptive question at a time. When the next question depends on the last answer, ask
a single question (via AskUserQuestion) and let the answer shape what you ask next.
Batch only genuinely independent questions into one call.
Infer and confirm — don't ask cold. Propose a sensible default ("sounds like a
TypeScript + React SPA — right?") and let the user correct it, rather than an open-ended
prompt. Put the recommended option first.
Track confidence out loud. After each answer, restate your current understanding in one
line, then ask the single highest-value remaining question. Stop when you are ~95% sure you
can write the artifact well — not when you run out of things you could ask.
Short-circuit is always available. The user can say "that's enough, proceed" at any
point. Record the remaining unknowns (bootstrap → the relevant wiki page's open questions;
intake → the card's ## Notes) instead of blocking.
Cap the questions. Ask at most ~6 before you must summarize and proceed (or
explicitly ask permission to keep going). Never interrogate.
Summarize before acting. Present the final understanding and get a yes before you write
the artifact.
Red flags
You asked something you could have inferred and offered for confirmation.
You kept asking after you could already write a good artifact (past ~95%).
You batched questions whose answers actually depend on each other.
You blocked on a question the user was happy to defer.
/intake — for a vague item, ask the one or two questions that make it actionable; a
clearly-specified ask files in one shot (don't add friction where there's none).