Interview

Interview

Shape a big outcome with the caller, one question per turn, before agents run alone. You look up facts; the caller makes choices and supplies what only they know. Why: answering shapes the caller's thinking, and control is highest before launch. Interview creates nothing new (no goal, bead or file) and changes no status, claim or closure; within authority it only appends settled notes to an existing intent source (see Show the state). The caller can also select it to test a plan, design or decision they already hold; see a held plan.

Each turn

1. Look it up in the tracker, docs and code first. Ask the caller only for choices (outcome, proof, non-goals, authority, budgets, priorities, risk tolerance) and for facts no source holds: what they tried or ruled out, their outside systems, what their users already do. Ask such a fact openly, with no recommendation, before the choices that rest on it. If the caller contradicts a source, cite both and ask whether the source is stale or the caller wants a change.
2. Pick the branch. Start with the outcome, then the open branch that most changes acceptance, scope or authority whose prerequisites are settled. Keep dependent choices open rather than inventing their prerequisites. After each answer, reconsider which choice can now be settled; a changed parent decision reopens only the answers that rely on it. Defer branches that cannot change the next action, with a condition for returning to them.
3. Ask one question in this shape, so the caller can accept, amend or reject in one line; a fact question omits the recommendation and tradeoff. Wait for the answer.
4. Record only what the caller decides, and a fact they supply as their report, not a decision. A skip stays open; "your call" accepts the recommendation shown.

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Settled: <what the last answer decided, or nothing yet>. Open: <count>.
Q<n>: <the decision>. <the question, with 2 to 4 options when they exist>
My recommendation: <answer>, because <source or reason>.
Tradeoff: <the one cost that matters>

Because "your call" turns the recommendation into scope, recommend only what the outcome needs. Add a criterion, safeguard, authority or budget the caller did not name only when the outcome fails without it or harm would land before anyone notices. Offer anything else costly to add later (stored data, a published interface, money, security) as an option, not as the recommendation. Never narrow what the caller asked for.

Answerer

The caller answers by default. On request ("let a council answer my interview"), a council answers through Council's interview-panel mode; the caller accepts or amends its answers in one pass before anything is recorded, and authority, budgets and acceptance changes stay the caller's. Fact questions stay with the caller in this mode; the council answers only choices. If only another person can answer, keep the choice Open and offer a questionnaire for that person. The caller sends it; Interview contacts no one.

BDD: acceptance as examples

Drive each criterion to a Given/When/Then with an observable result and its proving evidence. Draft the example yourself as the recommendation; the caller accepts or edits it. "Works reliably" is not acceptance; ask what would be seen.

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Given a Job has already completed
When the worker receives that Job again
Then it returns the completed result without a second side effect
# Proof: a redelivery test asserts one side effect and the completed result

DDD: one term per concept

When a word is vague, overloaded or has synonyms, ask which term the domain uses. Record one term with a one-line definition and use only it in examples, notes, code and tests. Domain owns deeper modeling.

Show the state

Open each turn with one line: what just settled and how many choices stay open. Show these lists on request, after a revision and at stop:

• Decided: each choice; acceptance carries its Given/When/Then and proof. A fact the caller supplied appears here labeled as their report.
• Terms: each settled term with its one-line definition.
• Open: unanswered choices, most consequential first.
• Deferred: choices that change no next decision, and what revives them.

Within authority, append settled decisions and terms to the intent source (root epic, issue or conversation), and Open and Deferred at stop. If a goal already runs on that epic, do not append a changed criterion or term; list it under Open as an acceptance change so the caller can hold and re-craft first. In BD:

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bd context --json    # confirm the destination before any write
bd show <epic-id>    # on resume: reuse settled notes, start from Open
bd update <epic-id> --append-notes "decided: <choice> | example: <Given/When/Then>"

Stop and hand off

Stop when the caller stops, the next question would only restate a settled answer, the work proves to be one slice (not when testing a held plan), or Craft Goal admission is decided:

1. outcome, and non-goals the caller named or rejected;
2. terminal acceptance, each criterion with its proving evidence;
3. authority: reads, writes, external effects, Git, and when agents must ask;
4. budgets: numeric limits per wave of work and for the whole goal, which nothing renews, and how many results that change no decision trigger HOLD (implementation stops for causal review);
5. the first falsifiable question.

While the caller is still here, test the settled answers once: read them together for contradictions, then try up to three borderline cases from open issues or recent work, one question each. Then hand over the lists; the caller starts the next step: Craft Goal for several related experiments, RPI or Plan for one outcome with items 1 to 3 and real bounds. Open items stay open; never fill one to finish.