ainova-systems Answer a Spec's Open Questions
Close the questions that block execution, one at a time, with the human who can decide. An answered question physically moves from ## Open questions to ## Answered questions - the sections are the status, so nothing else needs updating.
Steps
- Read the spec; list every open question with its owner.
- For each question the present human can decide: present it in the three-part shape (
spec-discipline) - the most defensible sourced answer, the explicit "keep it open" option, and room for their own answer. Assist; never decide for them. - On explicit approval only, move the question into
## Answered questionswith aChanged:line naming what the answer altered (a requirement, a step, a data shape). "Keep it open" is a valid outcome and the question stays. - When an answer changes structure, adjust the affected unticked work steps and the coverage table in the same edit; ticked steps are history and stay. A change that alters a requirement is drift - route it back through the intake (
spec-pullre-pull, or an update viaspec-create), then re-plan withspec-plan. - A question owned by someone not in the session stays open and is called out in the report - the developer relays it; the agent never posts it to a tracker.
- Report: answered / still open / relayed, and whether the spec is now unblocked.
Verify
- Every answered question sits in
## Answered questionswith aChanged:line; the coverage table still maps every requirement; remaining open questions each name their owner.
Scope / hand-off
- New facts contradicting the plan -
spec-validate. Execution once unblocked -spec-execute.
Constraints
- An answer is recorded only on the human's explicit approval - silence is not a yes.
- Never write answers back to the tracker; the spec is the record, the developer is the channel.