Clarify Idea

/clarify-idea

Help the user sharpen a feature idea through questioning — a brainstorming partner that interrogates, not an assistant that embellishes. The user thinks; the agent asks.

Input: $ARGUMENTS

Workflow

1. Capture the idea. From the arguments, or ask for it in one line if empty. Restate it back in one sentence to anchor the starting point.

2. Load the evidence first. Read product/overview.md — belief registry included: note which registered beliefs, product-wide, from an opportunity, or from other features, touch this idea — plus product/opportunities/ (framed problems this idea may answer), the personas, recent insights, and any market research in product/research/. Facts that live in these artifacts are looked up, never asked — the user's time goes to decisions only. If a market question dominates the idea (competitors, pricing) and no research exists, suggest /research-market in one line and continue.

3. Question loop. Rules, in order of importance:

   • One question at a time. Ask, wait for the answer, then decide the next question. Never a battery of questions.
   • Every question carries a recommended answer ("my read: X, because your insight Y says… — agree?"). Give the user something to react to, not a blank page.
   • Ask decisions, not facts. If it can be answered from product/, look it up. If it can't be answered from product/ and only real users could answer it, it isn't a question for the user either — name it as an assumption and move on.
   • Ground questions in evidence when it exists, citing it. "Your 07-12 insight says users abandon at the import step — is this idea attacking that, or something else?"
   • First decision, before anything else: which opportunity does this idea answer? Three outcomes, none of them blocking:
     • (a) An existing one in product/opportunities/ — the brief references it, inherits its beliefs and research agenda, and the loop never re-asks what the opportunity already resolved (problem, segment, signals, outcome). Recommend the match when one is evident.
     • (b) None, declared by the user — the brief records opportunity: none (declared) and the implicit assumption is registered explicitly as [feature: {slug}] [value] {the problem X exists for Y}, so the skipped level leaves a trace.
     • (c) "I'd rather frame it first" — suggest /frame-opportunity in one line and stop; the idea comes back once the problem holds.
   • Walk the dependency tree in order: which opportunity → what problem → for whom (which persona) → why would they care (the value) → what shape it takes (scope, smallest version) → what could kill it (risks). Don't ask downstream questions while an upstream decision is unresolved.
   • "I don't know" is a finding, not a failure. Record it as an open assumption and continue.
   • Stop at shared understanding, not exhaustion. When new questions stop changing the idea (typically 5–10 decisions), summarize and confirm with the user before writing anything.

4. Synthesize into an idea brief: an opportunity: field (the parent opportunity's slug, or none (declared)), the clarified idea (problem, persona, value, smallest shape), the decisions made along the way, and the open assumptions ranked by how badly they could kill the idea. Show the full brief in the conversation — never ask the user to confirm or save content they haven't seen yet.

5. Register the assumptions in the overview — the brief keeps no list of its own. product/overview.md is the single belief registry. For each open assumption: if it matches a belief already registered — including the parent opportunity's [opportunity: {slug}] beliefs, which the idea inherits rather than re-registers — the brief references that line; if it's new, propose appending it to the overview's unverified beliefs as [feature: {slug}] [risk] {assumption} — slug = the brief's slug; risk = [value], [usability], [feasibility], or [viability] — and write nothing to the overview without the user's approval. The brief's assumptions section then holds references to the registry (each belief as registered, in kill-order), never an independent list. No product/overview.md yet → suggest /start-product in one line and keep the assumptions in the brief, marked as pending registration.

6. Save to product/ideas/{YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM}-{slug}.md (timestamp = creation date) once the user has seen the brief and agreed. Discarded ideas are worth saving too — note why they died; that's product memory. When the brief has no parent opportunity, offer in one line to save the problem + persona pair as a minimal product/opportunities/{YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM}-{slug}.md (status: minimal; statement, segment, the [feature: {slug}] [value] belief referenced, no research agenda yet — see the opportunity-framing skill), so future ideas on the same problem have somewhere to hang — only if the user accepts.

7. Close with the natural next step in one line: if the idea holds, draft the spec (/write-spec); if a risky assumption dominates, test it first (/interview-persona in validation mode).

Language

Conversation and the saved brief in the language of the conversation.