Clarify

clarify

Resolve ambiguities in one DAE artifact through an iterative interview. A cross-cutting quality gate — runs on any artifact at any pipeline stage.

The clarify pattern is also embedded inside artifact-producing skills for their own in-flight ambiguities; this standalone skill is for ad-hoc cleanup after the fact.

When to use

On any one of: feature.md, acs.md, spec.md, plan.md, CHARTER.md. Invoked as engineer plugin -> clarify skill <slug> <artifact> or engineer plugin -> clarify skill <path>.

Not for: cross-artifact contradictions (consistency-check); changing what a feature does (feature-edit); resolutions that cascade across files (clarify the source here, then feature-edit).

Workflow

1. Resolve + load — resolve the methodology root + manifest via ${PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/dae_resolve.py (see references/resolving.md); locate the target artifact. Also load its parent contract for grounding (feature.md for acs/spec/plan; CHARTER.md for feature.md).
2. Identify ambiguities — within this one artifact: language interpretable two ways, underspecified requirements, undefined domain terms, unclear scope boundaries, internal contradictions. Cross-artifact contradictions are out of scope (→ consistency-check). If none found, say so and stop.
3. Resolve one at a time — per ambiguity, quote the ambiguous line and ask one question — multiple-choice (prompt the user) when bounded, open-ended otherwise. Iterate until resolved or the user stops.
4. Edit in place — encode each resolution into the target artifact; show old→new, confirm before writing. Edit only the target artifact.
5. Flag downstream staleness — do NOT cascade. Identify downstream artifacts a resolution may have invalidated; list them in the handoff; recommend feature-edit (which owns cascade).
6. Handoff — emit a summary.

Handoff

Emit per ${PLUGIN_ROOT}/references/handoff-summary.md. checkpoint: null. If downstream staleness flagged: human_action_needed: yes, recommended_next: "engineer plugin -> feature-edit skill to propagate".

References

• Foundation Design — artifact schemas
• The DAE methodology page — clarify as embedded pattern + standalone skill