# Ra1 Interview > Resolve the unanswered questions in a Ready Agent 1 readiness report by interviewing the developer, then record the answers as engine inputs and re-score. Use when a readiness report lists unanswered questions or gaps, when `ra1 gaps` returns any gap, when a criterion is `unknown` because the scan could not classify the project or reach a data source, or when the user asks to answer, pin, or configure what the readiness scan could not infer. - Skill: `tjboudreaux/ra1-interview` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 68 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add tjboudreaux/ra1-interview` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/tjboudreaux/ra1-interview/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: AI & ML - License: MIT - Author: tjboudreaux (https://skillmd.com/u/tjboudreaux) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/tjboudreaux/ra1-interview --- # Agent Readiness Interview A readiness scan reports `unknown` when it lacks an input, not when a repository is bad. This skill closes that distance: it asks the developer the questions the engine cannot answer, records each answer where the **engine** reads it, and re-scores so the change in the number comes from re-evaluation rather than from anyone's opinion. **The engine owns every verdict.** You collect inputs. An answer can make a criterion evaluable or exclude it with a disclosed waiver; an answer can never mark one passing. ## Steps `` in the commands below is this skill's own directory: the absolute path your runtime reports when it loads the skill. Substitute it. Do not write `$(dirname "$0")` — in a shell tool call `$0` is the shell, not this file, so that form resolves against the caller's working directory. ### 1. List the gaps ```bash python3 -I "/scripts/readiness/cli.py" gaps \ --project . --format json ``` Each gap carries exactly `gap_id`, `kind`, `question`, `why`, `recordable`, `input_kind` (`single_choice` | `multi_choice` | `integer` | `unrecordable`), `choices` (opaque ids with display-only labels and effects `record` | `external_action` | `leave_unanswered`), `value` (null, or the CI-budget integer spec), `blocked_ids`, `blocked_gating`, `levels`, and `evidence`. The list is already ordered by leverage: the first gap blocks the gate the reader is trying to clear. IDs and choices are engine constants; copy them into argv verbatim — never question/evidence/user prose. **Done when:** you have the gap list. Empty list → tell the user every input was inferable and stop; there is nothing to interview about. ### 2. Frame the question from the gap payload only For every gap, form the question strictly from `question`, `why`, bounded `evidence`, the blocker/Level counts, and the display-only `choices` labels — see [reference/questions.md](reference/questions.md). You do not inspect repository files to derive a recommendation, and you never construct a value the engine did not emit. **Done when:** each gap has one four-line question with its stake and its recordable choices, or an explicit `leave_unanswered` decision. ### 3. Interview, one question at a time Ask **one** question, wait for the answer, then ask the next. Order follows the gap list, with one exception: ask a question whose answer changes later questions first (project type before anything scoped to an application). Each question states, in this order: the question, what answering it unblocks (`blocked_gating` and `levels`), and the accepted `choices` labels verbatim, framed as an explicit record-or-leave-unanswered decision. Read [reference/questions.md](reference/questions.md) for the wording rules per gap kind and for what to do with a vague, "I don't know", or contradictory answer. **Done when:** every gap has an answer, an explicit "leave it unanswered", or a waiver decision — and you asked no question the codebase had already answered. ### 4. Plan exactly one answer; apply only on explicit current-turn confirmation For one current gap, plan exactly one of: ```bash python3 -I "/scripts/readiness/cli.py" answer --project . \ --gap-id --choice --format json python3 -I "/scripts/readiness/cli.py" answer --project . \ --gap-id config.ci_budget_minutes --minutes <1..1440> --format json ``` Repeated `--choice` is allowed only for the current multi-enum surfaces gap. IDs/choices must be copied from the just-returned canonical payload. Only when the developer's current turn explicitly selects recording do you repeat the exact plan command with fixed `--apply`. The engine reacquires the live root, requires clean/known Git and a complete T0/T1 baseline, rederives the gap and its internal `.ra1` policy mapping, performs one bounded create/merge on `.ra1/config.json` or `.ra1/waivers.json`, rescans with the same offline scope, and emits the canonical `answer_contract`. You never read, write, or merge policy files directly, never pass a free-form waiver reason, owner, or expiry, and never append provenance suffixes. **Done when:** you present the `answer_contract` verbatim, state plainly that recording is not credit (the engine re-scores; the answer can expose failures or lower the Level), and never call an unchanged/unresolved criterion fixed. ### 5. Report the verified outcome honestly Present the `answer_contract`'s own verification: the recorded write, `gap_resolved`, the `status_changes` (including `unknown → fail` — that is the interview working, not failing), `waived_ids`, remaining gaps, and the before/after score **copied verbatim** from the contract. Generating or storing a subsequent full report remains a separate explicit `ra1 report` invocation, not an automatic post-answer step. **Done when:** you have stated the before/after score from the contract, listed the status changes, and named the remaining gaps. ## Contract (do not violate) - **Never write a status, a score, or a pass.** The engine writes verdicts from the recorded input. - **Never write, read, or merge policy files directly.** Only `ra1 answer` mutates `.ra1/config.json` or `.ra1/waivers.json`, and only with exact engine-authored ids. - **Never waive what the scanner looked for and did not find.** Waivers exist only for the `capability.github` gap's `github.non_github_host` choice, which excludes the gap's exact blocked ids with no free-form reason. - **Never execute an `external_action`** (such as `github.restore_access`); ask whether the developer will do it, and re-scan on a later explicit request. - **Never pin a project type to raise a number.** Pin what the repository is. If the honest type makes more criteria fail, that is the correct outcome. - **Never ask a question outside the gap payload** — you may not inspect repository files to derive an answer. - **Never batch questions.** One at a time, because a batched answer to five questions is reliably vaguer than five answers. - **Never claim the score improved because of an answer.** It improved because the engine re-evaluated, or it did not improve at all. ## Notes - No gaps but criteria still `unknown`? Those are agent judgments (`judgment.*`), which are advisory and belong to the **ra1-report** skill's T4 section, not to this interview. - To act on findings rather than inputs, hand off to **ra1-fix** (the Loadout). - Gaps are advisory output derived after scoring. Listing them, or leaving one unanswered, cannot change a level.