1---2name: spec-interview3description: Interviews users to build comprehensive project specifications. Use when starting a new project, feature, or when user needs help defining requirements through guided discovery. Use when this capability is needed.4---56<objective>7Build complete, production-ready specifications through deep, systematic interviewing. Read existing SPEC.md if present, then probe the user about every aspect they haven't fully thought through: architecture decisions, edge cases, error states, UX flows, security concerns, performance tradeoffs, integration points, and failure modes.89The goal is to surface hidden assumptions and force decisions BEFORE implementation begins.10</objective>1112<essential_principles>1314<principle name="non_obvious_questions">15Never ask questions the user has already answered or could trivially answer. Dig into:16- What happens when X fails?17- How does this interact with Y?18- What's the migration path from current state?19- Who's responsible when Z goes wrong?20- What does success look like in 6 months?21</principle>2223<principle name="progressive_depth">24Start broad, then drill into areas of uncertainty. When user gives vague answers, probe deeper. When they're confident, move on. Detect hesitation and explore it.25</principle>2627<principle name="tradeoff_forcing">28Don't let users have everything. Force explicit tradeoffs:29- "You mentioned both X and Y. These conflict because... which matters more?"30- "This approach optimizes for A but sacrifices B. Is that acceptable?"31</principle>3233<principle name="completeness_over_speed">34Continue interviewing until EVERY section of the spec template has concrete answers. Vague sections = more questions. Only stop when the spec is implementation-ready.35</principle>3637</essential_principles>3839<quick_start>401. Check if SPEC.md exists and read it412. Identify gaps, ambiguities, and untested assumptions423. Begin interviewing using AskUserQuestionTool434. Cover ALL domains systematically (see question_domains)445. Write completed spec to SPEC.md45</quick_start>4647<process>4849<step name="1_load_context">50**Read existing spec if present:**51```52Read SPEC.md (or specified file path)53```5455If exists: Analyze what's defined vs. what's missing or vague.56If not: Start fresh, but ask about existing context (related systems, constraints, prior art).57</step>5859<step name="2_initial_assessment">60Before diving deep, establish scope with 2-3 broad questions:61- What problem are you solving and for whom?62- What's the minimal viable version vs. the full vision?63- What constraints exist (time, tech stack, team, budget)?64</step>6566<step name="3_systematic_interview">67**Interview through ALL domains below.** Use AskUserQuestionTool with 2-4 targeted questions per round. Mix domains to keep conversation dynamic.6869**CRITICAL**: Each question must:70- Be specific to THIS project (not generic)71- Surface a decision or assumption72- Have meaningful, distinct options73- Force the user to commit to something74</step>7576<step name="4_gap_detection">77After each answer round, identify:78- New questions raised by the answer79- Contradictions with earlier answers80- Areas where user seemed uncertain8182Probe these immediately before moving on.83</step>8485<step name="5_write_spec">86When all domains are covered and no ambiguities remain:871. Use the template in `templates/spec-template.md`882. Fill every section with concrete decisions893. Mark any remaining open questions explicitly904. Write to SPEC.md (or user-specified path)91</step>9293</process>9495<question_domains>9697<domain name="problem_and_users">98**Surface hidden assumptions about the problem:**99- What's the actual pain point? (not the solution they've imagined)100- Who are the real users? (roles, technical level, frequency of use)101- What do users do TODAY without this? (current workarounds)102- What would make users NOT use this? (adoption blockers)103- How will you know if this succeeded? (measurable outcomes)104</domain>105106<domain name="scope_and_boundaries">107**Force explicit scope decisions:**108- What's explicitly OUT of scope? (as important as what's in)109- What's the MVP vs. v2 vs. "nice to have someday"?110- What adjacent problems are you intentionally NOT solving?111- What happens if scope must be cut by 50%? What survives?112</domain>113114<domain name="architecture_and_technical">115**Probe technical decisions and their implications:**116- What's the data model? What are the core entities and relationships?117- Where does state live? (client, server, database, cache)118- What's the source of truth for X? (when there's duplication)119- How does this scale? (10x users, 100x data, distributed team)120- What's the deployment model? (self-hosted, SaaS, hybrid)121- What's the upgrade/migration path from v1 to v2?122- What technical debt are you knowingly taking on?123</domain>124125<domain name="integration_and_dependencies">126**Map the system boundaries:**127- What external systems does this touch? (APIs, databases, services)128- What happens when dependency X is down?129- Who owns the integration contracts? How do they change?130- What data flows in and out? What's the format/protocol?131- Are there rate limits, quotas, or cost implications?132</domain>133134<domain name="ui_and_ux">135**Get specific about user experience:**136- Walk through the primary user journey step-by-step137- What's the first thing a new user sees/does?138- How does the user recover from mistakes?139- What feedback does the user get at each step?140- What's the mobile/responsive story?141- What accessibility requirements exist?142- How does this look with 0 items? 1 item? 1000 items?143</domain>144145<domain name="error_states_and_edge_cases">146**Surface failure modes:**147- What happens when network fails mid-operation?148- What if the user does X twice rapidly?149- What if data is malformed or missing fields?150- What's the worst thing that could happen? How do we prevent it?151- What does partial failure look like? (3 of 5 items succeed)152- How do users know something went wrong?153- What's the retry/recovery mechanism?154</domain>155156<domain name="security_and_privacy">157**Force security decisions:**158- What data is sensitive? What's the classification?159- Who can see/edit/delete what? (permission model)160- How is authentication handled? (existing system? new?)161- What audit trail is required?162- What compliance requirements exist? (GDPR, SOC2, HIPAA)163- What happens to data when user/account is deleted?164</domain>165166<domain name="performance_and_reliability">167**Establish non-functional requirements:**168- What response times are acceptable? (p50, p95, p99)169- What's the availability target? (99%, 99.9%, 99.99%)170- What's the expected load? (requests/sec, concurrent users)171- What happens under load? (graceful degradation vs. hard failure)172- What's the data retention policy?173- What's the backup/recovery strategy?174</domain>175176<domain name="operations_and_maintenance">177**Think about day 2:**178- How will this be monitored? What alerts exist?179- How do you debug when something goes wrong?180- What does deployment look like? (CI/CD, manual, hybrid)181- Who's on-call? What's the escalation path?182- How is configuration managed? (env vars, config files, admin UI)183- What's the rollback plan?184</domain>185186<domain name="testing_and_quality">187**Define quality gates:**188- What must be tested? (unit, integration, e2e)189- What's the test data strategy?190- How do you test integrations with external systems?191- What's the acceptance criteria for "done"?192- Who approves releases?193</domain>194195<domain name="timeline_and_phases">196**Reality-check the plan:**197- What's driving the timeline? (hard deadline, soft goal, ASAP)198- What's the phased rollout plan?199- What's the feature flag strategy?200- What can be parallelized? What's serial?201- What are the riskiest parts that need prototyping?202</domain>203204<domain name="verification_environment">205**Gather runtime verification info (critical for Ralph autonomous execution):**206- What's the tech stack? (framework, language, package manager)207- How do you start the dev server? What port does it run on?208- What database is used? How do you connect and query it directly?209- What test frameworks are set up? (Jest, Pytest, Playwright, Cypress, etc.)210- Are there existing e2e tests? What runner and how to execute them?211- What's the typecheck command? Lint command? Build command?212- Are there health check endpoints?213- How do you currently verify a feature works? (manual steps we can automate)214- What CI checks currently run?215- What ORM/migration tool is used? (Prisma, Alembic, Drizzle, etc.)216</domain>217218</question_domains>219220<interview_techniques>221222<technique name="probing_vague_answers">223When user says "it depends" or "we'll figure it out later":224- "What specifically does it depend on?"225- "What would need to be true for option A vs. option B?"226- "If you had to decide RIGHT NOW, which way would you lean?"227</technique>228229<technique name="revealing_assumptions">230When user says something confidently:231- "What would change if [assumption] turned out to be wrong?"232- "How would you verify that [assumption] is true before building?"233- "Have you seen this work elsewhere? What was different?"234</technique>235236<technique name="forcing_priorities">237When everything seems important:238- "If you could only ship ONE of these, which one?"239- "What would you cut if timeline was halved?"240- "Which of these would you be embarrassed NOT to have?"241</technique>242243<technique name="exploring_conflict">244When two answers seem incompatible:245- "Earlier you said X, but this suggests Y. How do these reconcile?"246- "This creates a tradeoff between A and B. Where do you land?"247</technique>248249</interview_techniques>250251<success_criteria>252Interview is complete when:253- [ ] All domains have been covered with project-specific questions254- [ ] User has made explicit decisions on all tradeoffs255- [ ] No "TBD" or "we'll figure it out" remains in critical areas256- [ ] Edge cases and failure modes have concrete handling strategies257- [ ] The spec could be handed to a developer who would know what to build258- [ ] User confirms "this is complete enough to start building"259</success_criteria>260261<spec_template_location>262See `templates/spec-template.md` for the output structure.263</spec_template_location>264265---266> Converted and distributed by [TomeVault](https://tomevault.io/claim/cfircoo) — claim your Tome and manage your conversions.267<!-- tomevault:4.0:skill_md:2026-04-11 -->
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