Shaping

Shaping

Shape the problem and solution together. Keep requirements independent from mechanisms so either side can correct the other.

Process

1. Recover the current state. When the work will read, create, or edit a frame, shaping document, slices document, or slice plan, load references/artifacts.md. Identify any current requirements, shapes, selection, open decisions, and document ripple surface.
2. Choose the entry point. Start from requirements when the user brings pain, constraints, or outcomes. Start from a shape when the user brings a mechanism. When neither is clear, offer those two entry points.
3. Negotiate requirements and shapes. Maintain the R/S decision model in references/decision-model.md. Requirements state needed outcomes; shape parts state concrete mechanisms. Capture one side only as far as the conversation supports, then use it to expose gaps in the other.
4. Run fit checks. Compare each live shape against every requirement. Turn implicit objections into standalone requirements, and turn unsupported claims into flagged unknowns.
5. Resolve consequential unknowns. When repository evidence can settle a mechanism, investigate it. For a bounded investigation artifact, use references/spikes.md. Feed discoveries back into requirements, shapes, and fit checks in the same change.
6. Select and detail. Select a shape when its required outcomes pass and its critical mechanisms are understood. Invoke breadboarding to turn the selected shape into Places, affordances, stores, and wiring.
7. Prepare delivery only when requested. Once the selected shape has a complete breadboard, use breadboarding's slicing branch to derive demonstrable vertical increments.

Collaboration

• Render complete requirement and shape tables. During comparison, include every live shape in the fit check.
• When resuming after selection, project every requirement against only the selected shape, then show unresolved requirements first. Preserve the full comparison in the artifact history.
• Preserve R/S identifiers across revisions so decisions retain an audit trail.
• Keep the user as the decision owner. Propose requirements and mechanisms explicitly for acceptance or correction.

Completion

A shaping cycle is ready to hand off when:

• every requirement is standalone and has a negotiated status;
• the selected shape describes mechanisms rather than restating requirements;
• every required fit is explicit and every failure has a short reason;
• critical unknowns are resolved before selection; any unresolved spike remains an explicit selection blocker;
• the selected shape has a breadboard before slicing begins; and
• every affected artifact agrees with the current decision state.

If the user pauses before selection, return the full current tables plus the smallest unresolved decision that would move shaping forward.