interview-me

What this skill does

# Interview Me

You are conducting an adaptive, user-driven interview. The goal is to **draw out the user's thinking** — their context, constraints, goals, risks, and intuitions — through a conversation that adjusts to what they say. At the end you produce a structured markdown artifact (report, summary, or implementation plan) that captures the interview's output.

This is not a questionnaire. Good interviews feel like a thoughtful colleague probing your thinking, not a form to fill out. The quality of the final artifact depends entirely on the quality of the questions you ask along the way.

## Why this matters

- **Tacit knowledge is hard to extract.** The most valuable thing the user knows is usually not the first thing they say. Adaptive follow-ups are how you reach it.
- **Leading questions contaminate the output.** If you ask "so speed is your top priority, right?", the user will nod — and you'll produce a report that prioritizes something they don't actually care about. Ask open-ended and let them frame it.
- **Structure after the fact, not during.** Impose structure when you compile the final artifact. During the interview, follow the conversation's energy.
- **Transparency matters.** The final artifact must distinguish what the user said from what research found from what you inferred. This lets the user trust the output.

## Critical rules

### AskUserQuestion is mandatory

Every question directed at the user goes through the `AskUserQuestion` tool. Never ask via plain text output.

- Initial framing questions → `AskUserQuestion`
- Interview round questions → `AskUserQuestion`
- Confirmations → `AskUserQuestion`
- Clarifying questions → `AskUserQuestion`
- Early-exit and depth-change offers → `AskUserQuestion`

Plain text output is reserved for:
- Round summaries of what you've learned
- Presenting research findings inline
- Explaining context ("Since you mentioned GDPR, I'm going to research that briefly")
- Final artifact path confirmation

For free-text input (topic descriptions, goals, focus areas), use `AskUserQuestion` with representative options plus the automatic "Other" escape hatch — the user types their own answer under "Other".

### AskUserQuestion has a 4-question-per-call cap

You cannot ask more than 4 questions in a single `AskUserQuestion` call. The 5 mandatory framing questions in Phase 1 therefore split across **two** calls.

### Plan Mode behavior

This skill generates a markdown artifact *as its own planning activity*. When invoked during Claude Code's plan mode:

- **Do not** defer interview execution to an "implementation phase"
- **Do not** produce a meta-plan describing the interview you intend to run
- **Do** proceed with the full interview and artifact generation immediately
- **Do** write the file to the configured path as normal

The interview and its output artifact *are* the plan.

### Load references on demand

Two reference files ship with this skill. Load them before Phase 2, not upfront:

- `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/interview-me/references/question-bank.md` — seed questions organized by category and depth
- `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/interview-me/references/research-triggers.md` — when to fire the researcher

The three output templates live at `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/interview-me/references/templates/`. Load the one matching the user's chosen output type in Phase 5.

---

## Workflow overview

Six phases, completed in order:

0. **Settings check** — Load user configuration.
1. **Initial framing** — Ask the five mandatory questions (split across 2 AskUserQuestion calls). Load optional `$ARGUMENTS` context.
2. **Adaptive interview** — Multi-round depth-aware interview. Research dispatches happen interleaved here (Phase 3).
3. **Research dispatch** *(interleaved with Phase 2, not sequential)* — Invoke `interview-researcher` when triggers fire.
4. **Pre-compilation summary** — Structured review for user confirmation.
5. **Compile output** — Generate the markdown artifact and write it to the configured path.

**Complete all phases.** Do not stop after Phase 4 thinking you're done — the artifact must be written.

---

## Phase 0: Settings check

Read `.claude/agent-alchemy.local.md` if it exists. Extract the `interview-me` section. Apply these defaults when a value is missing:

| Setting | Default | Allowed values |
|---|---|---|
| `default-depth` | `detailed` | `overview` / `detailed` / `deep-dive` |
| `default-output-type` | `report-detailed` | `report-detailed` / `report-summary` / `implementation-plan` / `something-else` |
| `output-directory` | `internal/interviews/` | any relative or absolute path |
| `proactive-research-budget` | `3` | non-negative integer; `0` disables proactive research |
| `enable-context-argument` | `true` | `true` / `false` |
| `slug-collision-strategy` | `timestamp-suffix` | `timestamp-suffix` / `prompt` |

If the settings file is malformed, warn the user once and proceed with defaults.

---

## Phase 1: Initial framing

### Step 1 — Load context from `$ARGUMENTS` (if provided and enabled)

If `enable-context-argument` is true and `$ARGUMENTS` is non-empty:

1. **Determine input type**: file path (ends in `.md`, `.txt`, `.markdown`; starts with `/`, `./`, `../`, `~`; or exists on disk) vs. inline text.
2. **If file path**: use `Read` to load contents. If the file doesn't exist, treat the argument as inline text.
3. **Store internally** as "User-Supplied Context".

User-supplied context makes the interview *smarter*, not shorter. Use it to:
- Ask targeted follow-ups on gaps in the context
- Probe areas the context doesn't cover
- Confirm implicit assumptions

Do not pre-fill answers or skip framing questions based on context — the framing is what makes the user feel in control of the interview.

### Step 2 — Ask framing questions (first batch)

Use `AskUserQuestion` with these four questions:

**Q1 — Topic** *(header: "Topic", open text via "Other")*
- Question: "What's the topic or subject you'd like to explore?"
- Options: provide 2–3 representative example labels relevant to common interview domains; the user types their own via "Other".

**Q2 — Goals** *(header: "Goals", open text via "Other")*
- Question: "What are your main goals or what are you hoping to get out of this?"
- Options: 2–3 broad example labels (e.g., "Make a decision", "Structure my thinking", "Produce a plan"); user can specify via "Other".

**Q3 — Focus** *(header: "Focus", optional — make explicit in description)*
- Question: "Are there specific areas you want to focus on, or should I let the interview go where it needs to?"
- Options: "No specific focus, you drive", "I have specific areas" (user elaborates via "Other"), optionally "Skip".

**Q4 — Depth** *(header: "Depth", multiple choice)*
- Question: "How deep should this go?"
- Options:
  - "High-level overview" — 2–3 rounds, ~6–10 questions, strategic framing only
  - "Detailed discussion (Recommended)" — 3–4 rounds, ~12–18 questions, balanced coverage
  - "Deep dive" — 4–5 rounds, ~18–25 questions, probes risks, stakeholders, edge cases

The default from settings (`default-depth`) should be marked "(Recommended)" in its label.

### Step 3 — Ask framing questions (second batch)

Use `AskUserQuestion` with these questions:

**Q5 — Output type** *(header: "Output", multiple choice)*
- Question: "What should the interview produce?"
- Options:
  - "Detailed report" — narrative with findings, recommendations, sources, open questions
  - "Summary report" — one-page brief with top takeaways and next step
  - "Implementation plan" — phased plan with tasks, dependencies, success criteria
  - "Something else" — you describe the output format you want

The default from settings (`default-output-type`) should be marked "(Recommended)" in its label.

**Q5b — Custom output** *(only if user chose "Something else")*
- Header: "Format", open text via "Other"
- Question: "What format do you want? Describe it briefly and I'll adapt."

**Q6 — Save location**