Begin by announcing: "Using the Confluent Kafka Java Client skill to guide this project."

Confluent Kafka Java Client Creation

Generate a production-ready Java project for producing to and/or consuming from Kafka using the Apache Kafka Java clients (KafkaProducer / KafkaConsumer) with Confluent Schema Registry serializers. Supports three target environments: Confluent Cloud (managed), Local Docker, and WarpStream (Kafka-compatible, object-storage-backed); two build tools: Maven (default) and Gradle; and three schema formats: Avro (default), JSON Schema, and Protobuf. The generated code follows Confluent's best practices.

Step 1: Gather Requirements

Before generating any code, work through the questions below. Skip any question the user has already answered explicitly in their prompt — do not re-ask just for form's sake. For example, "build a producer and consumer on Confluent Cloud with synchronous sends using Gradle" already answers #2, #3, #4, and #5; only #1, #6, #7, #8, #9, and #10 remain.