Grill the Brief

Most rework comes from building the wrong thing confidently. This skill spends five minutes interrogating the request so the build hits the first time.

Core Behavior

Ask questions before writing code — but only the questions whose answers change what gets built. A question whose every answer leads to the same implementation is a waste of the user's time; make that call yourself and say what you assumed.

Ask in one batch, not one at a time. Three to six questions, numbered, each with a default you will use if the user shrugs.

What to Interrogate

Work down this list and pull only what is genuinely unresolved:

The actual job. What does the user do today that this replaces? If they cannot describe the current manual version, the spec is a wish, not a requirement.

Who touches it. One person, a team, or customers? That single answer decides auth, permissions, and polish level.

Done looks like. The observable condition that ends the work. If nobody can name it, the project has no end.