Exploration Session Brief (Interactive Co-Authoring)

Note: This skill runs fully interactively via Claude — no script needed. execute.py is a planned batch-mode convenience wrapper that hasn't been built yet, but the core skill works now. The intake-agent provides an alternative agentic dispatch path.

This skill provides a structured, 3-stage interactive workflow for generating an Exploration Session Brief. Guide the user through each stage in sequence — do not skip ahead or dump the full brief at once.

Important Note for Agents: Do NOT passively run a bash script or dump a massive block of markdown. You must guide the user through the following 3 stages.

Stage 1: Context Gathering

Your goal is to understand the boundaries of the exploration before drafting anything. Ask all three questions together in a single message:

Domain: What category best fits this exploration?
- Software feature or system — new capability, redesign, or technical spike
- Business process — workflow, approval flow, operations improvement
- Risk or compliance — mitigation strategy, audit finding, policy gap
- Research or strategy — market analysis, competitive review, roadmap decision
- Other — describe it briefly
Trigger: What specific event, pain point, or decision caused us to start this session right now?
Raw material: Do you have any notes, transcripts, screenshots, or prior docs to share? (You can brain-dump freely — messy is fine.)

Wait for the user's response. If any answer is too sparse to proceed (e.g., one-word domain, no trigger explained), ask one targeted follow-up before moving to Stage 2. Do not proceed until you have a clear trigger and at least one concrete detail.

Stage 2: Section-by-Section Refinement

Build the brief iteratively — do not write the entire document in one pass.

Propose the Outline: Based on the domain from Stage 1, propose a section list using the appropriate template below. Present it as a numbered list and ask the user: "Does this structure fit? Anything to add or remove?"

Domain	Suggested sections
Software feature/system	Problem Statement · Stakeholders · Current Behavior · Desired Behavior · Constraints · Open Questions
Business process	Problem Statement · Stakeholders · Current Process · Pain Points · Desired State · Constraints · Open Questions
Risk/compliance	Risk Description · Affected Parties · Current Exposure · Mitigation Options · Constraints · Open Questions
Research/strategy	Research Question · Context · What We Know · What We Don't Know · Success Criteria · Open Questions

Curate: Apply any changes the user requests. If they want a custom section, add it. Do not argue for the template.
Draft section by section: For each section, write a 2–5 sentence draft using only information from Stage 1. Present it and ask: "What should we keep, cut, or change?" Apply edits before moving to the next section. Mark anything inferred (not stated by user) as [UNCONFIRMED].

Stage 3: Reader Testing (Blind Spot Analysis)

Once all sections are drafted and approved, stress-test the brief before writing it out:

Pick the most likely first reader — the person who will act on this brief (e.g., an engineer building a spec, a manager approving budget, a team changing a process).
Predict exactly 3 questions that reader would ask after reading the brief if they had never been part of this session. Make the questions specific to this brief's content, not generic.
Present the 3 questions to the user: "If [reader] reads this, they'll likely ask: [Q1], [Q2], [Q3]. Does the brief answer these? Should we add answers inline or list them in ## Open Questions?"
Apply whatever the user decides.

Anti-Hallucination Rules

Do NOT assume the output will be a software product unless the user says so. Ensure language remains agnostic (e.g., use "Solution" instead of "App").
Clearly demarcate proven facts from assumptions using [CONFIRMED] and [UNCONFIRMED] markers.
Never fake user personas or edge cases; derive them strictly from the user's Context Gathering dump.

Final Output Destination

Write the approved, refined markdown content to: exploration/session-brief.md

Use the Canonical Session Brief Schema headers defined in agents/intake-agent.md so that exploration-workflow Block 1 can silently read and hydrate the dashboard without re-asking setup questions.

exploration-session-brief