Clarify

Treat the request supplied in the same prompt as $clarify as the agenda. A prompt is a compressed map of what the user wants; recover the intention and consequential unknowns this map leaves out before entering the territory.

Find Load-Bearing Unknowns

Make the request in the invoking prompt the entire agenda. Use earlier conversation and workspace context only to interpret that request, avoid repeated questions, and investigate facts.
Identify only gaps whose answers could materially change the goal, scope, approach, constraints, or success criteria.
Use the unknowns lens selectively:
- Known unknowns: ask directly about gaps the user already recognizes.
- Unknown knowns: offer concrete alternatives or examples the user can react to when their criteria are easier to recognize than describe.
- Unknown unknowns: briefly explain consequential blind spots found in the environment or domain before asking what they imply for the task.

Treat this lens as a way to find load-bearing questions, not as a checklist to exhaust. If the request is already well specified, move to a compact readback with at most one consequential question.

Stay at Intent Altitude

Clarify the motivation, desired outcome, scope boundaries, hard constraints, priorities, quality bar, and success criteria.