New Stack Search

Step 3: Ask visibility

Ask: "Public or private repo?" Default to private if the user doesn't care.

Step 4: Clone the template

cd ~/repos/github/my-repos
gh repo create danielrosehill/{repo-name} --template danielrosehill/Claude-Stack-Research-Workspace --clone --{public|private}
cd {repo-name}

If gh repo create --template fails (e.g., template not marked as GitHub template), fall back to:

cd ~/repos/github/my-repos
git clone https://github.com/danielrosehill/Claude-Stack-Research-Workspace.git {repo-name}
cd {repo-name}
rm -rf .git
git init && git branch -m main
gh repo create danielrosehill/{repo-name} --source . --push --{public|private}

Step 5: Clean up template placeholders

• Replace the placeholder text in CONTEXT.md with the user's topic name (fill in "What is being evaluated" with what they told you in Step 1).
• Delete the .gitkeep from context/from-human/ since we'll be writing a real file there shortly.

Step 6: Use Tavily for initial landscape scan

Before starting the intake interview, do a quick landscape scan using Tavily MCP (if available) to prime the conversation:

tavily_search: "{topic} best tools comparison {current year}"
tavily_search: "{topic} open source vs SaaS options"

Save any useful findings to context/from-internet/initial-landscape-scan.md with dated source links. This gives the intake interview a head start — the user can reference tools that came up in the scan.

If Tavily MCP is not available, skip this step silently and proceed.

Step 7: Run the intake interview

Now run through the /define-stack interview questions inline. Do NOT tell the user to run /define-stack themselves — you are the launcher, so run the interview here. Ask the 27 questions from the define-stack command, one section at a time:

Section 1: The Problem (questions 1-4)

1. "What are you trying to do? Describe the problem or need in a sentence or two."
2. "Is this a new need, or are you replacing something that isn't working?"
3. "Have you tried any existing solutions for this? If so, which ones?"
4. (If they tried something) "What specifically didn't work about them? What was the gap or frustration?"

Section 2: Deployment Model (questions 5-7) 5. "Are you open to SaaS (vendor-hosted), self-hosted, or either?" 6. (If self-hosted in scope) "Preferred deployment method — Docker, native package, or no preference?" 7. (If self-hosted in scope) "Where would you host it — home server, VPS, cloud VM?"

Section 3: Budget (questions 8-10) 8. "What's your budget band?" — Free/OSS only, Low (up to $20/mo), Mid ($20-200/mo), High ($200+/mo), Enterprise/negotiated 9. "Is there a one-time setup budget, or just ongoing costs?" 10. "Is transparent pricing important, or are you okay with 'contact sales' vendors?"

Section 4: Who and Scale (questions 11-13) 11. "Who is this for — personal use, your business, a client, or a side project?" 12. "Any scale context? Number of users, data volume, requests per second?" 13. (If client) "Is the client's budget different from your usual range?"

Section 5: Hard Requirements (questions 14-16) 14. "What are the absolute must-haves? If a tool is missing any one of these, it's out." 15. "Let me push on specifics — can you make each must-have concrete?" (e.g., "Must have a REST API" not "good integrations") 16. "Any technical constraints that would rule things out — specific language, framework, protocol, platform?"

Section 6: Nice-to-Haves (questions 17-18) 17. "What would be nice but isn't a deal-breaker?" 18. "If two tools tie on must-haves, what would make you pick one over the other?"

Section 7: Integrations (questions 19-20) 19. "Does this need to integrate with anything specific? Google Workspace, GitHub, Slack, APIs, webhooks?" 20. "Is API access (REST/GraphQL) important for building your own integrations?"

Section 8: Data Portability (question 21) 21. "How important is data portability? Must have automated backup via API / periodic manual export is fine / not important here."

Section 9: Prior Research (questions 22-25) 22. "Have you done any prior research? Blog posts, Reddit threads, recommendations?"

If you did a Tavily landscape scan in Step 6, share what you found here: "I did a quick scan and found these names coming up: [list]. Any of these ring a bell or worth including?"

23. "Any specific tools you already want me to evaluate?"
24. "Any tools to exclude — ones you've tried, ruled out, or just don't want?"
25. "Do you know of any category leaders in this space?"

Section 10: Wrap-Up (questions 26-27) 26. "Anything else — constraints, preferences, timeline, context?" 27. "How urgent is this? Browsing vs need to pick something this week?"

Step 8: Write the requirements file

Write context/from-human/stack-requirements.md from the interview answers, using the format from context/from-human/stack-requirements-template.md.

Update CONTEXT.md with a summary.

Step 9: Commit and push

git add -A
git commit -m "Initialize stack search: {topic}"
git push

Step 10: Report

Tell the user:

• Repo created at ~/repos/github/my-repos/{repo-name}
• GitHub URL
• Requirements captured
• "Open a Claude session in that repo and run /start-research to begin, or I can start researching right now if you'd like."

Style

• This is a launcher — keep it moving. Don't over-explain between steps.
• If the user gives a big freeform dump at any point, parse it into the structured fields and skip answered questions.
• The Tavily landscape scan is a bonus, not a blocker. If it fails or the MCP isn't available, proceed without it.