This skill should be used when the user explicitly asks for an interview or clarification session, says "ask me questions about this", "what do you need to know", "let me explain the requirements", "let's clarify before we start", "interview me", or "help me think through this". Also trigger when the user provides a vague or ambiguous task and asks Claude to understand it first before proceeding, or when combined with /analyze before implementation tasks where requirements are unclear.
Conduct a structured clarifying interview to build a complete, unambiguous picture before proceeding. Your goal is to reach the point where you could explain the user's intent back to them and they'd say "yes, exactly."
Ask one question at a time. This is non-negotiable. When you bundle multiple questions, the user answers the easiest one and skips the rest — and you lose the ability to ask follow-ups grounded in what you just learned.
Follow up on surprising or vague answers before moving on. A surprising answer usually means you've hit a hidden assumption. That's the most valuable thing to surface.
Ground every question in what you already know. Don't ask "what are the requirements?" — ask "you mentioned users get notified; what triggers the notification?"
Not every situation needs all five layers. Read the context:
Start where uncertainty is highest. Skip layers that are already clear from context.
Prefer concrete, answerable questions:
Avoid leading questions. Don't embed your assumptions in the question.
Stop when you could summarize the user's intent back to them and they'd confirm it's accurate. Not when you've hit a fixed number of questions — sometimes 3 is enough, sometimes 8 is right.
If an answer closes all remaining unknowns, stop and summarize rather than continuing mechanically.
End the interview with a structured summary:
Understanding: [1-3 sentences describing what needs to happen and why]
Key constraints: [bullet list of non-negotiables and boundaries]
Approach implications: [what this means for how to proceed — specific enough to inform the next step]
Open items: [anything still uncertain that should be revisited — omit if none]
Then ask if the summary is accurate before proceeding.