/interview

name: interview
description: "Use when onboarding a new product/project. Progressive interview to understand purpose, vision, north star, and competitive landscape."
metadata:
  instruction_budget: "110"
  framework_dependency: "mycelium"
  framework_dependency_note: "This skill is designed to run within the Mycelium framework (https://github.com/haabe/mycelium). Standalone use will skip the canvas state, theory gates, and harness behavior the skill assumes. Install: /plugin install mycelium@haabe-mycelium."

Interview Skill

Progressive onboarding through structured discovery conversation.

Preflight: Read target canvas file(s) before any Write/Edit

**Hard rule.** Before issuing `Write` or `Edit` against any `.claude/canvas/*.yml`, use the **Read tool** on that file in this session. Claude Code's Read-before-Write check requires the `Read` tool specifically — `cat`/`head`/`grep` via Bash do NOT satisfy it.

**Edit vs Write — different cost profiles** (verified 2026-05-14):

• **`Edit`** (exact-string replacement): `Read` with `limit: 1` satisfies the check at ~50 tokens. State-tracking is per-file, not per-byte — subsequent `Edit` calls work anywhere in the file. Use this for partial updates against large canvas files (e.g., `purpose.yml` at 800+ lines).
• **`Write`** (full replacement): do a **full Read** first. Write obliterates the file; you should see what you're about to replace. The `limit:1` shortcut is *not* appropriate here.

**ID-bearing entries — scan the ID space before assigning** (added 2026-05-15, v0.23.19): When adding a new component, opportunity, solution, or any other ID-bearing entry to a canvas file, run a Bash grep first to confirm the next ID in your prefix sequence is actually free:

grep -o "<prefix>-[0-9][0-9]*" .claude/canvas/<file>.yml | sort -u -t- -k2 -n | tail -3

Replace `<prefix>` with the canvas's ID prefix (`comp` for landscape, `opp` for opportunities, `sol` for solutions, `ht` for human-tasks, etc.). Then pick the next free integer, **matching the zero-padding already used in that file**. The sort is NUMERIC (`-t- -k2 -n`) rather than lexical, and that is not pedantry: a plain `sort -u` orders `ht-1` after `ht-080`, so on a canvas with inconsistent padding it reports the wrong maximum and the next ID collides. Verified on the dogfood repo 2026-08-13, where lexical sort returned `ht-1` as the highest human-task ID against an actual `ht-080`. `grep -o` is also deliberate: it matches IDs wherever they appear, including cross-references and prose, so an ID that was promised somewhere but not yet defined is not handed out twice. `validate_canvas.py` has a duplicate-ID check (lines 230-239) that catches the failure on CI, but a duplicate can persist in the working tree for days if CI isn't run between edit and discovery — see roadmap-repo `corrections.md` 2026-05-15 "Duplicate canvas ID created in landscape.yml" for the worked example.

Original failure mode: anti-pattern #7 instance #5, 2026-05-09 — agent conflated Bash `head` with the Read tool, lost ~14k tokens to a Write-fail → remedial-full-Read → re-Write loop. The `limit:1` discipline (graduated 2026-05-14, v0.23.18) prevents the second-order cost where the agent *correctly* follows the rule but full-Reads every time. The ID-scan discipline (graduated 2026-05-15, v0.23.19) prevents the related class where the agent reads enough of the file to satisfy the Edit check but not enough to see existing ID assignments — kin to anti-pattern #8 (Stale State Read).

If this skill writes to multiple canvas files, register each one first (limit:1 for Edit-only paths; full Read for Write paths) AND ID-scan any prefix you intend to assign.

See `CLAUDE.md` *Canvas writes — Read before Write* for the canonical rule.

When to Use

• Starting a new product or project.
• Joining an existing product that lacks documented context.
• Context has changed significantly and needs refreshing.

Workflow

Phase 0: Canvas state detection (ALWAYS FIRST)

Read `.claude/canvas/purpose.yml` and `.claude/diamonds/active.yml` at session start. Determine state:

• **Canvas empty** (template-only fields, no diamonds in `active_diamonds`): proceed to **Universal Brief Flow** below.
• **Canvas populated** (purpose statement set OR diamonds present): proceed to **Continuing-Project Routing** below.

This replaces the prior intent check (`(a) try for 10 min / (b) onboard real project`) and the prior time-budget routing (`<8h / 8-48h / 48+h`). Both were predict-the-future questions asked before any value was delivered. The brief is now universal for empty-canvas entry; depth and time-cost are chosen post-brief, when the user has the data to choose.

Universal Brief Flow (canvas empty)

Goal: the user walks away in ~10 minutes with a one-page brief on their idea that they can paste into a notes app and feel was worth the time. Then they choose what comes next, with each option declaring its time cost.

**State the deal in one line, then ask the four questions** (one at a time, follow the energy):

> "I'll ask 4 short questions about your idea, then give you a one-page brief. ~10 minutes. Nothing leaves your machine. I won't ask how much time you have for the whole project right now — depth and time-cost are chosen after the brief, when you have data to choose."

1. **(one sentence, hard limit)** "What are you trying to change, and for whom?" 2. "Tell me about the last time someone in that group hit the problem you're trying to solve. What did they actually do?" (Torres past-behavior — not "would they want X") 3. "If you had to bet on one thing being wrong about this idea, what would it be?" 4. "What's the smallest move you could make this week to find out?"

**Format constraint discipline** (per ht-012 cohort-log f4, shipped v0.23.21): the format spec (e.g., "one sentence") MUST appear before the question text and as a bolded mechanical constraint, not as a prose prefix that can be read as a rhetorical poli