/interview

description: "Interview the user to ELICIT knowledge through dialogue, then stage it to the intake/ tree (the elicit-side counterpart to /extract and /intake which HARVEST existing sources). Three modes: '/interview project' (scope a new project/build), '/interview knowledge' (get a topic out of your head into the KB), '/interview deep-dive' (comprehensively extract the rationale behind an existing-but-undocumented system you built — REQUIRES a basis to review). Asks adaptively by default: small dialogs of 1-4 questions, each with suggested answers plus a free-text option, re-derived from your answers as you go; '--socratic' pins it to one question at a time, '--battery' opts into one all-at-once numbered question set instead. Use when user says '/interview', 'interview me about X', 'grill me on X', 'deep dive on X', 'scope this project', 'ask me questions about X'. Stages to intake/projects/ or intake/interviews/ for manual review; never auto-promotes. (Code port — ADR-094.)"

/interview — Elicit Knowledge Through Dialogue

Interview the user to draw out knowledge that lives in their head (and in their artifacts), then stage it as structured markdown in the `intake/` tree. Unlike `/extract` (reads the current conversation) or `/intake` (captures/scans external sources — URLs, snippets, files), `/interview` *asks questions* — the answers become the knowledge. Output is staged for **manual review** (the `/meeting-notes` model), never auto-promoted.

Step 0: Resolve Config

Read `~/.gemini/antigravity/aria-knowledge.local.md` and extract `knowledge_folder`. If the file doesn't exist, stop: "aria-knowledge is not configured. Run /setup to get started."

Step 1: Resolve Mode, Topic, Grounding

Parse arguments: first positional = **mode** (`project` | `knowledge` | `deep-dive`). Remaining text = **topic**. `--ground=<path|glob|url>[,...]` = optional grounding artifacts. `--socratic` and `--battery` = cadence overrides (Step 3); both are also accepted bare (`socratic`, `battery`). They are **mutually exclusive** — if both appear, take `--socratic` (the more conservative grain) and say in one line that you did.

If no mode given, ask: "Which interview — `project` (scope a new build), `knowledge` (get a topic into the KB), or `deep-dive` (extract rationale behind something you already built)?"

**Derive the slug** from the topic (kebab-case, ≤6 words). If no topic yet, ask for a one-line subject.

GATE — deep-dive requires a basis (explicit early-return)

**If mode is `deep-dive` AND no `--ground` was provided AND no basis is named in the topic:**

> STOP. Do not ask any interview questions. Emit: > > "`deep-dive` extracts the rationale behind something that already exists, so it needs a basis to review and build questions around. Point me at what to study — source code, a directory, a design doc / plan / spec, a project folder, a data file (e.g. a spreadsheet), or a URL." > > Wait for the user to supply a basis. Re-enter this gate with their answer. Do NOT proceed to Step 2 until `deep-dive` has at least one grounding artifact.

For `project` and `knowledge`, grounding is optional — proceed to Step 2 regardless.

Step 2: Ingest Grounding (if any)

For each grounding artifact: file/dir/glob → Read/Glob/Grep; URL → WebFetch; project folder → read its CLAUDE.md + top-level structure; data file → read/parse. Record key observations — these become the evidence you cite in questions. (`deep-dive` always has ≥1; `project`/`knowledge` may have none.)

Step 3: Cadence — `guided` by default, `--battery` to opt out

**`guided` is the default for all three modes.** Do not recommend a cadence, do not ask which one — just run `guided` unless `--battery` was passed. The old behavior (recommend `battery` for anything grounded or broad) made the all-at-once path the effective default, which is the wrong default: a numbered wall of questions has to be answered by scrolling and referencing numbers, and because a batch is derived before any answer arrives, it necessarily keeps asking things an earlier answer already made irrelevant.

**`--battery` is the escape hatch, not a co-equal option.** Mention it **once, in one line, and only** when the derived question set is large enough that sequential dialogs would genuinely be worse than a list (roughly >12 questions — in practice a broad `deep-dive`). Then proceed with `guided` without waiting for a reply:

> "This derives ~N questions. Staying guided — small dialogs, adapting as we go. Reply `--battery` any time if you'd rather take the whole set at once as a list."

**`--socratic` pins the grain, it is not a third cadence.** There are two cadences, and they differ on **when the questions are derived**, not on how many appear at once: `guided` re-derives after every answer, `battery` derives the whole set before the first one. `--socratic` is `guided` with the dialog grain pinned to exactly one question — same adaptive loop, no clustering. Reach for it when the user has said they want one at a time, or when they distrust the clustering judgment; `guided` already collapses to one question wherever the independence test fails, so this is a manual override of that judgment, not a different process. Record it in Step 6 as `cadence: socratic` — the artifact then states the grain the answers were given at, which a later reader needs.

Step 4: Interview

`guided` cadence (the default)

Ask in **small dialogs of 1-4 questions**, using the platform's question/picker affordance — one dialog, wait, then derive the next from what came back. Never present a numbered list the user has to answer by number.

**Every question carries suggested answers.** Offer 2-4 concrete candidate answers per question, drawn from the mode's question bank and — where grounding artifacts exist — from the evidence itself (a real value read out of the code or doc beats an invented placeholder). The free-text / custom answer is always available in the affordance, so a su