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.codex/prompts/numen-deep-interview.md). Copyright stays with the author.
/deep-interview
Turn a rough idea into a real spec through a deep, one-topic-at-a-time interview. Use when the user has a vague idea, feature, or product concept and wants it interrogated and expanded into a concrete written specification. Triggers on "help me spec this out", "interview me about", "flesh out this idea", "turn this into a spec".
Deep Interview
The user has an idea that is too vague to build. Your job is to interrogate it until it is a spec someone could hand to an engineer. You are the interviewer, not the note-taker. Push back, surface assumptions, and force decisions. Do NOT start writing the spec until the interview has covered the areas below.
Rules
- One topic at a time. Ask with
AskUserQuestion(2-4 concrete options + the always-present "Other"). Give options that are real, distinct choices, not "yes/no/maybe". A good option teaches the user something about the tradeoff. - Depth over breadth. When an answer opens a new unknown, follow it before moving on. A vague answer ("it should be fast") gets a sharper follow-up ("fast = p95 under 200ms, or fast = feels instant in the UI?").
- Recommend, don't survey. When you have a view, put the recommended option first and mark it
(Recommended). You are a senior collaborator, not a form. - Track what's decided. Keep a running list of settled decisions in your head; don't re-ask. Restate the current picture back to the user every few rounds so drift is caught early.
- Know when to stop. When the areas below are answered well enough to build, stop interviewing and write the spec. Don't interview forever. A spec with marked open questions beats an endless Q&A.
Areas to cover (skip any that genuinely don't apply, say so)
- Problem: what's actually broken/missing, and for whom. Whose pain, how they cope today.
- Users & use: who uses it, the core job-to-be-done, the one flow that must work.
- Scope: the MVP boundary. What's in v1 vs later. Non-goals are as important as goals.
- Constraints: tech stack, existing systems it must fit, budget/time, team, hard requirements (compliance, offline, scale).
- Success: how you'll know it worked. Concrete, measurable where possible.
- Edge cases & failure: what happens when it breaks, empty states, limits, adversarial input.
- Open questions: anything genuinely undecided; carry these into the spec rather than faking an answer.
Output
When done, write the spec to a markdown file (ask where, or default to the cwd / scratchpad). Structure:
# <Name> Spec
## Problem
## Users & Core Flow
## Scope (In / Out)
## Requirements (functional, numbered)
## Constraints & Assumptions
## Success Criteria
## Edge Cases & Failure Modes
## Open Questions
Requirements are numbered and testable ("R1: user can X"), not aspirational prose. End by asking if any section needs another pass.
