defining

Clarifying requirements upfront prevents rework by establishing shared understanding through structured questioning. This Skill guides you through Socratic dialogue to capture Vision, Functional Requirements, Constraints, and Success Criteria, documenting them in a requirements.md file before any implementation begins.

A requirements.md document structures your task planning with four key sections: Vision (problem scope and goals), Functional Requirements (what the solution must do), Constraints (limitations and boundaries), and Success Criteria (measurable outcomes). This ensures all stakeholders align on objectives.

Use Socratic questioning when starting fresh on new tasks, beginning work after research reveals gaps, or when stakeholders disagree on objectives. Conducting this dialogue early clarifies ambiguities and prevents misalignment before development effort is invested.

Documented requirements create a shared reference that aligns stakeholders on scope, success criteria, and constraints before work begins. This eliminates mid-project discoveries that require redesign, scope creep, or restarts, saving time and resources.

After documenting requirements in requirements.md, the Skill creates a .harness/{nnn}-{slug-name}/ directory to organize your planning artifacts. This structured output provides a foundation for design, development, and validation phases.