RT-ICA: Reverse Thinking - Information Completeness Assessment

Purpose

This skill inserts a mandatory RT-ICA checkpoint into planning workflows. For every goal (top-level and each decomposed sub-goal), the model MUST:

1. Reverse-think prerequisites from the goal
2. Assess information completeness for each prerequisite
3. Either BLOCK planning until missing inputs are obtained, or APPROVE with explicit assumptions

<core_rule>

No planning, delegation, scheduling, or solution design may begin until RT-ICA has been performed on:

1. The overall goal/request
2. Each decomposed goal or sub-goal that could fail due to missing information

If ANY required condition is MISSING, the model MUST stop and request only the missing information.

</core_rule>

Activation Triggers

<activation_triggers>

Invoke RT-ICA when receiving ANY of:

• Spec, request, ticket, user story, PRD, architecture design, RFC
• Request to produce a plan, execution order, agent delegation, guardrails, acceptance criteria, or rollout steps
• Any multi-step engineering effort with dependencies, unknowns, constraints, or risk

Integration Points (where RT-ICA checkpoints MUST occur):

1. Before creating the top-level plan
2. Before delegating tasks to specialized agents (per-agent input completeness)
3. Before finalizing acceptance criteria (verify testability inputs exist)
4. Before defining rollout/ops steps (verify env and access inputs exist)

</activation_triggers>

Definitions

RT-ICA Procedure

Apply this procedure to each goal and sub-goal:

Step 1: Goal Reconstruction

Produce:

• Goal statement: One sentence describing the desired outcome
• Output form: What deliverable proves success (artifact, behavior, metric, deployment state)
• Scope boundaries: In-scope/out-of-scope if stated

Step 2: Reverse Prerequisite Enumeration

Work backwards from the goal to list ALL conditions required for success.

<condition_categories>

Include conditions in these categories (where applicable):

</condition_categories>

For each condition, specify:

• Condition name
• Required information to verify/satisfy it
• Why it matters (one line)

Step 3: Availability Verification

For each condition, set status:

Step 4: Completeness Decision

IF any condition is MISSING:
    DECISION = BLOCKED
ELSE:
    DECISION = APPROVED

Step 5: Action Based on Decision

<decision_actions>

IF BLOCKED:

1. Do NOT plan
2. Ask ONLY for missing inputs
3. Structure questions by category, ordered by criticality
4. Prefer multiple-choice or constrained questions when possible
5. If user explicitly requests assumption-based planning:
   • Proceed with explicit assumptions for each missing condition
   • Include risk note per assumption
   • Add validation tasks to confirm assumptions early

IF APPROVED:

1. Proceed to normal planning
2. Carry forward the validated condition list
3. Mark DERIVABLE items as "assumptions to confirm"
4. Enforce constraints as guardrails

</decision_actions>

Output Format

<output_format>

The model MUST produce this summary block for each goal/sub-goal:

RT-ICA SUMMARY
==============

Goal:
- [one sentence]

Success Output:
- [deliverable/observable result]

Conditions (reverse prerequisites):
1. [Condition] | Requires: [info] | Why: [1 line]
2. [Condition] | Requires: [info] | Why: [1 line]
...

Verification:
- [Condition 1]: [AVAILABLE|DERIVABLE|MISSING] | Evidence/Basis: [text]
- [Condition 2]: [AVAILABLE|DERIVABLE|MISSING] | Evidence/Basis: [text]
...

Decision:
- [APPROVED|BLOCKED]

--- IF BLOCKED ---
Missing Inputs Requested:

[Category]:
- [missing item question] (why needed)
- [missing item question] (why needed)

[Category]:
- [missing item question] (why needed)

--- IF APPROVED ---
Assumptions to Confirm (DERIVABLE only):
- [assumption] | Basis: [basis] | Validation step: [how to confirm early]

</output_format>

Integration with CoVe-Style Planning

<cove_integration>

Recommended sequence with RT-ICA:

A) RT-ICA on top-level goal
B) Draft plan and decomposition
C) RT-ICA on each major workstream/sub-goal
D) Assign agents with clearly bounded deliverables
E) Verification pass: cross-check plan against conditions and acceptance criteria
F) Refinement pass: resolve gaps, reduce risk, ensure ordering and guardrails

</cove_integration>

Planning Deliverables (After APPROVED)

<planning_deliverables>

After RT-ICA APPROVED decision, produce a plan that includes:

</planning_deliverables>

Guardrails

The model MUST NOT:

• Fabricate unknown inputs
• Silently assume missing requirements
• Begin planning with MISSING conditions (unless user explicitly requests assumption-based planning)

The model MUST:

• Keep missing-input questions minimal and high signal
• Prefer early validation tasks for DERIVABLE items
• Block planning when information is insufficient

Question Templates

<question_templates>

When requesting missing inputs, use structured questions:

Environment/Infrastructure:

• "What is the target environment (prod/stage/dev), and where will this run (cloud/region/account)?"

Success Criteria:

• "What are the success metrics or acceptance criteria (latency, correctness, SLO)?"

Integration:

• "Which systems/APIs are in scope, and what are their interface contracts (schema/version)?"

Technical Constraints:

• "Are there constraints on language/framework/build tooling?"

Approvals:

• "Who owns approvals for release and security review (if required)?"

</question_templates>

Example: RT-ICA in Action

User Request: "Build a user authentication service"

RT-ICA Summary:

RT-ICA SUMMARY
==============

Goal:
- Implement user authentication service for the application

Success Output:
- Deployed service that authenticates users and issues session tokens

Conditions (reverse prerequisites):
1. Auth protocol | Requires: OAuth2/OIDC/custom spec | Why: Determines implementation approach
2. User store | Requires: Database type, schema | Why: Persistence layer dependency
3. Session management | Requires: Token format, expiry rules | Why: Security policy compliance
4. Integration points | Requires: API consumers list | Why: Interface contract design
5. Security requirements | Requires: Compliance standards (SOC2, HIPAA) | Why: Audit requirements
6. Deployment target | Requires: Cloud/region/infra | Why: Runtime configuration

Verification:
- Auth protocol: MISSING | Need: Which protocol to implement
- User store: DERIVABLE | Basis: Project uses PostgreSQL per docker-compose.yml
- Session management: MISSING | Need: Token format and expiry policy
- Integration points: MISSING | Need: List of services calling auth
- Security requirements: MISSING | Need: Compliance requirements if any
- Deployment target: AVAILABLE | Evidence: README specifies AWS us-east-1

Decision:
- BLOCKED

Missing Inputs Requested:

Authentication Design:
- Which auth protocol: OAuth2, OIDC, or custom JWT? (determines implementation)
- Session token expiry policy? (security requirement)

Integration:
- Which services will consume this auth service? (API contract design)

Compliance:
- Are there compliance requirements (SOC2, HIPAA, etc.)? (audit scope)

Anti-Patterns

<anti_patterns>

Planning without RT-ICA:

User: "Build auth service"
Model: "Here's my plan: 1. Create user table, 2. Add login endpoint..."

Problem: Assumed requirements, will likely need rework

Asking too many questions:

Model asks 20 questions about edge cases before understanding core requirements

Problem: Overwhelms user, delays progress on high-signal items

Proceeding with silent assumptions:

Model: "I'll assume OAuth2 since that's common..."

Problem: Assumption may be wrong, causes rework or security issues

</anti_patterns>

Related Skills

• agent-orchestration - Scientific delegation framework for orchestrator-to-agent workflows
• subagent-contract - DONE/BLOCKED signaling protocol for sub-agents

Sources

Note: This skill adapts the RT-ICA (Reverse Thinking for Information Completeness Assessment) framework for planning workflows.