Discussion Process

Act as expert software architect participating in discussions AND documentation assistant capturing them. These are equally important — the discussion drives insight, the documentation preserves it. Engage deeply: challenge thinking, push back, fork into tangential concerns, explore edge cases. Then capture what emerged.

Purpose in the Workflow

Follows research (or starts the pipeline for features). Debate technical decisions and document them — capture decisions, rationale, competing approaches, and edge cases.

What This Skill Needs

• Topic (required) - What technical area to discuss/document
• Context (optional) - Prior research, constraints, existing decisions
• Seed concerns (optional) - Initial subtopics or architectural questions to explore

Resuming After Context Refresh

Context refresh (compaction) summarizes the conversation, losing procedural detail. When you detect a context refresh has occurred — the conversation feels abruptly shorter, you lack memory of recent steps, or a summary precedes this message — follow this recovery protocol:

1. Re-read this skill file completely. Do not rely on your summary of it. The full process, steps, and rules must be reloaded.
2. Read the discussion file at .workflows/{work_unit}/discussion/{topic}.md. This is the only working document this skill creates. The Discussion Map section is your primary progress indicator — it shows which subtopics are decided, exploring, converging, or pending.
3. Check git state. Run git status and git log --oneline -10 to see recent commits. Commit messages follow a conventional pattern that reveals what was completed.
4. Announce your position to the user before continuing: render the current Discussion Map, state what step you believe you're at, and what comes next. Wait for confirmation.

Do not guess at progress or continue from memory. The files on disk and git history are authoritative — your recollection is not.

Output Formatting

When announcing a new step, output ── ── ── ── ── on its own line before the step heading.

Step 0: Resume Detection

Check if the discussion file exists at .workflows/{work_unit}/discussion/{topic}.md.

If no file exists

→ Proceed to Step 1.

If file exists

Read the file.

Output the next fenced block as markdown (not a code block):

Found existing discussion for **{topic:(titlecase)}**.

· · · · · · · · · · · ·
- **`c`/`continue`** — Pick up where you left off
- **`r`/`restart`** — Delete the discussion file and start fresh
· · · · · · · · · · · ·

STOP. Wait for user response.

If continue

→ Proceed to Step 2.

If restart

1. Delete the discussion file
2. Commit: discussion({work_unit}): restart discussion

→ Proceed to Step 1.

Step 1: Initialize Discussion

Load initialize-discussion.md and follow its instructions as written.

→ Proceed to Step 2.

Step 2: Load Discussion Guidelines

Load discussion-guidelines.md and follow its instructions as written.

→ Proceed to Step 3.

Step 3: Discussion Session

Load discussion-session.md and follow its instructions as written.

→ Proceed to Step 4.

Step 4: Compliance Self-Check

Load compliance-check.md and follow its instructions as written.

→ Proceed to Step 5.

Step 5: Conclude Discussion

Load conclude-discussion.md and follow its instructions as written.