Discussion

A conductor for converging work: a topic that needs multiple rounds — research, exploring alternatives, decisions — and deserves persistence as a .scratch/active/<work>/ work item instead of chat that evaporates at compaction.

The flow internalizes to-spec and to-tickets for the local .scratch world: the discussion is the interview; its durable output is the work item's DESIGN.md and, once the shape is agreed, its issues/ tickets — all under the repo's own .scratch/AGENTS.md rules, which own the structures and stay the single source for them.

1. Gate

Discussion-worthy means: multiple rounds needed, real decisions to make, and the outcome will be built or referenced later. A question with a one-pass answer gets answered, not a work item.

2. Open the work item

Follow .scratch/AGENTS.md: active/<work>/ with the five-item README.md (status, last-checked date, current frontier, completion conditions, formal-doc exit) and a materials/ directory. Work in the conversation; persist what matters as it crystallizes, not at the end.

If the repository has no .scratch work area, offer to run ax-init first. Without one, keep the discussion in-conversation and say that nothing is being persisted.

3. Research

Pull in facts with the research skill — primary sources, each claim cited, findings saved into materials/. Facts are the agent's job: never ask the user for something that can be looked up.

4. Discuss in rounds

Run the questioning with the grilling discipline: map the topic as a design tree, work it in frontier rounds, numbered questions each carrying a recommended answer; one round, then wait. Settled answers reshape the tree and unlock the next frontier. The questioning is done when the frontier is empty — nothing left silently assumed.

5. Converge

Synthesize — do not transcript. DESIGN.md holds: the problem in the user's terms, the chosen shape, key decisions with their reasons, the agreed testing seams, and open questions. No file paths or code snippets (they go stale); the exception is decision-dense fragments (state machines, type shapes) inlined with their source noted.

6. Ticket

When the shape is agreed, break the work into tracer-bullet tickets per .scratch/AGENTS.md (vertical slices, blocking edges, frontier; wide refactors as expand–contract). Present the breakdown — title, blocked-by, what it delivers — and settle granularity with the user before writing any ticket file.

7. Keep the entry alive

Update the README's five items as the frontier moves; set last-checked at the start of each session that touches the item. Implementation proceeds per ticket (tdd at the agreed seams).

Before closing a work item with code changes, offer /scratch-review <work-item> to review the implementation against its design and tickets and save the report under reviews/. Resolve confirmed findings first; human acceptance evidence belongs separately under validation/. Closing follows the .scratch/AGENTS.md lifecycle — durable conclusions graduate into maintained docs, the item archives.