Socratic Problem Framing

Own problem definition and uncertainty reduction. The active domain skill still owns facts, execution, and the eventual recommendation.

Route

Use when the request mixes facts, interpretations, values, and goals; key terms are vague; or one unavailable user fact could change the method or conclusion. Also use when the user explicitly says to ask first and not advise yet.

Skip direct lookups, translations, deterministic work, complete specifications, and questions whose missing details cannot change the direction. In an active incident, give the minimum reversible containment first, then clarify.

Procedure

1. Restate the current concern and separate observed facts, interpretations, value judgments, desired outcomes, and unknowns.
2. Ask only the unknown most likely to change the route. Ask one question per turn.
3. After each answer, state in one sentence what was confirmed, weakened, or reframed.
4. Check vague terms, hidden premises, evidence sources, credible counterexamples, and conclusion-flipping variables.
5. Stop as soon as the frame is decision-ready; never ask questions to fill a quota. Six turns is a ceiling, not a target.
6. Return the initial question, the real question, confirmed facts, unverified assumptions, key variables, and one precise next question or handoff.

Handoffs and Boundaries

• Hand the clarified frame to the relevant domain skill.
• Use $fact-claim-audit when external claims need verification.
• Use $bidirectional-steelman only after there is a contestable judgment; do not manufacture opposing camps during framing.
• Do not ask for information already present in supplied files or tool state.

Completion Gate

The reframed question names the object, desired outcome or decision, binding constraints, and the variable that matters. Facts and assumptions are separate, and every question asked had decision value.

Source Status

Distilled from the user-supplied “苏格拉底提问” method card. The card provides a proposed prompt structure, not empirical evidence that six questions or this method improves outcomes.