Profile Interview

One job: extract how the user writes and how they judge, into two reference documents precise enough that a skill with no memory of them could still write in their voice and make a call they'd agree with.

All vault/… paths below resolve against the vault base (see CLAUDE.md → "Resolving the vault path"); on a clone that's the repo's vault/, on a plugin install it's the setup-recorded path. Resolve the base before writing.

Two profiles, run as two separate interviews:

• Voice → vault/Profiles/voice-profile.md. Writing DNA. Consumed by any skill that produces prose — nothing publishes in a voice the kit hasn't been taught.
• Taste → vault/Profiles/taste-profile.md. Design and product judgment. Consumed at gates where the agent has to decide what's on-brand, what reads as slop, what's worth building. This is how the agent covers a lens the user doesn't have yet.

Ask which one to run. Default to voice first (immediately useful), taste second.

How to interview

• One question at a time. Wait for the answer before the next. Never batch.
• Push on vague answers. "I like it simple" → "Simple how? Show me simple done right and simple done lazy." Extract the truth people can't self-report.
• Ask for real examples. "Show me a sentence you've written that does this."
• Call out contradictions. If an answer clashes with an earlier one, say so.
• Follow the thread. When something unusual surfaces, dig there before moving on. The category list is a map, not a script.
• Don't accept "I don't know" cheaply. Reframe, approach from another angle.
• The user can stop anytime. On "that's enough" / "compile it", write the profile from what you have and note which areas are thin. A partial profile beats no profile. The interview is re-runnable to deepen it later.

Depth is the user's call: a quick pass (~15 questions, the essentials) or a full pass (the whole map below, ~80–100 questions). Ask which.

Voice interview — the map

Cover these. Counts are for a full pass, scale down for quick.

• Beliefs & contrarian takes (15) — what they believe that their field doesn't; hot takes they'd defend; conventional wisdom they think is wrong.
• Writing mechanics (20) — how they actually write vs. how they think they do; default sentence shapes; how they open and close; punctuation, formatting, line breaks; words they overuse, love, would never use.
• Aesthetic crimes (15) — what makes them cringe in others' writing; phrases like nails on a chalkboard; what reads as lazy.
• Voice & personality (15) — humor; serious vs. casual tone; how they handle disagreement; excited vs. skeptical.
• Structural preferences (15) — how they organize; lists/headers/bullets; transitions; default structures.
• Hard nos (10) — what they'd never write about; approaches they'd never take; lines they won't cross.
• Red flags (10) — what makes them instantly distrust a piece; signals someone doesn't know what they're talking about.

Taste interview — the map

• Design judgment (15) — products/sites/objects they admire and why (push past "clean"); what reads as slop; their reaction to specific this-vs-that pairs you show them.
• Product judgment (15) — what's worth building vs. over-engineered; how they tell a real problem from a loud one; what "good enough to ship" means.
• Brand & tone (10) — what on-brand feels like for their work; adjectives they want, adjectives they refuse.
• Hard nos & red flags (10) — design/product patterns they'd never ship; what makes them distrust a product on sight.

Output

Write the profile as a full reference doc — not a summary. Preserve answers, don't compress them away.

# Voice Profile — <name>     (or Taste Profile — <name>)

## Core Identity
<3 sentences — the only summary section>

## <Category>
**Q: <the question you asked>**
<their answer, kept in their words>
... (every answered question, grouped by category)

## Quick Reference Card
**Always:** <specific patterns to follow, pulled from answers>
**Never:** <specific things to avoid>
**Signature phrases & structures:** <real examples they gave>
**Calibration quotes:** <key lines that capture the tone/judgment>

Then add the one-line index entry in vault/MEMORY.md under ## Knowledge index (or a ## Profiles line if you add one), e.g. - [Voice Profile](Profiles/voice-profile.md) — how I write; read before drafting prose.

Rules

• The profile is the user's, in the user's words. Don't sand their answers into neutral prose — the specificity is the value.
• One topic per file: voice and taste stay separate documents.
• Re-running refines, never wipes: merge new answers into the existing profile, keep git history for the rest.
• The Quick Reference Card is what other skills read most — keep it sharp and concrete, no vague adjectives.