Handoff

This content is loaded when Phase 4 begins — after the requirements-only unified plan is written, or after a Lightweight run's chat paragraph is delivered with no file warranted. Options that need an artifact hide themselves below; the handoff itself is presented on both paths.

4.0 Return to the caller instead of presenting options

When the invocation carried mode:return-to-caller, a calling skill is waiting for the result and owns what happens next, so none of 4.1 through 4.3 runs: no menu, no closing summary, and never an invocation of lfg or ce-plan from here. The dialogue that produced the result is unchanged; the caller is present precisely because a human was there to answer. Emit this return as the last thing this skill writes, with these exact field names. The return ends this skill, not the turn. The caller runs in this same session, and its next step follows the return.

• status: complete, or blocked when Resolve Before Planning still holds items the user chose not to resolve.
• result_kind: artifact when a requirements-only unified plan was written and passed the Ready for Planning Check; brief when Lightweight work ended in chat with no file.
• artifact_path: the absolute path returned by the write step, including any collision suffix, or null for a brief.
• brief: the chat paragraph, or null for an artifact.
• resolve_before_planning: the remaining items, or an empty list.
• key_decisions: every decision the dialogue settled that meets references/settled-decisions.md, each with its provenance class, whether the result is an artifact or a brief.

A brief is a feature description for the caller's planner, not a plan and not a work source. When the grounding scout produced a dossier that still exists, include its path as grounding_path so planning can start from it.

The rest of this file is the interactive path.

4.1 Present Next-Step Options

The Phase 4 menu's visible option count varies by state: no unified plan artifact hides the review option, unresolved Resolve Before Planning hides both Create the implementation plan and Ship it autonomously with lfg, and the lfg option is also hidden for non-software brainstorms (execution other than code). Count the visible options for the current state and choose the rendering mode accordingly:

• Visible count fits the current platform's option cap: use the host's blocking question tool already in the current tool list (match by capability, not by a host-specific name). Presence in the current tool list is proof the tool exists; never call a user-facing question tool to discover whether it exists. If a matching tool is listed but unloaded, use the host's tool-discovery primitive to load that capability — do not search for another host's tool name. Claude Code AskUserQuestion supports up to 4 explicit options, and Codex request_user_input supports only 2-3 explicit options.
• Visible count exceeds the current platform's option cap: render as a numbered list in chat. This is the narrow option-overflow fallback; trimming would hide legitimate choices (plan, ship, review or prototype, browser, refine are all distinct destinations). Include a hint that free-form input is accepted ("Pick a number or describe what you want.") so the numbered list retains the blocking tool's open-endedness.

Never silently skip the question.

If Resolve Before Planning contains any items:

• Ask the blocking questions now, one at a time, by default
• If the user explicitly wants to proceed anyway, first convert each remaining item into an explicit decision, assumption, or Deferred to Planning question
• If the user chooses to pause instead, present the handoff as paused or blocked rather than complete
• Do not offer the Create the implementation plan or Ship it autonomously with lfg options while Resolve Before Planning remains non-empty

In both preambles below, the "Pick a number or describe what you want." hint applies only in numbered-list mode. When using the blocking tool, omit that line and pass the remaining stem as the question.

Path format: Use absolute paths for chat-output file references — relative paths are not auto-linked as clickable in most terminals.

Preamble when no blocking questions remain:

Brainstorm complete.

Plan artifact: <absolute path to requirements-only unified plan>  # omit line if no artifact was created

Planning and shipping will use this artifact as the definition of what to build.  # omit line if no artifact was created

What would you like to do next? (Pick a number or describe what you want.)

Preamble when blocking questions remain and user wants to pause:

Brainstorm paused. I'm holding planning until the remaining questions are resolved — say the word and I'll proceed anyway, recording each open item as an explicit assumption or a question deferred to planning.

Plan artifact: <absolute path to requirements-only unified plan>  # omit line if no artifact was created

What would you like to do next? (Pick a number or describe what you want.)

The override sentence is required, not padding: the planning options are hidden while Resolve Before Planning is non-empty, so without it the user is told planning is blocked and is never told the block is theirs to lift. Resolve Before Planning is your own judgment call — an over-cautious read of it must not silently strand the user with no visible way forward. Hiding the option withholds the recommendation; it never withholds the choice.

Present only the options that apply. Renumber so visible options stay contiguous starting at 1.

1. Create the implementation plan (recommended) - Hand off to ce-plan and sharpen the requirements into a complete, testable plan. Shown only when Resolve Before Planning is empty.
2. **Ship it autonomously with lfg** - Hand the requirements to the full autonomous pipeline: lfg plans (ce-plan), implements, simplifies, runs independent code review and applies the fixes, opens a PR, and watches CI to green — hands-off, no check-ins. It plans before it implements. Best when you trust the requirements and want it built and shipped without steering. Opens a PR and pushes a branch. Shown only for software brainstorms (execution: code) with Resolve Before Planning empty and a unified plan artifact was created — lfg hands ce-plan that artifact path in pipeline mode and cannot prompt, so with no artifact (e.g. a brief-alignment brainstorm that skipped doc creation per the "Decide whether a doc is warranted" rule) there is nothing to enrich; offer option 1 instead, which can plan interactively from the conversation. For a quicker plan-then-decide flow, pick option 1.
3. Pressure-test the requirements - Dispatch reviewer agents with ce-doc-review to find gaps, conflicts, weak premises, and scope issues in the requirements; auto-apply safe fixes in the artifact's native format; route the rest interactively. Shown only when a unified plan exists and no remaining question meets Interaction Rule 7. When Prototype a remaining feel-question is shown, omit this option from the same menu.
4. Prototype a remaining feel-question - Invoke ce-prototype on a named remaining question that meets Interaction Rule 7. Shown only when such a question remains. A visual-probe question that already settled fails this predicate. The option description names the proposed slice. When this option is shown, omit Pressure-test the requirements from the same menu.
5. Open in browser — open the HTML unified plan locally for review. Shown only when a unified plan exists. **Render only when OUTPUT_FORMAT=html**, unless references/publishing.md chooses a publisher (one the user named, or the host's artifact tool); then label this option with that destination, e.g. Publish a copy to <destination>, render it for any format the destination accepts, and publish a copy there instead of opening the file locally.
6. More clarifying questions to sharpen the scope - Keep refining scope, edge cases, constraints, and preferences through further dialogue. Always shown — so the label names the scope rather than the doc, which stays true on a run that correctly skipped doc creation.

There is no "done" / "pause" option — the blocking question already waits, and the user ends by dismissing it (Esc) or saying they're finished. When a file was written, the unified plan artifact is already saved; on the chat path there is no file and nothing to save.

Post-review nudge (subsequent rounds only): If the user has already run ce-doc-review this session and residual P0/P1 findings remain unaddressed, add a one-line prose nudge adjacent to the menu (e.g., "Document review flagged 2 P1 findings you may want to address — pick \"Pressure-test the requirements\" to run another pass."). Reference the option by label, not number: the menu renumbers when Resolve Before Planning hides Create the implementation plan and the lfg option, so a hardcoded option number can point users at the wrong action. Do not add a separate menu option; reuse the existing Pressure-test the requirements option. Suppress this nudge whenever that option is not on the rendered menu — when Prototype a remaining feel-question displaced it — so the nudge never points users at an action they cannot pick.

4.2 Handle the Selected Option

Selections may be the literal option label (when the user types the label or a close paraphrase) or the option number. Match numbers against the currently-rendered (post-trim) list. Free-form input that doesn't match an option or describe an alternative action should be treated as clarification — ask a follow-up rather than guessing.

If user selects "Create the implementation plan":

Immediately load the ce-plan skill in the current session. Pass the unified plan artifact path when one exists; otherwise pass a concise summary of the finalized brainstorm decisions. When the Phase 1.1 grounding scout produced a dossier and the file still exists, also pass its path (<scratch-root>/ce-brainstorm/<run-id>/grounding.md) — it gives planning verified quotes with file:line pointers to start from instead of re-scanning the repo. Do not print the closing summary first.

If user selects "Pressure-test the requirements":

Load the ce-doc-review skill, passing the unified plan path as the argument. When ce-doc-review returns "Review complete", return to the Phase 4 options and re-render the menu (the requirements may have changed, so re-evaluate Resolve Before Planning, the software-only condition on the lfg option, and residual findings). If residual P0/P1 findings remain unaddressed, include the post-review nudge above the menu. Do not show the closing summary yet.

**If user selects "Ship it autonomously with lfg":**

Immediately invoke the lfg skill in the current session via the platform's skill-invocation primitive, passing the unified plan artifact path as its argument so lfg's ce-plan step enriches this requirements-only artifact in place rather than bootstrapping a new plan. lfg then runs the full pipeline autonomously — plan, implement (ce-work in return-to-caller mode), simplify, independent code review and applied fixes, commit/push/open PR, and CI watch to green. Do not also load ce-work directly; lfg orchestrates it. lfg is host-agnostic: it works wherever skills run (plus git/gh for the PR and CI steps, which it guards when absent).

Where the host exposes no skill-invocation primitive, print the lfg <plan-path> invocation for the user to run and note that it will plan, build, review, and open a PR from this artifact.

Do not print the closing summary first.

If user selects "More clarifying questions to sharpen the scope": Return to Phase 1.3 (Collaborative Dialogue) and continue asking the user clarifying questions one at a time to further refine scope, edge cases, constraints, and preferences. Continue until the user is satisfied, then return to Phase 4. Do not show the closing summary yet.

If user selects "Prototype a remaining feel-question":

Invoke the ce-prototype skill via the host's normal skill-invocation mechanism, passing the unified plan artifact path when one exists — the exact plan artifact path returned by the write step (including any collision suffix), never one rebuilt from the naming convention. Do not build a prototype in this skill. Do not substitute a generic Task, Agent, or subagent.

If user selects "Open in browser" or "Publish a copy": Read references/publishing.md and follow it for the saved unified plan; that file stays the record. Show the user the resulting URL or absolute path, then return to the Phase 4 options so the user can pick a follow-up action.

If the user indicates they're finished (says "done"/"that's all", or dismisses the menu without picking an option): display the closing summary (see 4.3) and end the turn.

4.3 Closing Summary

Use the closing summary only when this run of the workflow is ending or handing off, not when returning to the Phase 4 options.

In both templates below, substitute <absolute path to unified plan> with the actual file path written this run — .md for OUTPUT_FORMAT=md, .html for OUTPUT_FORMAT=html. Do not emit a hardcoded .md path when the artifact is HTML, or the closing summary will point users at a file that was never written.

When complete and ready for planning, display:

Brainstorm complete!

Plan artifact: <absolute path to unified plan>  # omit line if no artifact was created

Key decisions:
- [Decision 1]
- [Decision 2]

Recommended next step: `ce-plan <plan artifact path>`  # with no artifact: `ce-plan` with the key decisions above as its input

If the user pauses with Resolve Before Planning still populated, display:

Brainstorm paused.

Plan artifact: <absolute path to unified plan>  # omit line if no artifact was created

Planning is held on:
- [Blocking question 1]
- [Blocking question 2]

Resume with `ce-brainstorm` to resolve these — or say to plan anyway, and I'll record each open item as an explicit assumption or a question deferred to planning.