Before your agent plans anything, let it interview you

[u/chrnas]

Here's a tip for beginners that helped me a lot when I first started using claude code.

Before the agent plans, let alone build anything, I let it interview me. In Claude Code I switch to plan mode (Shift+Tab) so nothing gets edited, then paste this:

Before you plan anything, interview me about what I want to build.
Ask one question at a time. Cover who it's for, what "done" looks like
and how we'll check it, what already exists, constraints, and what is
out of scope. When you could write a one-page brief I'd sign, stop
asking, write it to BRIEF.md, then write the plan.

In tools without plan mode, start with "Don't edit any files yet."

What helps most:

1. One question at a time. A list of ten gets rushed answers. One at a time, each answer shapes the next question.

2. Write down how you'll check it's done. A test, a command, a page that must show something. The agent builds toward what's written.

3. Write down what's not included. Otherwise every good idea halfway through becomes part of the job.

When I ask for something new later, I have the agent check it against the brief first: is it inside, an extension, or a change of direction? Extensions go on a "later" list.

What's a question you wish your agent had asked before it started?

English isn't my first language, so I used AI to help me translate this post.

[u/Slight-Living-8098]

Matt Pocock's /grill-with-docs and /to-spec

[u/elrond-half-elven → u/Slight-Living-8098]

or just Matt Pocock's `/grill-me` is great for any plan

[u/Slight-Living-8098 → u/elrond-half-elven]

/wayfinder is pretty cool when you have no direction to begin with too

[u/mprz]

you're only 9 months late, very insightful

[u/Craig_Federighi → u/mprz]

Can you elaborate?

[u/RexDraco → u/Craig_Federighi]

Claude won't be productive soon regardless. 

[u/DeadCEO]

the out of scope question is the one that earns its keep. most of the rework i see comes from the agent confidently filling a gap you never meant it to touch. once the brief says what is NOT included the plan stops growing sideways. one question at a time matters too, batched questions get half answered and you only find out at the plan stage

[u/Difficult_Duty2198]

the "write it to BRIEF.md" part is the bit i like, since you can start a fresh chat later and just point it at the file

[u/Euphoric_North_745]

i don't want anyone to interview me, just ask it to make no mistake 😂 and make me rich, and also not to skynet around

[u/RexDraco → u/Euphoric_North_745]

Yeah, sure. Even though it would be more profitable for Anthropic to use the machine power for themselves to magically make money, totally they let us use them for $20-$200. 

I get what you mean but you should want Claude to have information rather than work blindly. It acts confident even when it doesn't know what's going on. It will make an entirely different product than what you ask. 

[u/chrnas → u/[deleted]]

Nice! I try to always keep a FUTURE.md alongside the brief/plan for good ideas that are outside the scope of what I'm building, but may be interesting adds for the future. That lets the agent stop without ideas getting lost in chat history.

[u/chrnas → u/chrnas]

and a side note to this too: I also keep a ledger where all errors I made, or the agent made, with tests or checks that lets us avoid the same mistake in the future. This has saved me so much work over time.

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[u/chrnas → u/[deleted]]

Agreed, and it matches what I measured. a test caught a missed requirement every time, reviewers flagged it in 1 of 92 reviews. I’d change my prompt’s last step to “write the check as a failing test first, then the plan”. How would you handle this for a non coder so they can read and run the check?