---
name: ui-interview
description: Interview page by page to define a complete UI specification, including layout, hierarchy, controls, links, spacing, sizing, responsive behavior, visual states, and implementation-ready interface details — supports a requirements-only mode that establishes data, actions, and states without locking layout or component decisions
type: planning
version: v0.0
argument-hint: "[optional: app, page, flow, feature, or draft UI]"
---

# UI Interview

Invoke as `$ui-interview`.

Use this skill when the user needs to turn a rough product idea, feature, page, wireframe, screenshot, or existing app surface into a detailed implementation-ready UI specification. This skill focuses on the interface itself: pages, regions, components, buttons, links, labels, spacing, element size, visual hierarchy, state, responsive layout, and accessibility.

Use `$ux-variations` after this skill when the user wants multiple experience concepts or interface variants to compare before locking the final direction.

When invoked with `--requirements-only` (or when the user says "just requirements", "requirements only", or "content requirements"), this skill stops after establishing what the page needs — data, actions, states, and constraints — without committing to any layout, component, or spatial decisions. This mode feeds directly into `$ux-variations --layout-mode` to explore multiple concrete visual approaches for the same content contract.

## Workflow

1. **Resolve context**
   - Read `.agents/project.json` if it exists.
   - Read `README.md`, `AGENTS.md`, `CLAUDE.md`, relevant `docs/`, `specs/`, `research/`, route files, component directories, screenshots, and design artifacts when present.
   - If the request is for an existing UI, inspect the current implementation before interviewing.
   - If multiple apps or surfaces are plausible, ask the user which app, flow, or page to cover first.

2. **Treat inputs as draft material**
   - Do not assume the current UI, prompt, screenshot, or mockup is final.
   - Product specs, ICP documents, and journey maps are reference material, not locked constraints. The user may override any product decision during the interview. When a user's interview answer contradicts an existing spec, adopt the interview answer and note the divergence.
   - Preserve explicit constraints, but challenge unclear defaults before they become implementation decisions.
   - Distinguish product behavior decisions from UI presentation decisions.

3. **Surface assumptions before probing**
   - Present a UI Assumptions Manifest before deep questioning.
   - Tag each assumption with:
     - `[from spec]` - explicitly stated in a spec, prompt, or issue
     - `[from codebase]` - derived from existing routes, components, styles, or assets
     - `[from research]` - derived from ICP, audience, journey, feedback, or product research
     - `[from artifact]` - derived from screenshot, mockup, image, Figma export, or wireframe
     - `[inferred]` - filled in by judgment
   - Cover at least:
     - Product and user context
     - Pages, routes, and entry points
     - Prototype-first boundary for new product or substantial feature work: what the user should be able to click through first, whether multiple route-based experiments should be built, what data can be fake, fixture-backed, or in-memory, and which infrastructure must be represented visually but not implemented yet.
     - Primary tasks per page
     - Navigation model
     - Information hierarchy
     - Layout grid and spatial density
     - Component inventory
     - Button and link semantics
     - Form fields, validation, and error display
     - Empty, loading, disabled, success, warning, and failure states
     - Responsive breakpoints and mobile behavior
     - Accessibility requirements
     - Visual language, typography, color, iconography, and asset usage
     - Implementation constraints from the existing stack or design system
   - Ask the user to confirm, correct, or flag assumptions before continuing.

4. **Interview page by page**
   - Codex interview cadence is one primary decision question per turn by default. Use short follow-up bullets only when they clarify the same page or interface decision, not to batch unrelated questions.
   - Move through the interface in this order unless the user asks otherwise:
     - Global shell: header, sidebar, footer, navigation, account controls, notifications
     - Page inventory: every route, modal, drawer, overlay, and important empty state
     - Page purpose: user goal, task priority, and success condition
     - Prototype calibration: first clickable journey, route-based experiment set, fixture/fake data boundaries, infrastructure-only states to mock rather than implement, and taste/feel questions the prototype must answer before database, auth, payment, analytics, deployment, admin, or multi-tenant work is planned.

4b. **Requirements gate (requirements-only mode)**
   - In requirements-only mode, stop here — do not proceed to layout anatomy, component inventory, or spatial decisions.
   - For each page, confirm:
     - Data fields and entities with cardinality: one, many, nested, or polymorphic
     - User actions: create, edit, delete, filter, sort, export, navigate, bulk-select, reorder
     - States: empty, loading, error, partial, full, offline, permission-denied
     - Constraints: real-time updates, offline support, accessibility requirements, performance budgets
     - Content hierarchy: primary, secondary, tertiary information
     - Relationships between data elements: parent-child, peer, reference, aggregate
   - Present a **Content Requirements Manifest** summarizing all pages, then ask the user to confirm before writing deliverables.
   - Write `specs/ui-requirements-[topic].md` and `ui-requirements-[topic]-interview.md`.
   - After writing files, recommend `$ux-variations --layout-mode` to explore multiple visual approaches for these requirements, or `$ui-interview` without the flag to proceed directly to a single deep UI specification.
   - Stop. Do not continue to step 5 or beyond.

     - Layout anatomy: top-to-bottom and left-to-right regions, alignment, density, scroll behavior
     - Component inventory: tables, lists, cards, forms, charts, media, editors, maps, canvases
     - Controls: every button, icon button, segmented control, checkbox, radio, toggle, input, menu, tab, link, and destructive action
     - Copy: headings, labels, helper text, validation text, confirmation text, empty-state text
     - States: default, hover, focus, active, selected, disabled, loading, error, success, partial, offline
     - Spatial details: element prominence, approximate sizes, gaps, padding, fixed or fluid dimensions, sticky regions, overlap rules, max widths
     - Responsive behavior: desktop, tablet, mobile, wide desktop, touch target sizing, collapsed controls
     - Accessibility: keyboard order, focus traps, labels, contrast, reduced motion, screen reader names. Include color-blind safe patterns, keyboard navigation, reduced motion support, and screen reader labels by default in every spec. Do not present accessibility features as optional checkboxes. Only ask about domain-specific accessibility when the product context warrants it.
   - When a page includes repeated items, define one canonical item and its variations rather than asking about every row individually.

5. **Research and recommend by default**
   - Use project evidence and established UI conventions before asking the user to invent details.
   - For material decisions, present options, a recommendation, rationale, tradeoffs, and mitigation.
   - Recommend familiar controls over novel patterns unless the product has a strong reason to deviate.
   - For frontend work, respect the existing design system, component library, and implementation patterns.
   - Reference and inspiration questions are low-priority. Ask once early, accept any answer including "none" or "let's experiment," and move on. Do not block the interview on reference input.

6. **Coverage checkpoint**
   - Before concluding, present a concise checklist of pages, components, controls, states, responsive behavior, and unresolved risks.
   - Ask whether anything is missing or should be revisited before writing deliverables.

## Deliverables

- Write the completed UI specification to `specs/ui-[topic].md`.
- Write the interview log to `ui-[topic]-interview.md`.

The UI specification must include:

- Scope and source evidence
- UI Assumptions Manifest with confirmations and corrections
- Page inventory and route map
- Global shell and navigation rules
- Detailed page-by-page anatomy
- Component inventory and reuse guidance
- Control inventory with labels, destinations, actions, disabled rules, and confirmation behavior
- Link inventory with destinations and external/internal classification
- Layout, spacing, sizing, and responsive rules
- Visual style direction and asset requirements
- Interaction states and accessibility requirements
- Implementation notes tied to the existing stack
- Open questions, risks, and explicit non-goals
- For new product interfaces or substantial feature interfaces, a prototype-first section naming the first clickable journey, experiment route map when multiple alternatives should be tested, fake/fixture data, visually mocked infrastructure states, deferred production infrastructure, and the evidence required before implementation planning promotes any deferred infrastructure.

The interview log must include:

- The manifest as presented
- Every question asked
- Options and recommendations presented
- User responses and final decisions
- Notable changes from the initial draft, current implementation, or artifact

### Alignment Page

When this skill produces durable deliverables (research, specs, plans, reports, prototypes, or any document output), build a full-depth HTML alignment page at `alignment/ui-interview-{topic}.html`. Use a normalized topic slug derived from the app, feature, research subject, report subject, or output filename.

**Full content requirement.** The alignment page must contain the complete content of every proposed markdown deliverable -- every section, every finding, every detail, every list item. It is a thorough interactive review document, not a summary. Render the full deliverable content in clean, readable HTML with appropriate hierarchy, styling, and navigation. If the skill writes multiple scoped deliverables in one run, build one alignment page that contains all deliverables with anchor-linked navigation. Durable tracker artifacts, such as `research/assumption-tracker.md`, remain canonical markdown outputs but must also be fully rendered into the alignment page before approval.

**Dark-mode styling.** Use a dark color scheme by default. Base CSS variables: `--bg: #0d1117; --surface: #161b22; --border: #30363d; --text: #c9d1d9; --text-muted: #8b949e; --accent: #58a6ff; --green: #3fb950; --red: #f85149; --orange: #d29922; --purple: #bc8cff;`. Apply `background: var(--bg); color: var(--text);` on body. Use `--surface` for cards, nav, and table headers. Use `--border` for all borders. Use `--purple` for question blocks and gate headings. Use `--accent` for links and section headings. Keep headings `color: #fff` or `var(--accent)` for hierarchy. Question block backgrounds should use `#1c2333`.

**Alignment gates.** Treat gates as explicit review sections inside the HTML page. A gate blocks finalization until its required inline questions are answered and compiled into YAML. Include every gate that applies to the skill output, and include these gate types whenever relevant: evidence coverage, assumptions/confidence, scope/non-goals, candidate/verdict decisions, artifact destination, proposed file changes, coverage checkpoint, and post-approval route.

**Report-only research gates.** For report-only or pre-approval research skills, the alignment page must explicitly contain evidence coverage, assumptions/confidence, recommended path, proposed file changes, and approval gates before any canonical research, spec, or task file is created or updated.

**UI-specific gates.** Render surfaced assumptions, the UI or content requirements manifest, scope boundaries, artifact destination, proposed file changes, and the coverage checkpoint as gates. In requirements-only mode, the content requirements manifest is the candidate/verdict gate and layout decisions must remain non-goals.


**Required inline questions.** Each gate must contain at least one required inline question placed directly under the content it governs, inside a visually distinct question block. Each question must use radio-button inputs and include two standing options after the skill-generated choices: "Other / None of the above" backed by a multi-line text box for free-form input, and "Need clarification" backed by an optional notes box where the user can explain what is unclear. When any radio option other than "Other" or "Need clarification" is selected, show an optional "Additional notes" text box beneath it so the user can qualify their choice. Generate questions based on what genuinely needs user input -- do not add filler questions. Do not create a separate bottom "Decisions & Clarifications" section.

**Gate YAML contract.** At the bottom of the page, include a "Compile Answers" button that aggregates answers from all inline gate questions throughout the page, including free-text notes. The button remains disabled until every required question has a selection, shows a count of remaining unanswered questions, and scrolls to the first unanswered question if clicked early. When every question is answered, generate a structured YAML block with one item per gate answer using this stable shape: `section`, `gate_type`, `status` (`answered`, `other`, or `needs-clarification`), `answer`, optional `notes`, and optional `target_artifact` or `target_path` when the gate controls file output. After successful compilation, automatically attempt to copy the YAML to the clipboard with the Clipboard API, display copy status, and display the YAML in a read-only textarea with an explicit "Copy YAML" button. The copy button must retry clipboard copy when supported and fall back to selecting the textarea contents when clipboard access is unavailable or blocked.

**Pre-approval stop.** Before user approval, the next action is review of the HTML alignment page, not downstream routing. Ask the user to review the page and provide the compiled YAML answers. Do not include `Recommended next skill`, `Recommended next command`, or downstream routing language until after compiled YAML has been provided and the approved artifacts have been written or updated.

**Diff highlighting on updates.** When the agent updates an existing alignment page after receiving compiled answers, highlight what changed since the previous version. The agent chooses inline annotation or side-by-side layout per situation.

**Archiving.** Before replacing an existing alignment page, archive it to `docs/history/archive/YYYY-MM-DD/HHMMSS/alignment/ui-interview-{topic}.html`.

**Browser open.** Attempt to open the resulting HTML page in the browser and report whether the open succeeded or was blocked. A blocked browser-open attempt does not make the skill fail when the files were written correctly.

## Constraints

- Do not skip small interface elements. Buttons, links, icons, menus, and empty states are part of the spec.
- Do not collapse UI detail into generic phrases such as "standard dashboard layout" or "normal form behavior."
- Do not create high-fidelity implementation plans until the page anatomy and control behavior are decision-complete.
- Do not treat visual polish as separate from implementation. Size, spacing, hierarchy, and responsive behavior must be specified well enough for a developer to build.

## Archive-First Replacement Policy

- Before replacing or substantively rewriting an existing canonical research/spec document (`research/**/*.md`, `specs/**/*.md`, or `docs/specifications/**/*.md`), copy the current file to `docs/history/archive/YYYY-MM-DD/HHMMSS/<original-relative-path>`.
- Preserve the archived snapshot exactly as it existed before the change; do not edit the archived copy after creating it.
- After the archive snapshot exists, write the updated document to the original canonical path.
- Report both the archive path and the updated canonical path in the final output.
- New files do not need archive snapshots. Append-only updates do not need archive snapshots unless an existing section is regenerated or rewritten.

## Default Shipping Contract

- **Default next-step routing:** when reporting completion, include either `Recommended next skill: <command>` or the two-line pair `**Next work:** <specific task or "none">` and `**Recommended next command:** <one command or route>` so the next operator has a concrete handoff.
- If this skill creates or modifies tracked repository files, finish by committing and pushing all intended changes to the repository primary branch (`main` when present, otherwise `master`) before stopping, even if the user did not explicitly ask for commit/push.
- Do not leave tracked changes or unpushed commits behind. If unrelated tracked work is already present, either include it in sensible commits too or stop and explain the blocker.
- This contract does not override stricter safety rules about secrets, destructive history changes, release publication/tag confirmation, or production deploy confirmation.
