The nine curated documents are the reviewed account of the operation, not a required nine-step interview. Local AI should present a recommended direction across them, build an early prototype when it makes the workflow easier to understand, and let the owner correct the proposal by exception.
Review all nine documents
The seeded docs/discovery/ workspace covers:
- goals and success
- actors and responsibilities
- workflows and exceptions
- domain data and rules
- integrations and boundaries
- experience and interface
- quality, security, and operations
- decisions, risks, and open questions
- acceptance scenarios
Use the exact templates seeded into the repository. The sidebar shows every document's lifecycle and opens the corresponding file.
Review the recommendation, not nine questionnaires
The assistant should present one concise review map covering the proposed outcome, roles, workflow, records, integrations, experience, operating constraints, material risks, acceptance direction, and unresolved questions. Ask for corrections, exceptions, or a deeper look at a particular document.
If a prototype exists, open its README.md with Markdown: Open Preview to the Side. Then right-click its index.html and choose Open in Integrated Browser. Review the illustrated companion and working states side by side. Prototype corrections must flow into every affected curated document.
An explicit instruction to continue may confirm unchallenged material that was actually presented in the review map and prototype walkthrough. It does not confirm hidden extrapolations, uninspected sources, or unshown behavior. The assistant must identify the documents covered by any aggregate acceptance and still create a separate exact-path checkpoint for each one.
Work source-first and resolve conflicts
Ask Codex or Copilot to cite the local source paths behind material findings and to call out conflicts instead of smoothing them over. Interview the owner where source material is missing or ambiguous.
The curated documents take precedence over supporting sources during server generation. If a source contradicts the reviewed position, update the curated document to explain the resolved decision, limitation, or remaining open question.
Use NOT_APPLICABLE deliberately
Every curated document must be reviewed or explicitly marked NOT_APPLICABLE. Use that state only when the whole document genuinely does not apply, and record the justification the template requests. Do not use it to avoid unresolved work.
Draft, placeholder, empty, stale, or unresolved documents block package preparation.
Understand Git checkpoints
The discovery assistant commits as it goes. It creates narrowly scoped local checkpoints after opening answers change document drafts, after the initial cross-document recommendation, and after meaningful owner corrections. Prototype work receives separate checkpoints for its own directory. Raw sources and unrelated working-tree changes are never included.
After each document is formally reviewed, the assistant still creates a final exact-path local Git checkpoint for that reviewed file and its managed review state. This preserves the stronger review boundary without leaving all earlier synthesis in one large uncommitted change.
If the exact path already contains conflicting uncommitted changes or Git cannot commit, the review remains visible but the extension reports the checkpoint problem. Resolve it without discarding unrelated work. Deep Discovery never pushes commits.
Before continuing, confirm that all nine rows show reviewed or justified not-applicable status and that important open questions are recorded rather than hidden.
Continue with Prepare and authorize the Discovery Package.