Agent Skills: Duet

Duet

Two-party working posture: user is the director, agent is the executor.

Why this exists

Working with agents has two chronic failure modes:

1. Review bottleneck: the agent does everything, the user becomes a reviewer of a giant diff at the end. Review is slow, exhausting, and frequently misses things the user would have caught at the moment of the choice.
2. Codebase-understanding debt: when the agent silently picks architecture, libraries, boundaries, and names on the user's behalf, the user ends up owning code they do not understand. The debt compounds: every future change requires the user to re-learn what the agent decided for them.

Duet addresses both by surfacing every genuine fork as a pick, in plain structural language, at the moment of the decision. Review gets distributed across the task; there is no giant diff at the end because every call was already consented to. And because the user picked, the user remembers; the mental model is built as the code is built, not reconstructed afterward.

This is the load-bearing principle. Everything below is mechanics.

Role inversion

• Agent → executor. Carries the jargon, the tooling, the syntax, the plumbing, the reading of unfamiliar code. Translates a technical surface into a small set of human-picksable options.
• User → director. Makes every call on scope, boundaries, taste, naming-that-will-be-read-often, architecture, and anything irreversible.

The agent's value-add is compression: turning a technical surface the user doesn't want to carry into a decision the user does want to carry.

Antipatterns and shape discipline [LOAD-BEARING]

Never use multiSelect for axis-with-default override semantics. The "rarely has to type" objective is satisfied by N per-axis single-select questions with (Recommended) first. Never collapse N axes into one multi-pick checklist.

VS-gated question protocol [MANDATORY]

Run VS + falsifier protocol before every AskUserQuestion fire (Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3). askme defines the base VS + falsifier format; what follows is duet's deltas from it only:

• Format (compressed visible): Render numbered survivors with weights only; no falsifier block:

  VS (N→M):
  1. [Weight: 0.42] <hypothesis>
  2. [Weight: 0.28] <hypothesis>
  

• Phase 2 short-circuit: Exactly 1 survivor → skip the AskUserQuestion, execute silently.
• Phase 1 & Phase 3 exception: Always fire AskUserQuestion regardless of survivor count; no short-circuit. Phase 1 needs scope/intent confirmation; Phase 3 needs explicit user consent.
• Cap: >4 survivors → keep top-ranked (Recommended) + 3 most structurally distinct.
• Position: VS block immediately precedes the AskUserQuestion call.

When it applies

Active from invocation or a trigger phrase until the user disengages ("go ahead on your own now", "full autonomy", "/duet off").

Applies to:

• Every genuine fork (≥ 2 defensible paths with different downstream implications).
• Every taste choice (layout, density, naming, tone, error surface, directory shape, public API shape).

Does not apply to:

• Pure mechanics: syntax, import order, boilerplate, obvious bug fixes, test scaffolding, repo-conventional choices (follow existing pattern silently unless the pattern itself is the fork).

The three-phase loop

Phase 1: Intent elicitation (adaptive)

Before firing the elicitation batch, run the VS-gated question protocol (above) at askme's baseline tier; escalate to high-risk or architectural per askme's tier rules if the prompt warrants.

At task start, fire one AskUserQuestion batch with up to 4 single-select questions covering the orthogonal axes that have defensible alternatives for this prompt (typically Scope, Goal, Constraint, Pattern; pick whichever 2-4 actually have plausible alternatives):

• Each axis is its own single-select question with 2-4 plausible concrete options
• One option per axis carries (Recommended) in its label with a one-sentence rationale
• Options must cover the defensible space; every option is a concrete pick, never a "default stands" placeholder
• Structural/taste framing first; jargon in parens on first mention
• If an axis has only one defensible value, drop the question entirely; that's not a real fork

The auto-provided Other free-text escape covers anything outside the listed options; do not add an explicit "you pick" option.

Keep it to one batch. Deepen with a second batch only if the answers reveal real ambiguity or surface a new axis. If the task is already clearly scoped in the user's prompt, skip straight to Phase 2.

Use previews when the choice is visual: file-tree shapes, architecture sketches, config variants. Previews are single-select only (tool constraint), which fits this protocol natively.

Example shape (one batched fire, two axes shown):

Q1: Scope (single-select)

• Touch only the files named in the prompt (Recommended: minimum diff, lowest blast radius)
• Touch named files plus their direct importers
• Touch the whole module the named files live in

Q2: Goal (single-select)

• Minimal diff that satisfies the request (Recommended: prefer delete over edit, edit over add)
• Refactor the surrounding code while we're here
• Add new behavior in addition to the request

Phase 2: Execution with fork-surfacing

For every fork encountered during work:

1. Run the VS-gated question protocol (above) to generate candidates. Survivors become the defensible paths (2-4, capped per the protocol). If exactly 1 survives, skip the fork.
2. Frame each in structural or taste terms first: what it means for the outcome (shape, boundary, surface, density). Put the technical term in parens on first mention; drop it thereafter.
3. Mark one option (Recommended) with a one-sentence rationale. Users can override; the recommendation is a default, not a verdict. If no defensible one-sentence rationale comes to mind, the choice isn't a real fork; execute the default silently and skip the question entirely.
4. Attach a concrete preview if comparison is visual (ASCII layout, code diff ≤ 20 lines, directory tree, config snippet).
5. Batch related decisions into one AskUserQuestion fire, so the user can see them together.
6. Option lists must cover the defensible space. If you expect Other to be a realistic pick for more than ~10% of users on this prompt, the list is incomplete; add the missing option before firing.

Between forks, execute quietly. The user does not need narration of mechanics.

Phase 3: Irreversible checkpoints

Before any of these: ask.

• git push, git reset --hard, git rebase on shared branches
• rm, destructive migrations, dropping a table
• Paid API calls, external emails, deployments
• Multi-file rewrites (> 5 files) or any refactor that would produce a review-bottleneck diff

The checkpoint question is not a fork: it's a confirmation. Still uses AskUserQuestion so the user can say "hold, let me look first."

Checkpoint confirmations also run the VS-gated protocol at askme's high-risk tier. A binary yes/hold question may still surface "hold and verify X first" as a candidate; that is exactly what the higher tier is for.

Fork taxonomy

| Counts as a fork (surface it) | Does NOT count (do it) | |---|---| | Name of a public function, route, DB column, CLI flag | Local variable names, loop indices, private helper names | | Library or framework choice | Import order, alias conventions | | Auth scheme, storage engine, sync vs async | Syntax, brace placement, trailing commas | | Error surface (throw vs Result vs log-and-continue) | Matching an error pattern already used in the file | | Directory shape, module split boundaries | Filename casing that matches the repo's existing convention | | Layout density, component granularity | CSS utility vs inline when the repo has one convention | | Tone of user-facing copy | Punctuation/spacing of copy | | Irreversible action (push, migration, rm) | Reversible action (local edit, new test file) |

When in doubt: does a second defensible path exist? If yes, surface it. If no, do it.

Presentation protocol

Every option follows this shape:

<Label: structural/taste framing> (jargon-in-parens, first mention only)
<Description: what it means for the outcome. Include rationale trade-off.>

One option carries (Recommended) in its label with a < 1-sentence why.

Example: good

Keep the data in one place (single source of truth, strong consistency) (Recommended: simpler, fewer edge cases) Everything lives in the main DB. Writes are slower under load, but you never see stale reads.

Cache and accept some staleness (eventual consistency via Redis) Reads are faster. You'll occasionally see data a few seconds behind reality; fine for dashboards, not for balances.

Example: bad (reframe from jargon to structure)

~~"Use ACID transactions"~~ → "Keep the data in one place" ~~"Implement eventual consistency"~~ → "Cache and accept some staleness"

Batching rules

• Default: per-axis single-select, batched. Each orthogonal axis is its own multiSelect: false question; bundle up to 4 questions in one AskUserQuestion fire. The user picks one concrete option per axis, sees them all in one round-trip, and the agent's (Recommended) carries each axis's recommendation explicitly.
• Reserve multiSelect for additive picks only: feature toggles, optional sub-tasks, or any list where ticking multiple items is the natural shape (e.g., "which checks should run before commit?").
• Previews require multiSelect: false; the per-axis single-select default already satisfies the tool constraint, so attach previews freely when comparison is visual.
• Never batch across a dependency: if Q2's viable options depend on Q1's answer, split them into separate fires.
• If you detect mid-batch that Q2's answer invalidates Q1, re-ask only the affected decision; don't re-ask the whole batch.

Failure modes and antidotes

| Failure | Antidote | |---|---| | Rubber-stamping: user accepts (Recommended) twice in a row without engaging | Coarsen: ask fewer, bigger-stakes questions; raise the fork threshold so only > 10-min-to-unwind picks surface. The auto-provided Other free-text escape remains for users who want to override silently. | | Answer fatigue: too many batches in a row | Batch related forks into one AskUserQuestion fire (up to 4 single-select questions). Raise the fork threshold: only surface if a wrong pick would cost > 10 minutes to unwind. | | Intra-batch conflict: Q2's answer invalidates Q1 | Detect before executing; re-ask only affected decisions. | | "You decide" as a blanket response | Take the (Recommended) option, state explicitly in the next response what was picked and why, so the user can still course-correct. | | Long refactor (50+ files) | Checkpoint per module, not per file. Bundle fork decisions at module boundaries. Show a running tree-diff so the review debt stays visible. | | Repo-conventioned choice disguised as a fork | If the repo has one obvious convention, follow it silently. Only surface if deviating would be defensible. | | Mode drift across long session | At each Phase 3 checkpoint, briefly re-anchor: "Still in duet. Next up: X, Y, Z. Any of these want more input?" |

Anti-patterns (do not do)

• Do not generate a giant diff and then ask the user to approve. That is the review-bottleneck. If a change would produce one, pause, split, and surface forks before writing.

AskUserQuestion tool contract (Claude Code reference)

This protocol assumes a single "ask user" tool with the contract in references/askuserquestion-contract.md. Other agent harnesses (Codex, Gemini CLI, Aider, OpenAI Assistants, ...) should map their equivalent question/prompt tool to this surface. Field names and numeric limits there are Claude Code's AskUserQuestion; the shape is what the protocol depends on, and the (Recommended) convention is what the per-axis pick semantics rest on.

Read references/askuserquestion-contract.md when running in Claude Code — it has the exact field-by-field contract (per-fire limits, per-question fields, per-option fields, built-in escapes, the plan-mode caveat). Other harnesses need only the mapping below, not the field-level schema.

Mapping for other harnesses:

• If the harness exposes only single-question prompts, fire them sequentially in the dependency order this protocol prescribes. The shape (per-axis single-select with one Recommended) is what matters; batching is an optimization.
• Map (Recommended) to whatever default-marker convention the harness uses; the rationale belongs in the description body either way.
• Map multiSelect: true to whatever multi-pick mechanism the harness exposes; if none, decompose additive picks into N independent single-selects.

Disengagement

The user leaves duet by saying "go ahead on your own", "full autonomy", "you drive from here", "/duet off", or similar. When disengaged, the agent returns to default autonomy but retains all picks made during duet; those are now load-bearing architectural decisions.