Mirrored verbatim from utopia-models/knowledge _rules/research-and-clarify-before-producing.md by the allowlisted publish pipeline. Edit it there, not here.

name: research-and-clarify-before-producing
cases: [2026-10-22-planning-ask-gets-a-plan-research-and-questions, 2026-10-20-answer-then-wait-for-research-before-asking, 2026-09-29-act-before-research-questions-loop-runs, 2026-09-29-research-question-loop-recurred-after-correction-same-session, 2026-09-29-askuserquestion-named-explicitly-never-actually-used, 2026-10-03-interactive-step-3-keeps-the-step-2-loop, 2026-10-03-self-knowledge-answers-are-taken-in-not-mapped-to-roles, 2026-10-18-research-is-applied-visibly-and-deeply, 2026-10-17-interactive-work-runs-research-then-questions-then-changes, 2026-10-17-research-and-questions-are-step-2-in-both-modes, 2026-08-24-questions-before-research-clog-context-and-cause-drift, 2026-09-08-went-to-implementation-without-research-in-interactive-mode, 2026-08-24-implementing-during-step-2-is-not-planning, 2026-10-15-a-declined-card-or-interrupt-is-a-stop-derive-from-the-paste-and-act, 2026-10-20-answer-then-wait-for-research-before-asking, 2026-10-22-interactive-research-ends-in-his-confirmation-not-my-filing, 2026-10-23-asking-questions-after-every-research-round]
status: active
mechanism: posttooluse: plan-loop.sh (fleet-doctrine 0.94.0, knowledge#9839; was posttooluse-ask-loop.sh from 0.74.0) + the [ask-loop] line in userpromptsubmit-plan-issue.sh (fleet-doctrine 0.100.0, knowledge#10109; the no-questions close since 0.77.0, knowledge#8499) — injects only, never denies, never blocks a turn
last-recurrence: 2026-10-22
audience: agent

In step 2 and all interactive work: research what the last answer opened, then ask again — and produce nothing until Tyler presses "produce now".

Fires when

Tyler has just answered a card or corrected/rejected an artifact, and a brief, generate_* call or build is forming. The loop runs until he presses "produce now" (step 2: "file it, move to step 3") or says no questions (closes it on the spot, no card); an answer to any other option is the next research-then-ask, never permission to produce. The [ask-loop] OPEN line is this rule firing. 🔴 Describing a MODE: the loop is step 2 of EVERY plan, dispatch included; mode only decides who executes after step 3. In an interactive step 3 a correction reopens the loop the same turn (set "loop": "open" in ~/.claude/state/plan-issue/<sid> and delete ask-loop/<sid>.no-ask) — left closed it went silent for a day (2026-10-17).

Trigger detail (full text — kept out of the always-loaded bundle)

Tyler has just answered a card, or corrected/rejected an artifact, and the next move forming is a brief, a generate_* call or a build. The loop runs until he presses "produce now" (in step 2: "file it, move to step 3") or says no questions — that sentence closes the loop on the spot, with no card and no command; an answer to any other option is the next research-then-ask, never permission to produce. The [ask-loop] OPEN line on a turn is this rule firing. 🔴 Also when describing a MODE: the loop is step 2 of EVERY plan, dispatch included; the mode only decides who executes after step 3 — never sell a mode by the loop. In an interactive step 3 a correction reopens the loop in the same turn (set "loop": "open" in ~/.claude/state/plan-issue/<sid> and delete ask-loop/<sid>.no-ask); left closed, it went silent for a whole day of corrections (2026-10-17).

The rule

1. The loop. After every answered AskUserQuestion: dispatch background research on what the answer opened, WAIT for it to land (no card while it runs; the task-notification is the signal), read the findings and what the repo/fleet already holds, THEN end on the next card, which names the findings it was built from. Its LAST option is always "produce now". A card asked mid-research rests on your own prior (Tyler, 2026-10-20: "fucking WAIT for the research to land"; PLAN-397: 8 cards, 2 answered [No preference]). No Stop gate forces a card (the step-2 backstop retired in 0.94.0, ADR-9839).
2. The exit is his, and there are two. His press on "produce now" (or step 2's "file it, move to step 3"), or his saying no questions ("don't ask questions", "stop using the AskUserQuestion dialogue") — after which no turn in that session ends on a card. 🔴 A "no questions" said while Tyler is occupied ("I'm on the call stop asking questions", 2026-10-21) ends when he is back: his next message that asks for research, a change or a plan reopens the loop in that turn (set "loop": "open" in ~/.claude/state/plan-issue/<sid> and delete ask-loop/<sid>.no-ask). And a closed loop never licenses filing or dispatching: it only means no card ends the turn (2026-10-22, #9699 filed and #9700-9702 dispatched with the findings never put to him). "I have some relevant context", a card answered once, or research finishing is not the exit.
3. Research and a question are not substitutes. Research answers external facts ("what do real trailers look like"); a card answers what Tyler means ("what does TRAILER mean to you"). Research supplies a card's options; it never replaces the card.
4. A correction reopens the loop for every later production call in the session, not just the artifact type corrected. Reopen it by hand: set "loop": "open" in ~/.claude/state/plan-issue/<sid> and delete ask-loop/<sid>.no-ask.
5. In interactive mode the click that ends step 2 files issues but dispatches nothing — and research done AFTER filing is a new step 2 for whatever it proposes: findings first, his word second, filing third; never --dispatch on this branch (no --dispatch); step 3 keeps the same research-then-ask loop and building happens in passes with him, until he says to build (2026-10-03, PLAN-351).
6. When Tyler names a mechanism (AskUserQuestion, /anthropic-skills:deep-research, "background research"), that literal mechanism is required — not a similar one.

The carrier (P2 of PLAN-340, utopia-models/fleet-plugins#94)

• The loop's state is the loop key (open/closed) of the session's state file ~/.claude/state/plan-issue/<sid>; /plan-start (plan-open.sh open) writes loop: open (fleet-doctrine 0.100.0, knowledge#10109 — the mode-set.sh flag it replaced retired with the plan registry).
• 🔴 Tyler saying no questions closes it with no typed command (knowledge#8499). userpromptsubmit-plan-issue.sh reads his prompt, writes loop: closed and ask-loop/<sid>.no-ask; while that marker exists nothing reopens the loop except doing so on purpose — set "loop": "open" in ~/.claude/state/plan-issue/<sid> and delete ask-loop/<sid>.no-ask. Until then the only exits needed a card on screen or a command, so "don't ask questions" was answered by a line saying ask again.
• userpromptsubmit-plan-issue.sh adds the [ask-loop] OPEN — research, then ask… line to every user turn while the loop is open in a project-bound session.
• plan-loop.sh (PostToolUse on AskUserQuestion; knowledge#9839) reads tool_response.answers while the loop is open: any answer but an exit ("produce now", "file it, move to step 3") injects dispatch research on what this answer opened, then ask again; an exit — or an empty, declined or interrupted card — writes loop: closed and says file or produce now; then both hooks go silent.
• Neither hook ever denies a call or blocks a turn from ending — Tyler, 2026-09-29: "The stop hook gate gets annoying honestly, want a different solution."
• Live check: bash _infra/scripts/mechanism-liveness.sh plan-loop.sh.

Cost when it fired

PLAN-337 (dev.tyleryouk.com rebuild), transcript ~/.claude/projects/-home-kxdev/001d1d4e-ceed-4045-8831-f582ac458cbd.jsonl on the Architect's laptop host (ETH kxdev), measured 2026-09-30. Five misses: a brief written from judgment while research ran; a video generated from it ("a fucking windows screensaver background bullshit video"); an inline investigation after "BACKGROUND RESEARCH!!!!"; three more videos before the 20:23Z correction ("You have not asked a single question, and when you do, you just stop"); and a fifth — a card answered at 20:59Z, then six generate_video calls at 21:00Z. Questions were asked (27 cards from 2026-09-28 19:45Z, 10 of them dated 2026-09-28 on the box's clock) — each was followed by production instead of the next card. This rule sat in _rules/rules/, which no bundle globbed, so no session loaded it until #8188.