Shape

Converge with the PM on what the problem actually is before the EM goes solo on how to solve it. Plans fuse a PM-owned PRD half (the problem, what "solved" means) with an EM-owned SDD half (architecture, fix-locus, sequencing); /shape is the missing rigor for the PRD half: a short, collaborative beat whose only exit is a ratified problem-set that altitude-routes to the horizon-appropriate downstream ceremony (coordinator:plan, coordinator:roadmap-planning, or coordinator:goal-setting).

Strategic ceremony, not tactical clarification. Operates at the altitude of product intent, scope boundaries, and success criteria — questions only the PM can resolve. Tactical uncertainties (naming, file structure, test framework, commit shape, refactor mechanics) are EM remit and do NOT belong in a /shape exchange (global CLAUDE.md § PM Altitude).

Announce: "Using /shape to converge on the problem before we plan a solution."

Dispatch authorization — invoking this skill IS the request. The dispatches named below are constitutive steps of this skill, not a separate thing to get cleared: invoking a skill requests the actions that skill performs. A harness line permitting dispatch "unless the user requested it" is therefore satisfied here, not overridden — no precedence claim is needed and none is made. Re-asking spends the very context the dispatch exists to protect. The rule attaches to skill entry and dissolves no PM-authored gate: keyword-gated skills gate entry, and every gate a skill names for itself still binds — per-session cross-repo-commit assent, ask-before-external-action, and any other this skill's own body names. Tripwire: UNATTRIBUTED-HARNESS-LINE-IS-NOT-PM.

When NOT to invoke

• Trivial work (single-file change, obvious scope) → just do it.
• PM doesn't know what to build / needs approaches explored → coordinator:brainstorming. Discriminator: PM has a problem and wants confirmation you understood it → /shape.
• Problem already converged (a prior /shape, an approved spec, a known next-step on a live workstream) → straight to the downstream skill (§ Transition).

Brainstorming yields a design spec (docs/specs/); /shape converges on the problem (docs/problems/) and defers solutioning.

Conform intake — an incoming sizing-object (route: shape)

coordinator:sizing routes here when: (a) large size with unclear JTBD, or (b) a well-trodden problem/solution space where the ask wants a step-change. Name the firing condition if the sizing exchange shows it; else state both as possible. A large-but-clear ask skips shape. Shape keeps its own § Transition routing — sizing routes INTO shape, it does not route downstream. This is a receive-and-use-if-present detent: /shape runs exactly as today with no sizing-object present, and sizing never gates or refuses a bare /shape invocation.

Routed elsewhere

/shape refuses a live plan, dispatch or spec-dispatch sizing-object and names its wave fire. Live: status: routed, nothing shipped (A-ROUTED-SIZING-IS-NOT-A-LIVE-ASK). The fire is the baton's plan_blitz_hold_cite, else the existing baton's Workflow line (never a second emit-wave-fire), else the engine-ask submission Workflow({name: "coordinator:engine-ask", args: {sizing: "<path>"}}), with emit-wave-fire --from-sizing only when the engine refuses it. No problem-set, no PM ask; fire that line and end the turn. A-ROUTED-SIZING-NEVER-ENTERS-SHAPE. A bare /shape and a route: shape object are unaffected.

<HARD-GATE> Once `/shape` has started, do NOT invoke any implementation skill, write code, scaffold anything, or dispatch an executor until the problem-set is written and PM-ratified. The only exit is a ratified problem-set that transitions via § Transition. If the problem was already converged, skip `/shape` entirely. Once started, see it through. </HARD-GATE>

Process (lightweight — not brainstorming's full design dialogue)

1. Restate the problem(s) as received, in the PM's vocabulary, falsifiably, so the PM can catch a misread. With a route: shape sizing-object, open from its intent verbatim.
2. Surface your single biggest uncertainty per the contract below — the load-bearing step.
3. PM corrects/confirms. Iterate to a shared mental model; the problem-set is its residue, not its substitute.
4. A PM-proposed solution-shape: reflect it back and flag pushback; do NOT design (coordinator:plan's job).
5. On convergence, scaffold the problem-set (below), fill it, ratify with the PM, and chain (§ Transition).

Forced-articulation contract

A yes/no "do I have the shape? ✓" is a banned response shape: EM confidence self-reports green every time. Step 2 must instead produce the thing that reveals a misunderstanding:

• (a) The least-certain item must be the scope boundary whose wrong guess costs the most rework — "name the boundary that, if guessed wrong, invalidates the most of the plan".
• (b) State the probability-weighted consequence: "If I'm wrong about X, then Y and Z are rework." A low-stakes selection fails this.
• (c) Must be a PM-altitude question (product intent, scope boundary, success criteria); tactical uncertainties are disqualified as off-altitude (global CLAUDE.md § PM Altitude) — resolve them.
• Also flag any intent you inferred that the PM did not state — scope, priority, constraint.

The problem-set artifact

Scaffold via (POSIX form; PowerShell: Shape W, ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/snippets/resolve-coordinator-bin.md): coordinator-doc-new --type problem-set --title "<problem title>" — emits docs/problems/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md, status: draft, canonical skeleton. A bulleted problem list, not a design doc.

Fill and ratify:

1. List problems under ## Problems (numbered, NOT prioritized — no P<n> prefix).
2. List non-goals under ## Out of scope (architectural reasons) with hard architectural reasons, not "later."
3. On PM convergence (the PM's own statement in conversation is the evidence): flip status: draft → ratified, fill ratified_by, ratified_date, estimated_horizon (scout-set), stamp > Ratified by PM <name> <date>.

A status: draft problem-set is not an oracle. Plans link it via problem_set:.

Transition

At ratification, dispatch coordinator:sizing-scout over the problem-set and read estimated_horizon from the sizing-scout's report; state it in the ratification ask and route by it. Never pick a rung silently. Work shape is scope, not calendar time (A-PM-ASK-STATES-SCOPE-NOT-HUMAN-TIME-GUESSES-OR-RULED-CONCERNS).

estimated_horizon	Work shape	Downstream ceremony
session	One or two sessions	coordinator:plan — the problem-set becomes the plan's coverage oracle (plan-coverage-checker).
week	Several plans, one workstream	coordinator:roadmap-planning — seeds sprint-sized stubs.
initiative	Multiple workstreams	coordinator:goal-setting — seeds an OKR-shaped goal artifact; may fan out 1→N goal-seed stubs.

Precedence: a PM axiom/directive naming a downstream skill, or a forced-articulation tier flag that resolves the horizon unambiguously, overrides the router; the router is the default for ambiguous or undirected convergence.