vawe-brief: the interview, then the brief

When you talk to the person, use plain words: describe what the viewer sees, not the harness terms (map: harness/lib/plain-words.mjs). Run this skill inside a vawe checkout: AGENTS.md, taste/ and bin/vawe live there. With no checkout, get one: git clone https://github.com/vawe-hq/vawe.git && cd vawe && npm install && bin/vawe-dev doctor.

A better film comes from a better prompt, and a better prompt comes from asking the person for the details a thin request leaves out. This skill runs that interview once, at the start, and writes the brief. Ask only for missing details while you write it. Once the Board is filled, show the plan and end with "If you like it, type /vawe-approve".

0. Ask for the details

bin/vawe new <name> --request "<the ask>" --questions-json

This writes nothing. It prints the open details as calls, each call at most 4 questions in the shape of the AskUserQuestion tool (required details first). The list is DETAILS in harness/lib/measured-brief.mjs; do not keep a copy. Call AskUserQuestion once per call, in order, with that call's questions as given. Map each answer (the chosen label without "(Recommended)", or the "Other" text) to a key: value line in an answers file, the key being the header in lower case. Then run the answer_with command:

bin/vawe new <name> --request "<the ask>" --answers <file>

If the person answers "you decide", or no person is there (hill-climb, CI), run bin/vawe new with --defaults instead: it guesses each open detail and names which.

When the request is thin, add one more call before the answers file: offer 2 or 3 ideas for the key beat as one AskUserQuestion question (each idea is an option with its device and a one-line description, the least typical one marked Recommended). Make the ideas with guides/IDEATE.md; the pick goes in the film's film row of the brief's ## Ideas table.

1. Pick the template

guides/ROUTING.md maps the request to a film type and a prompts/<t>.md. Two rules of thumb: a real product from a URL is brand-launch-from-url; a song that exists is music-video-beat-synced; a reference mp4 is reference-rebuild; no brief at all is showreel-one-liner. Under 15 s most types are one continuous action.

2. Start the film

bin/vawe new <name> --from prompts/<t>.md --answers <file>

It prints the template's question bank (five questions, each with its default and its reason, in the order they change the film) and writes films/<name>/brief.md with every default filled in and marked [unanswered: default taken], and the measured-brief sections with guesses marked (guess: change me).

Before you fill the directions, read taste/build/DIGEST.md: one thread, three materials, a hero that is not an attractor. Show the three to the person with bin/vawe frame <page> --directions (one board, the same lines per direction), then write picked:.

3. Template questions

The template's bank is for what step 0 did not cover. Do not ask it again: take each default. Replace each marker with the answer or keep the default and delete the marker. Never reopen a question; a wrong default is fixed at the critique.

4. Write the brief

brief.md already has the measured brief's shape (prompts/ANATOMY.md): task, directions, look, spec, acceptance, gates, pitfalls, deliver. Every field the request did not answer holds a guess marked (guess: change me). Replace each guess with a number:

• look: hex for ground, ink and accent, typeface and weight, cap height as a percent of frame height.
• spec: the Shots, Words and Objects tables (times in seconds, positions as a percent of the frame). Start a 20 to 30 s film from a RECIPES.md chain, and turn its invent row into the film's own moment.
• acceptance: pre-filled; keep the rows, fill the measured value after each draft.

A director's brief (a music video, a story) may leave the tables to the first draft; it keeps task, acceptance and gates (prompts/ANATOMY.md, "When a director's brief wins").

5. Name the first draft

End the interview turn with the one next command:

bin/vawe dev films/<name>/page.html

Then load vawe-page to write the page, and vawe-critique in a fresh session to look at it.

Gotchas

• A default is a real value, never "ask again". If a template default does not fit, say the value you took and why, in the brief.
• Ask each unanswered detail once, in one message. The next step is the draft, not a second round.
• A brief with no anchor in its direction reads as a template; name the genre or the reference.
• films/<name>/brief.md is a per-film artefact, not doctrine.