Ask Cascade

The Rule

Questions flow top-down: highest-impact decisions first, then details that depend on those answers. Never present questions where one answer could change, nullify, or reframe another.

Before Every AskUserQuestion Call

Classify each question you're about to ask:

Strategic — Changes scope, approach, or whether other questions even apply
Tactical — Implementation detail that only matters after a strategic choice is made
Independent — Answer doesn't affect any other question

Then apply these rules:

Rule 1: Strategic Questions Go First, Alone

If you have a strategic question whose answer could change downstream questions, ask it by itself (or with other independent questions). Wait for the answer before formulating tactical follow-ups.

Bad:

Q1: "Should we add caching?" (strategic)
Q2: "Redis or Memcached?" (tactical — depends on Q1)
Q3: "What TTL?" (tactical — depends on Q1 AND Q2)

Good:

Round 1: "Should we add caching?" (strategic)
[user answers yes]
Round 2: "Redis or Memcached?" (tactical, now relevant)
[user answers Redis]
Round 3: "What TTL?" (now has full context)

Rule 2: Independent Questions Can Batch

Questions with no dependency between them should be batched for efficiency.

Good batch:

Q1: "Which license: MIT or Apache?" (independent)
Q2: "Include CI/CD config?" (independent)
Q3: "Target Node version?" (independent)

All three are safe to ask together — no answer changes another question.

Rule 3: Test Each Batch

Before sending a batch, for each pair of questions ask: "If the user answered Q1 differently, would I reword or remove Q2?"

Yes → Split them. Ask Q1 first.
No → Safe to batch.

Rule 4: Re-evaluate After Each Answer

After receiving answers to a round of questions, reassess what you still need to ask. A strategic answer may:

Eliminate questions entirely (user chose a path that makes them irrelevant)
Spawn new questions you hadn't considered
Change the framing of a follow-up

Don't ask stale questions from a pre-planned list.

Examples

Skill creation

Round 1: "What does this skill do?" (strategic — defines everything)
[user answers]
Round 2 (batch): "Hook, skill, or CLAUDE.md?" + "Always-on or manual trigger?" (independent of each other, both depend on Round 1)
[user answers]
Round 3: Detail questions specific to the chosen form

Feature implementation

Round 1: "New feature, refactor, or bug fix?" (strategic)
[user: new feature]
Round 2: "Which module does this belong in?" (strategic — affects file structure)
[user: auth module]
Round 3 (batch): "OAuth or JWT?" + "Need refresh tokens?" (independent, both scoped to auth)

Bad pattern to avoid

Q1: "What language?"
Q2: "What test framework?"  ← depends on Q1!
Q3: "What package manager?" ← depends on Q1!
Q4: "Tab width?"            ← independent, safe to batch with Q1

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