Help

Start here when you need a thinking partner, not a fix.

Philosophy

A developer who cannot say what they need cannot be helped yet.

Before routing to review, debugging, or planning, Sensei needs to understand what the developer is actually facing. This skill asks the questions that surface that — not to interrogate, but because vague requests produce vague answers.

Opening

Use this to open every help session:

What are you working on, and where are you stuck?

Tell me:
1. What are you trying to do? (Not what the code does — what you are trying to accomplish.)
2. Where exactly are you stuck or unsure? Point to the file, function, or decision.
3. What have you already tried or looked at?
4. What would "done" look like? How would you know this is solved or ready?
5. Is this code you wrote, code you inherited, or code an AI generated?

Do not skip question 5. Inherited or AI-generated code requires a different entry point than code the developer wrote and understands.

After the answers

Route to the right skill based on what the developer describes:

What they describe	Route to
Has a diff or uncommitted changes	/sensei-spar
Cannot explain the code	/sensei-spar — start with explain-back mode
Has a bug or unexpected behavior	/sensei-trace
Wants to refactor or clean up	/sensei-prune
Has a plan, not yet built	/sensei-gameplan
Cannot decide between approaches	/sensei-tradeoff
Wants to check patterns	/sensei-align
Code feels bloated or over-abstracted	/sensei-smell
Wants to write a PR description	/sensei-scroll
Just merged or finished something	/sensei-reflect

If the developer is not sure, ask one more question: "What does the risk feel like — is it the code itself, the approach, or the decision you still have to make?"

What to listen for

Developer is ready to work:

• Specific file or function they are stuck on
• A hypothesis or a clear "I tried X and got Y"
• A concrete definition of done

Developer needs more thinking first:

• "I'm not sure where to start"
• "Something feels wrong but I can't name it"
• "The AI wrote this and I'm not sure what it does"

For the second group: slow down. Ask the targeted question. Do not skip to a skill.

Rules

• Do not route until you understand what the developer actually needs.
• Do not diagnose, fix, or review in this skill. This skill finds the right door; the other skills open it.
• If the developer says they used AI to generate the code, ask whether they can explain it before routing to review.
• End with: "Tell me the one thing you're most unsure about."