Discuss Phase

Capture implementation decisions BEFORE planning. Produces a CONTEXT.md with locked decisions that /plan must honor.

When to Use

• Before /plan when the phase has ambiguities
• When starting a new phase in .planning/ROADMAP.md
• When the team needs to agree on approach before implementation

Process

Step 1: Load Phase Context

1. Read .planning/ROADMAP.md to identify the target phase
2. Read .planning/STATE.md for current position
3. If a phase number is provided as argument, use that
4. If no argument, use current phase from STATE.md

Step 2: Identify Gray Areas

Based on what the phase is building, identify 3-4 ambiguities:

Domain	Typical Gray Areas
UI/Frontend	Layout approach, interaction patterns, responsive behavior, state management
API/Backend	Response formats, error handling, auth strategy, data validation
Data/Storage	Schema design, migration approach, indexing strategy
Infrastructure	Deployment target, scaling approach, monitoring

Present them:

Phase [N]: [Name]

I've identified these areas that need decisions before planning:

1. **[Area 1]**: [Why this is ambiguous]
2. **[Area 2]**: [Why this is ambiguous]
3. **[Area 3]**: [Why this is ambiguous]

Which areas would you like to discuss? (or "all")

Step 3: Deep-Dive Questions

For each selected area, ask 3-4 probing questions using AskUserQuestion:

• Concrete choices (not abstract preferences)
• Trade-off acknowledgment
• Edge case handling
• Prior art / references

Step 4: Generate CONTEXT.md

Write to .planning/phases/{phase}/CONTEXT.md:

# Phase [N] Context: [Phase Name]

## Scope (from Roadmap)
[Copy from ROADMAP.md]

## Implementation Decisions

### [Area 1]
- **Decision**: [Concrete choice]
- **Rationale**: [Why this choice]
- **Trade-off**: [What we're giving up]

### [Area 2]
...

## Deferred Ideas
- [Idea mentioned but deferred to later phase]

---
*Locked on [date]. /plan must honor these decisions.*

Step 5: Update State

Update .planning/STATE.md to record that discussion is complete for this phase.

Without .planning/

If no .planning/ directory exists, /discuss still works:

• Ask what area/feature the user wants to discuss
• Run the same gray-area analysis and questioning
• Output to plans/discuss_[topic]_[date].md instead