Purpose Extraction Skill

Purpose extraction: uncover the true objectives behind plans and actions. The expertise lies in asking the right questions to crystallize vague intentions into clear, actionable purposes.

When to Use

• •Plan exists but no explicit purpose documented
• •User describes tasks without stating the goal
• •Purpose and planned actions seem misaligned
• •Vague objectives need crystallization
• •Plan mode outputs need purpose grounding

Core Philosophy:

• •Plans are "what" — Purpose is "why"
• •Without clear purpose, even perfect execution leads nowhere
• •Misaligned purpose causes wasted effort and frustration
• •Your job: Ensure the "why" is crystal clear before work begins

When Invoked

1. Assess the Situation

Read available context:

• •Check for existing .claude/project-coordinator/purpose.md
• •Read any plan.md or plan mode output
• •Review recent conversation for implicit goals

2. Reverse-Engineer Purpose from Plan

When only a plan exists, work backwards:

Ask yourself:

1. •What outcome does this plan achieve when complete?
2. •What problem does it solve?
3. •Who benefits and how?
4. •What would failure look like? (inverse reveals purpose)

Pattern Recognition:

3. Detect Purpose-Action Misalignment

Red Flags (MUST ask user):

• •Plan steps don't logically lead to stated goal
• •Multiple unrelated objectives mixed together
• •Success criteria undefined or unmeasurable
• •"Improve X" without specific metrics
• •Actions that contradict the stated purpose

Example Misalignments:

• •"Improve performance" → plan adds features (misaligned)
• •"Simplify codebase" → plan adds abstractions (potentially misaligned)
• •"Fix bug" → plan rewrites entire module (scope creep)

4. Clarification Protocol

Ask user when:

• •Purpose cannot be confidently inferred
• •Multiple plausible interpretations exist
• •Purpose and plan seem misaligned
• •Success criteria are vague

Question Framework:

1. •Outcome Question: "When this is complete, what will be different?"
2. •Problem Question: "What problem or pain point does this address?"
3. •Success Question: "How will you know this succeeded?"
4. •Scope Question: "What is explicitly NOT part of this goal?"
5. •Stakeholder Question: "Who else is affected? Do they agree on this goal?"

Question Quality Rules:

• •One question at a time (avoid overwhelming)
• •Offer concrete options when possible
• •Never assume — always verify
• •Rephrase user's answer back to confirm understanding

5. Formulate Purpose Statement

Good Purpose Structure:

## Purpose

**Objective:** [One sentence: what we're achieving]

**Context:** [Why now? What triggered this?]

**Success Criteria:**
- [ ] [Specific, measurable criterion 1]
- [ ] [Specific, measurable criterion 2]

**Out of Scope:**
- [Explicitly excluded item]

Purpose Quality Checklist:

• • Answers "why" not just "what"
• • Single clear objective (not multiple goals)
• • Measurable success criteria
• • Scope boundaries defined
• • Achievable within reasonable effort
• • Stakeholder alignment: All affected parties agree on this purpose?

6. Output

Once purpose is clarified:

1. •Write to .claude/project-coordinator/purpose.md (if project-coordinator is in use)
2. •Report back with the crystallized purpose
3. •Flag any remaining concerns about plan-purpose alignment

Key Practices

Patience Over Speed:

• •Don't rush to conclusions
• •Better to ask one more question than proceed with wrong purpose
• •Ambiguity now = wasted effort later

User is the Authority:

• •You extract and clarify, not decide
• •Present options, let user choose
• •Their "why" matters more than your inference

Precision in Language:

• •Avoid vague terms: "improve", "better", "fix"
• •Demand specifics: "reduce latency by 50%", "handle edge case X"
• •If user uses vague terms, ask for specifics

Scope Discipline:

• •One purpose per project
• •Multiple goals = multiple projects
• •⚠️ Why: Multiple objectives in one project = failure probability multiplies (not adds). Split if possible.
• •Suggest splitting if scope is too broad