understand-work

Bucket: workflow · Invocation: manual · /understand-work (direct Claude), /agent-os:understand-work (Claude plugin), or $understand-work (Codex)

Finds the need behind the stated wish. The deliverable is a settled understanding — what the developer wants, why now, and what was ruled out — not a plan or a solution.

Everything the repository, project policy, and conversation already answer is resolved before any question. Each remaining open point that materially changes the goal becomes one load-bearing question: the concrete tension, materially different alternatives, a recommendation with its consequence. Choices, reasons, and ruled-out directions are recorded as they land.

Silence, momentum, and approval of a larger bundle are never treated as answers, and no technical solution is proposed while the goal is still moving.

Questioning ends when the developer says it is done or when further answers stop changing the goal. Under guide-me the settled understanding feeds the plain-language gate in explain-work; standalone, it is reported directly. Chart-work's elicitation reference points here for developer-choice evidence.